Cameroon's president Paul Biya is all set to enforce a 2019 law on bilingualism and make life easier for English speakers in the French-speaking majority country. A December 2019 law states that English and French have the same value and should be used equally in public offices, and says Cameroonians should be able to express themselves in either language.
Complaints of discrimination against English speakers sparked restlessness around the nation since 2017. Civilians assembled at Yaounde's city council this week to complain about difficulties they encounter in Cameroon's public offices because they speak only one of the central African state's two official languages.
Cameroon President Paul Biya says, French-speaking workers imposing the French language on English-speaking citizens, and English-speaking workers should also be patient when they receive French speakers in public offices. All the official documents are ordered to be translated into both English and French languages and English and French speakers should be given equal access to jobs to stop marginalization that is causing tensions and threatening Cameroon's unity.
All signboards should be in the two official languages, printed in the same character to stop giving the impression that one language is superior because characters are larger.
The government initiated to educating citizens on the importance of the two languages co-existing peacefully, it is now ordering people who do not speak the two languages to register in language schools.
The crisis began in 2016 when English-speaking teachers and lawyers took to the streets to denounce the dominance of French.
