By DOH JAMES SONKEY
The government has vowed to reach out to the population of the North West and South West regions with relief assistance despite calls from secessionists on the population to reject the humanitarian gesture which they qualify as poisonous gift from the President of the Republic, Paul Biya.
In a press conference jointly granted by Government Spokesperson, Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary of Communication and the President of the Ad Hoc Committee for the Coordination of the Emergency Humanitarian Plan, Minister Paul Atanga Nji of Territorial Administration last July 5, 2018, they called on the population who are victims of violence in the ongoing socio-political crisis not to listen to secessionists and to welcome and accept the presidential gesture dished out in good faith.
Without revealing details on the implementation phase of the plan for security reasons, Paul Atanga Nji declared that “despite pockets of resistance from secessionists, we shall in collaboration with Cameroon defense forces go down to the field in the NW and SW regions with relief assistance because the Head of State instructed us to implement it with immediate effect.”
Asked how favourable the field is for the implementation of the plan to start, Minister Atanga Nji Paul rather sounded very positive “Forces of Law and Order will take special measures to neutralize terrorists and protect the population because nothing will stop us from doing our work.”
It was disclosed at the occasion that as of July 5, 2018, citizens have willfully donated some FCFA 870 million as contribution to support the emergency humanitarian plan estimated to cost over FCFA 12 716 500 000.
Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary explained that the implementation of activities under the Emergency Humanitarian Assistance Plan will be carried out through a mixed team of national institutional stakeholders, civil society organizations and bilateral and multilateral partners.
He said the gesture translates the Head of State’s determination to bring the situation back to normal, to ensure the well-being of his fellow citizens and to promote the ideals of solidarity, peace and social cohesion that are the cardinal values of our nation.
Asked why government seems to relegate dialogue to the background, Minister Paul Atanga Nji declared that dialogue is already ongoing within an institutional platform as demanded by the Head of State.
While declaring that “if you are waiting for a roundtable dialogue, then you must be deceiving yourself, the Minat boss said his tour of the NW and SW regions to meet traditional rulers and hand peace plants was the continuation of dialogue initiated by the government.