The Southern Cameroons National Council was the elected body in charge of organising SCPC efforts with the initial chairman being Sam Ekontang Elad.

The government of Cameroon was finishing its application to join the Commonwealth of Nations and the SCNC organised a number of publicity activities to oppose this inclusion.

[1] In response to this, in April 1998 a small faction elected Esoka Ndoki Mukete, a high-ranking member of the Social Democratic Front, as the new chair of the SCNC.

While Mukete was officially travelling abroad, a small group took over Radio Buea and proclaimed the establishment of Southern Cameroons as an independent and legal political force.

[1] In 2000, the SCNC resolved the leadership dispute by electing Frederick Ebong Alobwede the new chairman and considered him the first President of the Southern Cameroons.

[4] Repression of the group increased significantly in 2001 when the organisation was declared illegal and clashes with police at a demonstration resulted in multiple deaths.

[citation needed] In 2006, a faction formally declared the Republic of Ambazonia and a military wing known as the Southern Cameroon Peoples Organization (SCAPO) begun activity.

However, in late 2009, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights rejected the SCNC's petition and slowed the efforts by the group in the AU.

[9] On 31 March 2019, the SCNC and several Ambazonian movements agreed to create the Southern Cameroons Liberation Council, a united front consisting of both separatists and federalists.