Celebrating Unity In Gold

Cameroon will on Friday 20 May, 2022 commemorate the its Golden jubilee as a unified people proud of their diversity even if in the midst troubled waters. As a community brought from different linguistic, social and cultural backgrounds to forge together in a spirit of oneness while accepting each other`s specificity, the road has been long for the past 50 years and the modus vivendi today of that the same determination must continue no matter the obstacles. And as if by accident of design, the World on 16 May under the aegis of the United Nations Organisation (UNO) observed the International Day of Living Together in Peace. A vision which falls in place for the country at a time when discordant voices have been raised about the pack which our forefathers entered some decades back to form a nation. It is increasing clear that the issues that have threatened to dent the desire by Cameroonians to live together have over the years simply proven to be the building stones on which the people have to work because it is in adversity that great men a born.     
Some citizens have over the years decided to project difficulties rather than solutions in the quest of nationhood in the country thereby falling into the snare of impatience, bigotry, and even sycophancy as yardsticks for their perception of the realities in the country.  Vices like ethnicity, tribalism, nepotism have tended to dominate the way certain persons view their place in Cameroon thereby derailing them into the easy path of phatic and armchair criticism instead of seeking to surmount any such chains that prevent them from forging ahead.  Yet, it is obvious that all societies have their strengths and weakness which each individual living therein must be able to sieve and chose what best define their goals. 
Fifty years after the advent of a Unitary State in Cameroon in 1972, several localities would expect that they should be served with good roads, quality health care infrastructure, schools, housing facilities, health insurance policies, fluid retirement schemes, and so on. In the absence of any of these facilities or more, the risk could be outright accusations of neglect by the State. While it is normal that people should ask for better conditions and more social amenities at each point in time, it is also true that any meaningful progress in the life of a nation requires planning and means to be realised. Resorting to blame-game and incivility as a means to pose demands within an organised society has never been the way out.     
While those in leadership positions have also been under pressure to deliver on promises and ensure that the country should continuously defend its place among nations, they equally have the uphill task to explain and even justify various evolutions in the life of the nation in order to ensure a harmonious living together. An unfolding event which has required bold outing by the powers that be to either justify certain decisions or draw public attention to the direction being taken in Cameroon has been the restive situation in the South West and North West regions.     
Faced with threats to unity in the country, government has worked to proffer solutions to genuine concerns rais...