(Buea-Cameroon) The Bishop of Mamfe Diocese, His Lordship, Andrew Fuanya Nkea, has asked elected representatives of the Southwest Region, who have detached themselves from the population to resign.
The Prelate was speaking in his capacity as Chairperson of the Regional Post Dialogue Sensitisation Caravan for the Southwest that was launched Saturday, November 16, at the Buea Municipal Council.
Chairing the launching ceremony, the Chief Shepherd of Mamfe told Southwest elite the untold truth about what he knows concerning the crisis.
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The pious leader was sincere to his words. He argued that if the crisis has persisted, it is because the communities don’t want it to stop. He said the leaders of those communities who know they are being hated by their very own people, should not be part of the convoy.
Mgr. Nkea cited numerous challenges they are facing in Mamfe but requested that those whom the people have lost faith in them should resign.
To him, they are some people who have disengaged themselves from the population since the war erupted and need to resign.
“This caravan is people-oriented…those who are elected by the population, if they elect you to represent them and you are disconnected from them, then you don’t have any reason to be representing them,” the Prelate added.
Don’t Politicise This Caravan
The Post Dialogue Chair warned the caravan’s members who will embark on the tour to the Divisions and Subdivisions to explain to the population what was said in Yaounde, cautioning that they should not politicise the journey.
He said they should strive for a collective interest that is needed to bring back peace in the Region that has been ravaged by conflict for three years.
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To him, for the journey to be successful, members of the caravan need to have CPDM people who don’t lie, opposition politicians who do not always oppose and men of God that will not work for benefits.
He admitted that the task will be very challenging, but stated that people need to have faith in God and be sincere to themselves before embarking on this mission.
The caravan will start on November 19 and a report is expected to be submitted to the PM on November 27.
Nkea warned against false promises and that people should not explain what they don’t know the meaning, like the Special Status.
“We should be realistic, we should not invent. We are going not to please the people, but to explain,” he said.
To the Bishop, if the caravan is not depoliticised, then, the members are worse than ‘Amba Boys’.
Some Chairpersons from some of the commissions during the Major National Dialogue were equally present with some rapporteurs.
The caravan according to Southwest Governor, Bernard Okalia Bilai, is aimed at going back to the grassroots population to tell them what was said in Yaounde and was agreed on.
Governor Okalia Bilai added that the caravan will let the population at the various Divisional levels to know what was said in Yaounde and the agreement reached on a number of issues that concern them. To him, people are still waiting to know what was said.
During the event, questions were directed to some of the Chairs of the Major National Dialogue, but the majority would rather say little, attributing almost everything about the Special Status to President Biya and the Parliament.
“The Special Status cannot be decreed,” said Philip Ngole Ngwese, Chairperson of the Decentralisation and Local Development Commission during the MND.
Some participants, however, saw the caravan as a tactic by the Government to prepare the groundwork for the Municipal and Legislative Elections scheduled for February 9, 2020.
They probed why it is coming two months after the MND, which held from September 30 to October 4.
Some castigated the move saying the momentum from the dialogue must have died down, but Mgr. Nkea rather objected saying “we cannot solve a crisis of three years in one day. We are beginning to reach out to the solution of the problem, which I think is the most important, to explain to our people what we discussed in Yaounde.”
Culled from The Post Newspaper, edition No 02052, of Monday, November 18, 2019.
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