The All Anglophone Union for Peace and
Development better known by the acronym AAUPD has been created to rebuild the
Anglophone Identity in Cameroon.
Speaking at the first ever general assembly of
the union that also so the putting in place of the pioneer leadership,
President-elect Dr Kelly Ngyah said the structure was created as the way
forward after peace and serenity would have returned to the NW region. He
admitted that there were already a lot of efforts to achieve peace in the North
West and South West Regions of Cameroon hit by the on-going armed conflict but
added that nothing was being done to look at the future after the conflict. To
establish this he explained that the NW section of the All Anglophone
Conference which is an initiative of Clergy men in Cameroon including the Archbishop
Emeritus of Douala His Eminence Christian Cardinal Tumi had decided to engage a
survey on the future of Anglophones which revealed that it was important to
rebuild the Anglophone identify which seems to be fast disappearing.
According to the survey and research
results analyses recently published, over 86.64% of sampled Anglophones
resident in 38 countries and originating from 57 out of the 64 subdivisions of
the North West and South West regions of Cameroon strongly prefer that
peacefully rebuilding the Anglophone Identity would solve the Anglophone
problem and crises.
The revelation was made Saturday March 23
during the constitutive General assembly of All Anglophone Union for Peace and
Development AAUPD in Bamenda. “Founded on the bases of hard factual realities
depending on the majority will of the Anglophones originating from the Former
British Cameroons”, Dr Kelly Ngyah pioneer president of AAUPD says the survey
like the institution has no political institution. “AAUPD stands as a neutral
institution to enhance and promote the identity and wellbeing of Anglophones on
a mission to rebuild, consolidate and protect the Anglophone identity for
peaceful coexistence and sustainable development.” He said
According to the pioneer president, AAUPD
being a new structure has three main objectives “identify and document the
context of being an Anglophone in terms of geography, History, culture,
education health, religion, justice and other belief systems, build massive awareness
on the culture of peace and sustainable resilience prospects for the
Anglophones and other conflict affected populations and promote global
development prospects and the sustainable Development Goals within and beyond
the Anglophone geographical locations.”
In a press statement at the close of the
AAUPD constitutive General assembly during which reflections were based on
“pertinent undeniable fact that Anglophones in Cameroon have known a
devastating historical twist of uncertainty in their existence as a people with
a unique cultural identity that was inherited from the former Bristish
Cameroons’ imperial governance era and from the post plebiscite period of 1961
to 1972 as a federal entity within the Republic of Cameroon, the obvious
outcomes of the current crisis has fully demonstrated that the real war on the
Anglophone peoples is either a denial or lack of true identity knowledge of who
they are.” This press statement adds “has been very glaring from the series of
noted confusions, disunity and disagreement between and among several
Anglophone groups who were suppose to act as a unified one people for the betterment of themselves as a people with the
same historical background.”
With clear support for the All Anglophone
General Conference and the peaceful dialogue process to end the increasing
violent tensions across the North West and South West region, AAUPD according
to the pioneer president is interested in answering the question; what becomes
of the future of the Anglophones as a people?
“Since November 2018, the AAUPD’s think
thank group has been working ceaselessly on this question and did arrive at the
conclusions that we could make the Anglophone a great people who are actually
they are. Putting aside the question of the form of State and political
governance issues, the AAUPD is taking up the responsibility to reconstruction
the identity of the Anglophone in Cameroon. This includes rebuilding their
cultural heritage in every aspect and instilling the spirit of one people with
a distinct identity who need to rapidly recover from the devastating was
situation they have passed through, exchanged their developmental ideologies
and count on themselves and their potentials to succeed and greatly improve
their socioeconomic prowess for developmental and sustainable future for the
Anglophone people.” Dr Kelly Ngyah explained.
During the 40th session of the
Human Rights Council, the Secretary General of the United Nations received a
written statement by the Modern Advocacy Humanitarian Social and Rehabilitation
Association a non-governmental organisation in special consultative status
which presents AAUPD with a proposed Anglophone Hope Fund to serve for the
revitalising the Anglophone identity towards resilience, rehabilitation,
reintegration and reconstruction of the war ton Anglophone communities.