Grassroots sensitisation after major national dialogue : Bishop Andrew Nkea Coordinates Caravan

“The caravan at the South West Regional level has been launched to explain to the people what was discussed at the Major National Dialogue in Yaounde from the 30th September to the 4th October, 2019. We went to the dialogue as delegations from various administrative Divisions of the Region. The discussions we held at the dialogue have not reached the grassroots. So, we are taking out caravans to the various Divisions, Sub-Divisions and villages, to explain to the people the discussions and the expectations from that dialogue.”

With these words to the press, Monsignor Andrew Nkea, Bishop and Ordinary of the Catholic Diocese of Mamfe in the South West Region left the Buea Council hall, Saturday evening, 16 November, 2019. He had just finished chairing an impressive launch of field caravans to meet grassroots to explain what transpired during the reconciliatory dialogue called by President Paul Biya to end the bloody socio-political crisis in Anglophone Cameroon. Major expectations following these field expeditions would be the much needed peace if separatist fighters lay down their arms and come out of the bushes. It would also be additional gains for the field teams to harvest more suggestions to beef up the resolutions taken at the Yaounde dialogue.

From the floor of the caravanlaunch in the Buea Council hall, capital of the South West Region, one thing was clear that the Yaounde dialogue hatched a golden egg called a “special status for North West and South West Regions of Cameroon”.

Historians held that it was a debt being paid to history and which resolution has raised anxiety and suspense among the population. But the “special status” remains an unveiled cake for the anxious population? And Bishop Andrew explained to the applause of the mammoth audience that “No one is going to detail the content of special status yet, but for now let us know that the part of the country concerned is special”.

The Prelate and chairman added that if the armed violence is ended now things will never be the same again. He went ahead to reply those who had castigated the dialogue on the social media as a waste of time by saying “something happened even if it could just be the fact of sitting down as a nation and talking”. “We quarreled; we talked and talked out our minds. Now, the experts are working to put flesh in the resolutions”, he said. “We now owe a feedback to the grassroots as to what happened in Yaounde”, Bishop Andrew remarked. He painted a picture of the sufferings of the people on the ground as maimed, as killed, as internally displaced (IDPs), as orphaned or widowed by the violence, as economic doom, as no schools, as facing diseases in the bushes, as stoppage of development projects, and as a generalised fear.

Giving the mission a touch of morals the Prime Minister charged Bishop Nkea with the responsibility to coordinate Divisional explanatory caravans to Fako, Kupe Muanenguba, Lebialem, Manyu, Meme, and Ndian for the South West Region. The man ...