Judith Nwana is Cameroon Concord Person of the Year ⁰

Since 1999, Cameroon Concord News Group has provided our readers the opportunity of chosen a “Person of the Year.” It is simply a choice of an individual who has had the most influence over the news in the last 12 months.

Cameroonian football legend Samuel Eto’o, Bishop Emeritus Francis Teke Lisinge, the Southern Cameroons leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, and former Nigerian Head of State, Goodluck Jonathan including French Cameroun dictator Paul Biya have all won the award.

Today, Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report are pleased to announce the winner of the Cameroon Concord News Group Person of the Year.   She is Judith Nwana a strong advocate for human rights and a Steering Committee member of CHRI (Cameroon Humanitarian Relief Initiative), helping thousands of Southern Cameroons Refugees in Nigeria, and IDPs and political prisoners in French Cameroun. As a co-chair of The Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiations (CDN), she joins the many voices seeking a peaceful, negotiated settlement to the ongoing “Anglophone” (Southern Cameroons) Crisis in Cameroon.

Judith Nwana emerged winner voted for by thousands of our readers both at home and in the diaspora from among a list of five comprising Governor Benedict Bengioushuye Ayade of Cross River State of neighbouring Nigeria, Southern Cameroons Metropolitan Archbishop Andrew Nkea, Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima, the board members of the Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiations and the paramount ruler of the Bafaws Nfon V.E. Mukete.   Cameroon Concord News Group readers in unprecedented numbers overwhelmingly voted Judith Nwana as the Cameroon Concord Person of the Year. To be sure, our readers examined the candidates using every available tool linked to conflict management in the Gulf of Guinea.

Judith Nwana who leads the Delivery, Contracts and Vendor Management of Global Telecoms Links at the World Bank Group and is also a Vice Chairperson of the World Bank Group – IMF Staff African Society, came to prominence when the people of Southern Cameroons opted to push for the realization of the UN multilateral treaty obligation towards the Southern Cameroons on 1 October 1961 which Great Britain by some strange happenstance handed the articles of sovereignty over the territory to French vassal state of French Cameroun and France’s proxy army of occupation in the night of 30 September 1961.

Ever since, Judith Nwana has been a powerful voice among the many groups and international stakeholders seeking a peaceful and negotiated settlement to the ongoing crisis in Southern Cameroons. She moonlighted during the fight to #BringBackOurInternet# in Cameroon and worked tirelessly with international organizations such as Access Now and Internet Sans Frontieres in highlighting the ills of internet shutdowns which was decreed by the regime in Yaoundé to cover up the ferocious intensity of its genocidal onslaught in the Southern Cameroons.

Judith Nwana’s dedication to the Cameroon Humanitarian Relief Initiative and the Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiations all in a bid to bring peace to her Southern Cameroons people is unwavering, undivided, and unassailable. It is an open secret that she is respectable, knowledgeable and humble. And we of the Cameroon Concord News Group can say without any fear of a counter claim that Judith Nwana is a passionate voice and strong symbol for peace in English speaking Cameroon.

The choice of Judith Nwana as Cameroon Concord Person of the Year 2020 is without any difficulty. Our editorial desk critically examined her performance both in the Cameroon Humanitarian Relief Initiative and during the CDN’s international conference on the armed conflict in Southern Cameroons that held in the US and we came to the conclusion that Judith Nwana is an African strongwoman who hates the politics of ethnicity and of leaders staying in power dividing and playing one ethnic group against the others in order to compel subservience.

Judith Nwana’s role in the Cameroon Humanitarian Relief Initiative has successfully provided hope to thousands of Southern Cameroons civilian settlements that have been systemically torched and their subsistence economy pillaged and destroyed by army soldiers loyal to the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé. The Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiations finally brought international spotlight to the plight of these Southern Cameroons victims and Southern Cameroons detainees including Southern Cameroons activists arrested, detained and jailed for life after unfair military trials.  In this regard, Judith Nwana deserves this special Cameroon Concord News Group award!

Her contributions to Southern Cameroons causes have included getting kids back to school in both Nigeria and Southern Cameroons, support for Southern Cameroons HIV/Aids patients and fostering prevention schemes, abused women’s programs, church charities and support for disadvantaged children.

Lady Nwana’s strong public condemnation of the ongoing mayhem, crimes against humanity and a drift towards potential genocide in the territory of the Southern Cameroons perpetrated by forces deployed by President Paul Biya to suppress a popular uprising clamoring for freedom and independence arose from resistance to annexation, cultural asphyxiation and colonial imposition was a key consideration in our choice as Cameroon Concord Person of the Year 2020 and this attribute has also been key on which she performs her duty as Co-Chair of the Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiations.

Despite the numerous obstacles and the seemingly insurmountable odds against the Southern Cameroons, after fifty-eight years of excruciating life under genocide, terror, economic terrorism, and all forms of international criminality imaginable, the people rose as one on the 22 September 2017, and ultimately on 1 October 2017 to reclaim their freedom and independence, Lady Judith Nwana still remains a chartered member in the team pushing for all parties to get to the negotiating table.

Cameroon Concord News Group congratulates the Right Honorable Judith Nwana for the well-merited recognition accorded her by an overwhelming majority of Cameroon Intelligence Report and Cameroon Concord News readers.

Cameroon Concord News Group says a BIG Thank You to all those took part in our 2020 poll and who saw hard work and service in this woman-Judith Nwana who holds an MBA from London Business School, a Master’s (MSc) in Civil and Structural Engineering from the University of Sheffield in the UK and a Bachelor’s (Hon) in Civil Engineering from Enugu State University in Nigeria and who is also an MCIPS member of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS).

We take this opportunity to wish all our readers’ world -wide, a very Merry Christmas and a rewarding prosperous New Year.  With Cameroon Concord Person of the Year 2020, Hon. Judith Nwana and the cream of international civil servants and intellectuals who took part in the Washington Conference on the armed conflict in Southern Cameroons, 2021 will bring more successes to the suffering English minority in Southern Cameroons.

Cameroon Concord News Group strongly calls on all Southern Cameroonians, friends of Ambazonia, and the International Community to support the Ambazonia liberation quest more robustly.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Group Chairman/Editor-In-Chief