Challenges To Living Together : Concerted Efforts In Proffering Lasting Solutions

The much-trumpeted Major National Dialogue announced by President Paul Biya on September 10, 2019 and officially flagged off yesterday, September 30 by its Chairperson, Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute, is on course at the Yaounde Conference Centre with Cameroonians from all walks of life impatiently awaiting its outcome. The huge attendance at the opener and the enthusiasm read on the faces of the hundreds of delegates and observers are illustrative of the yearning desire to see the crisis in the North West and South West Regions – trigger of the current brainstorming, likewise other issues of national interests, resolved amicably. In fact, it is an avenue for sons and daughters of Cameroon to jointly proffer lasting solutions to issues that have challenged the country’s cherished living together. The colourful opening ceremony demonstrated the rich cultural and linguistic diversity of the country which speakers prayed should be harnessed for harmonious co-existence. 
The Chairperson of the Major National Dialogue in his speech told participants that all citizens will be held responsible for the Cameroon of today and tomorrow. He said it was high time Cameroonians forgot the bitter past of the mayhem created by the rivalry and give the future a chance. Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute qualified the ongoing dialogue as an opportunity for a new start, an avenue to find strength to transcend differences and move forward. He observed that the linguistic and cultural differences of Cameroon should be used as sources of wealth for the population, in fact, as levers for socio-cultural cohesion and economic development and not reasons to undermine living together and tear each other apart.  “We need to restore peace and tranquillity in the North West and South West Regions. Cameroonians and the world are watching us. By deciding to invite Cameroon’s constructive forces that you are to this Major National Dialogue, President Paul Biya makes each and every one of us fully responsible for the fate of our country. The Major National Dialogue brings together Cameroonians of goodwill in one place and space and offers us the unexpected opportunity for a collective start,” the Prime Minister said.  
The Head of Government noted that the ongoing concertation should thus find concrete and pragmatic solutions, far from petty squabbles, to problems that have separated the sons and daughters of the country physically and intellectually in recent times. “We are therefore here to give our brothers and sisters of the North West and South West Regions a beam of light in the dark night of this tribulation,” Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute added.
The inter-religious prayer sessio...