Some 500 Youths drawn from
across Fako division in the South-West province of Cameroon have been educated
on their rights to participate in democracy following a 2 day civic awareness
seminar, The event which took place from Thursday 17th July to Friday 18 July
2008 at Atlantic Beach Hotel Limbe was organized by the Cameroon Association of
Media Professionals, Camp with the support of the United States Embassy in
Yaounde.
The Youths And Voting Rights Seminar is a one of several mitigation efforts Camp is putting
in place to effectively mobilize Cameroon youths for maximum turnout
to the electoral poles.
The Event that commenced at
10:00 am with a Uniform match of youth voter from Camp Secretariat
to the seminar ground at Atlantic Beach Hotel Limbe was the result of a
research carried out by Camp in Fako division recently from where it was
discovered that youths have unfairly restricted ability to both register and
vote in elections. Whereas there should be reforms to allow young people the
broadest access to the electoral process as possible, since this age group
forms majority of Cameroon’s
population.
Officially opening the event
was the Fako Divisional delegate of youth affairs, Mr. Ikombe Mbua who lauded
the efforts of the US Embassy and the government of the United States for showing continues interest in
the democratization process of Cameroon.
To the Government
Representative, CAMP should not end at the division, but they should try and
make sure that the impact is felt in other parts of the country.
Immediately after that the
National President of CAMP, thanked the US Government through whose Democracy
and Human rights Fund, it were possible to see to the realization of this project.
According to President
Tarhyang E.Tabe, the project is intended to go round the nation before 2011
The president therefore
appealed to other partners who have this project at heart to join the American
Embassy to see that the project gets it desired impact nationwide.
In power point presentation
by the National President, he said, main objective of the seminar was to
increase the number of youth voters in elections, since the youth constitute
majority of the population, it means that the number of voters in the country
has to be more than half the country’s population but unfortunately, it has
never been the case.
This implies that
participation of youths in elections is very important in Cameroon.
According to the project
coordinator who spoke after the president, the youth and voting rights campaign
which is currently on in Fako division this year will cover the whole South-West Province by the end of next year and go
national during 2010 to prepare young Cameroonians for maximum turnout for the
2011 presidential polls.
Presentations
The first presentation at the
seminar was done by Achaleke Primus Nwetbefua of Bafua Centre of Research,
Education and Development. He talked on Democracy and Governance; he told
participants that democratic governance is central to human development and
that true democratization means more elections but requires the consolidation
of democratic practices with democratic values and norms which involves
political pluralism, freedom of Press and association and liberty of laws that
empower people.
Achaleke stressed in his
presentation that democracy is guided by the basic tenets that each society is
supposed to design its own democratic processes and institutions. He however
emphasized the fact that democratic accountability of government to citizens is
what characterize good governance and should improve the standard of living of
all, favour a good climate for investment, equitably economic development and
improve citizens’ participation in issues directly affecting their lives.
Other speakers at the seminar
included Dr. Martha Ngum, head of department of the Department of Sociology and
Anthropology of the University
of Buea who presented a
paper on Gender and Education under the Cameroon Democracy, and Divine Mokosso
Keming of Research and Development Association, RADA who gave talks on Youth
and the Power of Voting.
The Event which was
facilitated by Prof. Kinni Yen of UB also included musical and drama sketches
to clearly depict the electoral process in the nation. The drama sketch showed
how elections disfavors the majority of the people because they do not turn out
to vote
Both male and female Youth
transformational Groups where formed at the seminar to ensure maximum
participation and to bring out resolutions for more young people to decide and
realize that their votes are a necessity for the socio-economic, cultural and
political development of the country.
The youths unanimously came
with out with one way forward, which is to form youth forums elect their own
youth leaders, coordinate continuation of the sensitization process in their
various sub division, and to share their experience and knowledge learn about
the electoral process at the seminar with others who did not have the
opportunity to be there.
After group activities at the
seminar the trained Fako youth voters adopted the motto: “Register, Vote and
Change” as their way forward, five groups were formed representing the five
subdivisions of Fako with each had to vote their leaders who were to meet the
next day for proposals on empowerment strategies.
Day 2
The second day of the seminar
was for the group leaders to present their plan of action to the assembly for
adoption by the members.
This was done and approved
and the five sub divisional youth groups set to work pending installations of
divisional executives that was billed for December during the international
human rights day and the launching of the Rosa Parks Memorial Foundation
The event ended at 5:00pm
with the award of certificate to participants for actively taking part at the
seminar.
And a motion to send one
certificate of appreciation to her Excellency Janet E. Garvey.
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