All things being equal, Cameroon’s chapter of the International Committee of the Red Cross will soon have a new President. An imminent extra-ordinary elective general assembly will come up with the person to continue from where William Aurélien Etéki Mboumoua, former President who passed on in October 2016, left.

Potential candidates already know what is required to grab the top job. The supervisory authority, the Minister of Public Health, in partnership with the provisional management committee,   has already made known the selection criteria. The die has therefore been cast! As candidates tussle for position, it goes without saying that the Red Cross Movement in the country would require more than just filling a vacant post.

The raison d’etre of the organisation and the person whose succession is being sought are telling of the daunting but surmountable tasks awaiting the new entrant. Crusading for the respect of International Humanitarian Law by all, coming to the aid of people displaced by violence, working to restore family links and visiting detainees as well as fostering the development of national societies, are no easy tasks. In fact, they constitute an integral part of society and so structures handling them like the International Committee of the Red Cross absolutely need men and women with unquestionable integrity to rise above the challenge.

The fallen former President of Cameroon’s International Committee of the Red Cross, from his track record and what he did over the years, was arguably a man of substance. He took the organisation to the limelight in its areas of competence. His successor would absolutely need to consolidate the achievements and possibly break new grounds. Demanding task indeed! 

Sound minds tasked with selecting William Aurélien Etéki Mboumoua’s replacement therefore have a rendezvous with history. Transparency and objectivity have to prevail throughout the entire selection process for a man of integrity to emerge at term. For, anyone with doubtful character would rather dent the strides the organisation has recorded thus far. Failure to come up with a man of William Aurélien Etéki Mboumoua’s standing or even better would equally be a blow to what the fallen hero lived and worked for. God forbid!