E. M. L. Endeley

Emmanuel Mbela Lifafa Endeley, OBE (10 April 1916 – June 1988 ) was a Cameroonian politician who led Southern Cameroonian representatives out of the Eastern Nigerian House of Assembly in Enugu and negotiated the creation of the autonomous region of Southern Cameroons in 1954.

Early career and activism Endeley was born on 10 April 1916 to Mathias Lifafa and Mariana Mojoko Endeley; his family were wealthy members of the Bakweri ethnic group and his father was a chief of Bakweri. Endeley was born in Buea then under the Colony of German Kamerun until administrative control was divided between the French and British after the Treaty of Versailles was signed.

Political career Endeley was a delegate to the constitutional conference at Ibadan that introduced a new constitution, permitted elections into legislative seats and approved African nominees to a Council of Ministers. When elections were conducted in British Cameroons, Endeley led Cameroons National Congress won the plurality of votes in the area. In 1951, Endeley was elected to the Eastern Nigerian Assembly in Enugu. Endeley was nominated to the Council of Ministers in 1952 as a minister without portfolio, between 1953 and 1954, he was the Minister of Labour.

He worked to have Southern Cameroons granted special regional status apart from Nigeria; when the Southern Cameroons Regional Assembly was formed, he was one of its first members. In 1953, Endeley joined John Ngu Foncha and Solomon Tandeng Muna in breaking from the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) to form the Kamerun National Congress (KNC), which advocated autonomy for Southern Cameroons. In 1954, British Cameroons became a federal territory with its own House of Assembly and executive council.

However, Endeley's political views changed, and he advocated greater integration of the territory with Nigeria. In 1955, Foncha and Muna broke with the KNC to form the separatist Kamerun National Democratic Party (KNDP). Endeley allied the KNC with the Kamerun People's Party (KPP), another pro-Nigeria group, but the coalition lost seats to the KNDP.

In 1957, Endeley squeaked out a victory to become the first Prime Minister of Southern Cameroons; he was installed the following year. The following January, voters replaced Endeley with Foncha. In May 1960, his KNC merged with the KPP to form the Cameroon People's National Convention (CPNC) to be the main opposition party to Foncha's KNDP. Political opinion was strongly in favour of reunification with French Cameroun, and the United Nations held a plebiscite over the issue on 11 February 1961. Endeley and the CPNC opposed; Endeley released a lengthy pamphlet urging the people of Southern Cameroons to vote "no". Nevertheless, the vote came in favour of reunification.

In the new federal state of Cameroon, Endeley and the CPNC took the role of Foncha's main opposition in West Cameroon. Endeley supported President Ahmadou Ahidjo's moves to create a one-party system in Cameroon. He served in several more posts in Cameroon before his death. In 1965, Endeley became leader of government business for West Cameroon. He served as a member of the Cameroon National Union's central committee, and in 1966, he became president of the Fako section, a post he held until 1985. Endeley was also elected to the National Assembly of Cameroon. Endeley died in 1988.