BY ATIA TILARIOUS AZOHNWI
Peter Mafany Musonge, President of the National Commission on the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism, NCPBM, has said President Paul Biya is very much concerned about what is happening in the North West and South West Regions.
The erstwhile Prime Minister, Head of Government was speaking in Buea last Wednesday, April 25, 2018 on the first day of a 48-hour ‘listen to the people’s mission’ to the South West Region.
His words: “Some people, hiding behind the legitimate claims presented by teachers of the Anglophone sub-system of education and lawyers, have been carrying out atrocities which beg the question as to their actual motives.”
Musonge regretted that “human life is lost on a day-to-day basis; public and private property destroyed; citizens are deprived of their homes; and in some places children are no longer going to school and badly needed road construction projects have been halted.”
The onetime senator and current Grand Chancellor of National Orders says President Paul Biya is worried about what is going on in the North West and South West Regions.
“…the situation is serious – very serious, and the Head of State is aware of it. He is quite worried about it and proof of this are the many reconciliation missions that have been dispatched to our two regions for the past twelve months,” Musonge said.
He adds that: “The situation is becoming unbearable and that is why the Head of State has decided to strengthen dialogue by sending to the field, this time around, all the members of the latest instrument which he has assigned to promote living together by consolidating peace, this peace that was so dearly achieved and which today, is highly jeopardised.”
Musonge told a cross-section of the population of the South West Region that members of his commission will tour all ten regions of the country on the “very high instructions of the President of the Republic, His Excellency Mr. Paul Biya”.
He said the NCPBM is the result of President Biya’s “permanent quest for ideal solutions to the problems faced by his compatriots and the people of the North West and South West Regions in particular, following the unrest that erupted from the socio-professional claims by some compatriots of these regions”.
Launching the ten-region tour in Buea, Musonge said the South West region has unfortunately been the theatre of problems for the past 18 months, problems whose actual origin is yet to be established.
The 10-region tour is therefore to gather proposals from the people on actions and additional measures that the Head of State could take in order to reduce, if not eradicate the feeling of exclusion in some of our compatriots and render more tangible “our aspiration to live together”.
The NCPBM President says President Biya has undertaken concrete actions aimed at addressing the demands presented by socio-professional groupings:
“The reawakening of the Common Law section in the Magistracy training set up in ENAM; the special recruitment to train Common Law magistrates at the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM); freeing people who were arrested, charged and almost declared guilty of public disorder and destruction of property during the demonstrations in the North West and South West Regions towards the end of 2016 and in 2017; the recruitment and posting of teachers of English expression to secondary schools in the North West and South West regions, and more recently, the creation of a ministry solely dedicated to decentralisation, whose mission is to speed up the ongoing process, with a view to giving the people the possibility to be more involved in the management of their own affairs.”
The NCPBM commissioners are thus meeting with the people so they can contribute to diagnosing the situation of Cameroon as concerns bilingualism, multiculturalism and living together.
Resolution of unrest in NW, SW: Cameroonians speak
Let’s negotiate for our peace – Hon. Etombi
Honourable Etombi Ikome Gladys, Member of Parliament for Fako East in an exchange with members of the NCPBM said: “we have lost our peace. It hurts to know that we are killing ourselves. Let’s negotiate for our peace.”
President Biya should come here – Dr. Hannah Etonde Mbua
Dr. Etonde Mbua, Principal of Bilingual Grammar School Molyko says there is need for a special curriculum for bilingual education to be developed.
“We will like to have President Paul Biya come here and talk to us…we need total decentralisation, autonomous states so that we can have a say…our children are qualified but watch others get jobs.”