SOWEYOL: First-ever association to unite Southwest youths for employment, regional dev’t

By Tata Mbunwe

The Southwest Youth League, SOWEYOL, the first-ever association to rally youths in Cameroon’s Southwest region, has been created with primary goal being to organise youths in the region to forge for their interests amid a difficult political and economic climate.

The association, officially ratified on November 25 by the Senior Divisional Officer for Fako, will be headquartered in Buea, and already has an interim executive committee consisting of youths from the six divisions of the region.

During a press conference at Buea’s Parliamentarian Flat Hotel on Sunday, SOWEYOL’s interim President, Kizito Esua, said the association’s membership consists of all youths of the Southwest, adding that SOWEYOL will remain an apolitical, non-denominational and non-profit association.

“The primary objective of the Southwest Youth League, SOWEYOL, is to bring the youths of the region together for prosperity, development, peace and to secure employment for youths in the region,” Kizito Esua said.

Although the association is still to be launched, Esua said they will start organising activities to bring together youths in the region, one of them being a marathon which will be competed at the divisional level and then finalised at the regional level during SOWEYOL’s official launching ceremony.

“As an association, we shall lobby for peace, development, security of our region in good faith and we shall try as much as possible to be apolitical. We shall hold on to the force of argument and not the argument of force. With our motto: “One people, One destiny: Unity for diversity,” we will always stand for a United but diversified region,” SOWEYOL’s memorandum reads.

According to the association’s interim leaders, they shall decentralise power by creating divisional and subdivisional bureaus of SOWEYOL so as to easily engage the grassroots youth in the region’s six divisions.
One of SOWEYOL’s tasks will be to solicit for equal hectares of land from Government in all the divisions of the region where their agricultural projects will be carried out, according to Kizito Esua.

The interim leader said SOWEYOL is a platform meant to get youths fight for their future and not only wait on Government. As such, the association will not be focused on securing civil service jobs for youths, but helping them create their own jobs and empower themselves through the workshops and public meetings SOWEYOL will be organising.

The interim leaders of SOWEYOL include Kizito Esua (President); Frida Limunga (Vice President); Charles Mulobe Embola (Secretary-General); Betrand Asongafack (Treasurer); Ngenya Nelvis Makoma (Financial Treasurer); and Prof Ernest Molua (Patron).

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