By Januarius Asongu

The Ambazonian struggle for self-determination, rooted in the contested postcolonial union between the former British Southern Cameroons and the Republic of Cameroon, has generated not only a protracted armed conflict but a shared crisis of nationalist identity that spans the conflict zone and the global diaspora. As prospects for decisive military victory have receded, the movement has entered a condition of deferred nationhood, characterized by identity dislocation, legitimacy fragmentation, and nationalist fatigue. While early mass mobilization demonstrated deep popular belief and performative decolonization, this momentum was undermined by elite institutional hedging and by moral erosion associated with atrocities and predatory practices committed by state and non-state actors. This article argues that the core crisis is normative rather than merely strategic or military. Drawing on a critical liberative framework and the analytic foundations of Forced Unity (Asongu, 2025), the study advances a qualitative normative analysis of legitimacy breakdown, civic agency loss, and the home–diaspora dialectic of suspended belonging. It contends that sustainable peace—whether through independence or a reconstituted constitutional order—is unattainable without a process capable of restoring political dignity and genuine consent. The article concludes by repositioning the Alliance for Peace and Justice (APJ) Peace Plan as a restorative justice mechanism designed to repair the broken social contract through internationally guaranteed, participatory procedures.