CAMEROON INFOTREND

MENCHUM EMMISSARIES READY FOR PEACE CARAVAN

BY MILDRED NDUM WUNG KUM

Mr Akwa Patrick and team members are zealously looking forward to a peace mission in Menchum Division come November 19th 2019.

This is in consonance with the move to promote peace and love and to explain recommendations of the major national dialogue to people in various divisions of the Northwest and Southwest regions.

The chairman of the Peace Caravan for the Northwest region His Eminence Christian Cardinal Tumi launched a Caravan for Peace at the MINEPAT Conference Hall Bamenda on November 16th where it was disclosed that an eleven man team led by Mr Akwa Patrick would lead the caravan in Menchum. The eleven are

Mr Akwa Patrick

Hon Wallang Richard

Mr Ndigabong Anthony

Hon. Ndong Larry Hills

Harouna Oumarou

Fungsen Patricia Mbei

Sen Agha Martin

Kelly Victorine

Cham EtienneBama

Mr Sangnabidop Phanuel

Chief Onku Moses

All eleven delegates dispatched for the peace caravan in Menchum Division are enthusiastic for the campaign. The emissaries conveyed an upbeat mood but also  indicated worries concerning the upcoming caravan in Menchum. They shall work in collaboration with the Senior Divisional Officer for Menchum His Excellency Abdullahi Aliou,
The chief executive officer of Menchum division assured the caravan than he would work closely with them.

After listening to the members of the caravan speaking at the launching ceremony, I culled some of their views

Mr Akwa Patrick

"Wum is an area where there's not just the secessionist issue but also the mbororo/native conflicts.

Talks have been going on which make us feel comfortable that in Wum  life is livable. If we get there we can start some work. But
the worry  is to access to the division and access from the headquarter of the division to the subdivisions. We have been doing quite some work to make peace reign but the problem is that when some level of peace is being attained, the boys provoke the military or the military pass and the confidence we build gets destroyed. In Weh the camp that was there does not exist, many started cleaning the village  but three weeks later burning and killing started again. We are enthusiastic to work. But we would like to be assisted on getting to Wum"


Hon Wallang Richard Ebua

"Given the situation in which we find ourselves, if any means comes which we can solve the problem nobody would refuse. We should mind our tongue in the way we talk to people, our

approach.

Nobody is a supreme commander. If I can bring peace in my division the governor would be a blessed man, even the SDO would be a blessed man. Every body would be happy"


Mayor Ndinghabong Anthony

The field is quite stumbling and enabling depending on the interactions. We are servants of our various populations and as servants we must not only appear at the moment that we need the population but also at the moment that the population needs us . Some of us have been there in Wum, we held meetings about the mbororo native conflicts.

We have held meetings where we had far reaching deliberations and resolutions as far as the problem is and I can assure you that there’s actual calm. So when you have this kind of situations it can be easy for you to pass a message, to talk to the population but if you abstain from the population, stay away from a long time and then go back to talk to that same population, I wonder whether they can listen to you, What I’m saying is that despite the challenges keep the courage, keep the confidence, keep the prayers and keep emotions aside.

Bama Etienne Cham

"After three years of incremental conflicts across the Northwest and Southwest regions

especially in my village Weh, we have been thinking of which approach is best and now I think that it is high time. We have been talking with our people on phone but three years we think it’s high time to meet and talk with them, listen to their grievances, document  them again, finalise and send a final document. So we are going down to listen to people in the grassroots. We think over time different things have changed  so we need to listen to them inorder to update our documents and table them to the rightful channel"


Besides the hope and aspiration for normalcy there are worries that the most cherished but slumping Wum Area Developement Authority  WADA, was oblirated among listed companies in the national dialogue that would be revamped. The emissaries are also disgruntled because they would be taking nothing concrete from the national dialogue to present to their people.  However the elites and political leaders of Wum are pressing hard for social amenities in Menchum.

The delegation going to Menchum is hopeful that the caravan would restore some degree of peace in the land that has been troubled by both the anglophone crisis and the native/Fulani sectarian conflicts