It is our sincere belief that the call for dialogue was pertinent, the more reason why it attracted so much support both within the country and beyond its borders. And, if it did attract so much attention and support, it was because of the urgency inherent in the philosophy that usually beckons for such a dialogue. Lives have been lost, hundreds of villages burnt down, hundreds of thousands displaced both internally and to neighbouring countries. Indeed the whole concept demands for nothing else than urgent action to halt the carnage and usher in peace and understanding.
In all this, we can only appreciate the head of state for listening to the numerous appeals for a dialogue which came, accompanied by great hopes that, we are on course towards obvious peace. And that, all what was deliberated upon at the dialogue table, has been forwarded to the head of state, could only enhance the faith and joy of all who yearned for dialogue.
But we are beginning to be worried about the silence that has, all of a sudden, accompanied such a seemingly huge success story. Our worries begin from obvious facts that some vital recommendations or proposals tabled and deliberated upon at plenary sessions have unfortunately, missed their way to the president’s table.
Equally, there are worries that, that element of urgency inherent in bloody crisis situations such as faces us today, does not seem to be taken seriously into consideration. Our worries are that, if important recommendations have already begun to miss their way to the appropriate quarters, then the ensuing silence of nearly one month after the dialogue might as well begin to pose itself as unpleasant in the context of our current situation.
Fortunately, this is not our worries alone. We are certain that, many who wish well for this country feel the same way. There is no reason why they shouldn’t entertain these worries. Resolutions after such a sensitive dialogue must take cognizance of the plight of not only those feeling the pains directly. But equally, it is the whole nation which is sitting on a time bomb. We say this without forgetting that the head of state had promised to take his time to study the resolutions.
But we however consider it also pertinent to warn that, in crisis situations such as this, there might be some political hawks searching for loopholes to drown every effort so far exerted in this cumbersome process of finding a lasting solution. We do not consider this moment as an appropriate time to toy with precious lives and the welfare of a people. Our wish and belief, that the head of state will keep to his promise of paying greater attention to the Anglophone problem remains intact. Meaning also, that the entire world is watching, knowing how much the full weight of meaningful expectations rests on his shoulders. We say this because, we believe that it is well established that he was in the beginning, took active part and, possibly played the role of a co architect of the dislodging of what today has become a major problem for the nation
We take his track record as a lover of peace from his Bakassi initiative, in which he worked so hard to prevent a major African war. Certainly a war that would have been devastating. The end result was that it earned him the pride of a co winner of the Nobel peace prize. This was a pride for Africa, a continent virtually turned upside down by conflicts and wars. If he succeeded so well in performing such acrobatics in Bakassi, what stops him from doing same now, so to endear himself to the Cameroonian people and the world at large forever and possibly leave behind a legacy of peace.
We therefore consider the silence accompanying the dialogue very much worrying, because the shootings and killings continue. In the light of this, we call for urgent measures that will hasten the implementations of the resolution as well as a fair process in recovering all other recommendations that may have lost their way to the presidency. We have already mentioned them above.