The Southwest Regional Assembly has organised the maiden edition of the Southwest peace and development forum. The forum gathered about six hundred personalities from accross the six Division of the Southwest Region and had as main objective to brainstorm on how best to foster peace and development in the Region.
The peace and development forum was held at the Buea Mountain Hall from Friday May 12 to Saturday May 13, under the distinguish patronage of the Prime Minister Head of Government Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute.
The PM was represented at the forum by the Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Presidential Plan for Reconstruction and Development of the Northwest and Southwest Region, Chief of Carbinet at the Prime Ministry Office Confiance Ebune.
The Forum was held under the theme; “the Southwest, our region, our challenge, our common identity”.
The personal Representative of the Prime Minister Head of Government, Confiance Ebune in his speech extended the Prime Minister’s message of acknowledgement for the initiative of the peace and development forum, which is the way forward towards the development of the Southwest region. He assured all of the special attention from the government to the deliberation from the forum.
“The Prime Minister has asked me to reassure you before hand that the ears and eyes of Government are particularly attentive to the deliberations and conclusions that will come up from this forum,” he said.
“The PM also asked me to once more reiterate the called of the Head of State to our youths who are still holding arms in the bushes to drop their arms and that elites from this region should make it happen.”
“At a time when the Head of State places utmost priority on editable development of our county, it gives us great pleasure that an initiative like this one is conceived, championed and implemented by the Southwest Regional Assembly. This is an ample proof that solutions to our challenges can only be better articulated through home grown and locally engineer method,” Confiance Ebune said in his speech.
He said it is a merit of effective decentralization. To him, the forum today was an eloquent proof that the people of the Southwest Region have their destiny in their Hands. Confiance Ebune appreciated the Southwest Regional Assembly for organizing such a forum for Peace and Development in the Southwest Region.
Minister Confiance Ebune informed the Southwest population that the Head of State has instructed the acceleration of the procedure to commence the rehabilitation process of SONARA which is of capital importance to the pride of the country and the Southwest region in Particular.
In an interview with the Press, the Prime Minister Representative, Minister Confiance Ebune explained the importance of the forum by saying that “I think the conference is very important, I have come, I have listened and I am going to report back to the Prime Minister, the enthusiasm of the people of the Southwest region and their attachment to state institutions and to the person who incarnates, H. E President Paul Biya”.
“The Southwest Region through this conference have showed that they have their destiny in their hands and they don’t depend on onlookers, people who are far away and want to think they could dictate the peace of this Region. They have came and they are determined that they will sit and see how Peace normalized in this Region,” Balungeli Confiance Ebune said.
Resolutions taken during the Southwest peace and development forum are expected to bring the Southwest region back to normalcy and encourage peace for the betterment of the region.
