COMMENTARY
Information from the North West and South West Regions speaks of a gradual return to normalcy of activities that characterise man’s life. Pupils and students who can overcome fear of the unknown are now going to school, workers and users of public service can equally go about their activities unperturbed. In fact, people are reportedly back to their routine chores.
This shows that inhabitants are turning their backs on violence that surrounded October 1, the day apologists of separation predicted to herald a turning point on what they termed “the Anglophone struggle.” The prevailing peace; relative though, suggests reason is taking a better of sentiments. Obviously so as life must be lived for and by the living and anything that disrupts it obliges man to endure rather that enjoy his/her stay on earth. And if there is one thing that makes life worth living, both for the rich and poor, then it is peace. It has no price and should therefore not be traded with anything, anywhere by anyone whatsoever.
Responsible living teaches us that what we do today follows us, even to the third generation. That before taking any action, one should first of all assess its impacts to him/her and the people around in the short, medium and long terms. Jeopardising peace, as has been the case, compromises the today and tomorrow of everyone. All stakeholders have to take their hands to the plough to uphold the relative peace that reigns in the two Anglophone regions. As a matter of fact, efforts should be redoubled for full confidence to be restored so that the fear that still lingers in the minds of many could be a thing of the past in no distant future.
Vandalising public and even private edifices, destroying what is hard to acquire, victimising those who dare to defer with secessionist propaganda and hiding behind the social tension to perpetrate anarchy, as has been noticed, simply tells of one shooting himself in the foot. Education, for instance, has proven over the years to be the only industry in the North West and to a lesser extent in the South West. Fuelling disorder that scares school goers is detrimental to the future of the youngsters who would have gained education today to better their lives tomorrow. Even more, scores of people whose businesses revolve around education are bound to suffer and they have been suffering. Poverty is at its peak, talk less of crime wave.
Is it not time people should pause and question where they are going? Consideration should be given to maxims like, “as you make your bed, so shall you lie” or “you reap what you sow.” Disorder, reign of terror cannot beget sustainable development. Peace in the two Anglophone regions is first and foremost beneficial to the inhabitants. Government cannot police every citizen. There should be mutual respect for common benefit. The country and notably the aggrieved people of the North West and South West Regions need this, and now.
No one should be dubbed! Any call from whoever on the population to attack security forces and or destroy public property should be discarded. These are enemies of peace and of the country too. And any enemy of these is unarguably the enemy of the people. Even the golden book teaches us to be wise and this is one of the moments to show proof of wisdom in the decisions taken and in the acts that follow. Peace and development are bedfellows and the former is undeniably the sine qua non to attain the latter. We cannot afford to alter this!
Like the Head of State said in his speech during the 72nd UN Ordinary General Assembly in New York, peace is the most precious asset without which the world cannot take any sustainable and effective initiative in the interest of its youth and peoples. The quest for it therefore concerns all. It is even in serenity that the much-preached genuine dialogue can be engaged and for mutually-acceptable agreements to be reached. Cameroon did not begin today and will not end here either. Peace is this the pillar on which a better tomorrow lies.