Stop Calling It a “Gentleman’s Agreement” — This Was State Formation

It was nothing of the sort.

What happened in 1961 was supposed to be state formation, and state formation follows strict legal procedures that every sovereign nation must respect. There is nothing casual about it. There is nothing informal about it. The process requires:

written treaties
ratification
deposit at the United Nations
implementation of Resolution 1608
a completed tripartite conference

If those steps do not happen, then legally there is no union. The international system does not recognize handshakes or assumptions. It recognizes documents, treaties, and UN procedures.

2. Resolution 1608 Was Not Optional

Resolution 1608 (XV) was binding and explicit. It required three specific parties to meet and conclude the treaty of union:

Britain, the Administering Authority
Southern Cameroons, the UN Trust Territory
La République du Cameroun, an already independent sovereign state

This conference never took place.

And international law is clear about what happens when a required step in a union process is left incomplete. No union comes into existence. Not a partial union, not an informal union, not a symbolic union. Nothing.

This is not emotional debate. This is UN procedure that applies to every country on earth.

3. What Really Happened: An Illegal Extension of Administration

Since no treaty was ever signed, LRC had only one lawful way to enter Southern Cameroons.

They needed a UN authorization transferring administrative authority.

They never received one.

Instead, they moved in physically and extended their administration into a territory that was:

still under UN supervision
waiting for the final legal act of decolonization
legally separate and distinct from LRC
never bound to LRC by any treaty

The correct wording is simple and precise:

“Illegal extension of LRC’s administration into a UN Trust Territory.”

Not occupation.
Not reunification.
Not integration.

It was an administrative expansion without authorization.

4. Only Two Legal Solutions Exist

There are only two lawful outcomes.

A. LRC ends its illegal administrative extension

This means withdrawing its military, administrative structures, and claims.

B. The UN and UK complete the decolonization process

This is the process required under the trusteeship system.
It is the process interrupted in 1961.
It is the process the world recognizes as unfinished.

Anything outside these two options is illegal. That includes “dialogue,” “negotiation,” or any process implying that LRC has authority over the territory.

They do not.

5. Why “We Are Not Cameroonians” Is a Legal Statement, Not Emotion

Many of our people struggle with this idea because daily life taught them something different. We carry:

ID cards
passports
birth certificates
tax documents
school records

All labeled “Cameroonian.”

We see LRC’s institutions around us:

police
army
governors
courts
administrative offices

So we assumed we were Cameroonians.

We learned it.
We absorbed it.
We accepted it as normal.

But here is the truth.

We are not Cameroonians by law.
We are Cameroonians by daily practice.

Legally:

no treaty ever created Cameroonian citizenship for us
no union ever created a new state
no ratification ever took place
no deposit exists at the UN
no administrative transfer happened
no UN body recognized a union

Our identity was manufactured through administration, not through law.
And international law says something very simple.

Practice cannot replace a treaty.
Habit cannot create citizenship.
Assumption cannot create a union.

6. The Message the World Needs To Hear From Us

Here is the line every diplomat, activist, and spokesperson should use:

“End your illegal extension of administration in our territory.
Or allow the UK and the UN to complete the decolonization process.”

Short.
Clear.
Legally grounded.

This framing shifts the conversation completely.

We do not need to prove the union does not exist.
They must prove it ever existed.

And they cannot.