Skip to main content



TUMI BECKONS DISPATCHED PEACE CARAVAN TO PREACH LOVE AMIDST TOUGH OBSTRUCTION 

BY MILDRED NDUM WUNG KUM

In the midst of blames and and crises, the government of Cameroon is determined to rebuild confidence. Even as results of the major national dialogue are pending, government is striving to restore an iota of peace at least by word of mouth.

The prime minister and head of government Joseph Dion Ngute has put in place coordinators for a peace caravan in the English speaking regions of the country. It in this regard that some commissioned groups would from Tuesday 19th November travel to divisions and subdivisions of the Northwest region to present to people of the grassroots, recommendations of the major national dialogue already tabled to Paul Biya.


This is coming after a two day session on November 16th and 18th 2019 chaired by His Eminence Christian Cardinal Tumi, chairman of the Northwest regional caravan for peace.
The session on Nov 16th featured  designated emembers of the peace caravan including religious leaders, elites, mayors and parliamentarians. November 18th session was quite enlarged with the presence of Senior Divisional Officers. The Northwest governor Adolph Lele Lafrique coordinated the sessions; he is a member of the peace caravan at the regional Level.






Cardinal Tumi beckoned that the entire caravan process  be motioned with peace and love. "The life principle of peace is love. Where there is love there is peace. Where there is no love there is hatred and therefore war. Let us love one another. This should be the key word during this campaign, I'm not talking of a political campaign but campaign for a capital virtue of love. Let us love one another and let us love our country and encourage the youths to love our country. Anything that helps to build our country should be loved.   So our work these few days is to promote love" he said while presiding launching of the peace caravan at MINEPAT conference hall, Up-Station Bamenda.

 Seven different teams corresponding to the seven divisions of the Northwest region have been dispatched for this task.  Each team is composed of elites and political leaders of the division.

They have the task to explain recommendations of the dialogue but also listen to people in the grassroots and note their needs and desires.

The hard nut to crack in this task remains the challenging security situation in the region and the fact that nothing favourably concrete  can as of now be measured from a major dialogue organised in the country two months back.

Just at the Launch of the peace caravan, the Archbishop of Bamenda His Grace Cornelius Fontem Esua appealed for an end to violence for an enabling environment of the peace caravan.





The president of the Northwest chapter of Cameroon Association of English Speaking Journalists Mr Ambe MacMillian thinks that the media should be part of the peace process for positive communication, the first deputy mayor of Nwa Council Jinkwen Martha complained of difficulty of access to her division for the caravan, the Member of Parliament for Menchum South constituency Honourable Wallang Richard Ebua said it would be difficult to talk about peace without anything concrete to encourage the people, the UDP chairman El Hadj Lawan Bako was worried that some recommendations tabled at the end of the national dialogue did not feature in the final draft recommendation presented to the Head of States Paul Biya, the mayor of Wum Council Dinghambong Anthony was disgruntled that some people chosen to be part of the caravan know nothing about the people in the field.

Would the caravan be accompanied by the military?

How would the caravan be done in the absence of traditional rulers in some villages?
How would it succeed when very little preparation has been done?

The challenges were listed at length. The crux however remains penetrating the hinterlands with the peace mission.

Mr Lele Lafrique has appealed that traditional leaders who are out of the fondom return and be part of the caravan. Cardinal Tumi has pleaded for courtesy and gentility on the part of those dispatched.

At the moment, eyes are on the watch regarding the caravan programmed from November 19th 2019.



Comments

Editor's Picks

WOMANHOOD CELEBRATED: ARCHBISHOP EQUIPS 38 WOMEN GROUPS WITH MACHINES By Mildred Ndum Wung Kum Picture: quipments offered to women Thirty eight women groups received machines from Andrew Fuanya Nkea, Archbishop of Bamenda in a ceremony dubbed "day for women with the Archbishop" organised by the Catholic Church, Bamenda Archdiocese. Thousands of women across different backgrounds and denominations gathered at the Bamenda St Joseph's Metropolitan Cathedral, March 3rd 2021 for Mass during which farm and food processing tools were handed to them. They include oil mills, cassava mills, hoes, cutlasses, fertilisers, spray bottles, boots and trolleys among others. Handing these gifts to the beneficiaries, Archbishop Nkea said the purpose is to assist them in their livelihood adding that his eyes have seen the work and output of women in crop cultivation, food processing and food transformation. The prelate celebrated the gift of womanhood hailing women for being motherly, for th...
MENCHUM DIVISION PANTING FOR EDUCATIONAL SALVATION BY MILDRED NDUM WUNG KUM Menchum, one of seven divisions of the Northwest region has in no little way been spared by the prevailing Cameroon Anglophone crisis. With the crisis raging on for four years now,  a number of establishments in the division have shut down. The educationional sector keeps the area a little boosting but at the same time attracts empathy for reasons of teaching apathy. FRONT VIEW OF ADMINIDTRATIVE BLOCK GHS WUM  The Menchum Division, of the Northwest region is in  greivous desperation of education. The situation is worsened by the absence of teachers in schools against an impressive majority of school children in need of knowledge. It is the third week of the second term, 2019/2020 academic year, yet Government High School Wum with an enrollment of about 400 students has a teaching staff of less than 20. The statistics of school attendance in GBHS Wum taken on a day shows  ...

THE ROLE CATHOLIC CLERGY AND LAITY PLAYED IN ANNOUNCED NATIONAL DIALOGUE

Priests and Bishops pose for pictures at 67th BAPEC session Cameroon’s president Paul Biya announced a major national dialogue to commence as from the end of this month.  The announcement came in a speech which he addressed to the nation hinged on the throes of the socio political crisis that has gripped the North West and South West region. It is barely a week since the national dialogue was announced and the topic is animating public debates. It is however time to give credit to the clerics and the laity of the Holy Mother Church the for role played in paving the path of dialogue Since the outbreak of the Anglophone crisis, the priests, the bishops, the religious and other leaders of the church have often echoed and re-echoed that only profound and meaningful dialogue can bring solution to the problems plaguing the North West and South West regions of Cameroon. In fact memories of 29-Dec-2016 are still fresh, the date when bishops of the Bamenda Provincial Episcopal Conf...