South West Governor, Bernard Okalia Bilai, is not happy. Despite repeatedly stating that the security situation in the region is under control, the senior administrator expressed shock regarding the closure of most economic and social activities in the region for the past two weeks.
Buea, the regional headquarters, and most parts of the South West have seen schools grounded, and economic and social activities halted for two weeks now owing to a lockdown which separatist imposed to target school resumption.
While chairing the third ordinary session of the South West Regional Assembly Friday, September 20, 2024, the Governor ended his opening address by expressing disdain for the lockdown and its effects.
He particularly frowned at the inability of students to go to school for two weeks now.
“I count on all what all of us are going to do for our children to go back to their classrooms, because the situation we are going through this year is unacceptable. For more than five years now we haven’t witnessed such a situation. What is happening?” the Governor fumed just before ending his address.
Just a handful of schools in the North West and South West Regions, where separatists are fighting for a breakaway state, have managed to open their doors since September 9, when a new academic year began in Cameroon.
Separatists have disrupted education in the English-speaking Regions since 2016 when the ongoing Anglophone Crisis gained steam.
This year, only 4,302 students turned up for school across the English-speaking North West region on the first day of resumption, according to official statistics.
Although the number increased to 10,905 students on the second day, it still fell very short of expectations.
Insecurity was the major setback, fuelled by threats from separatists who called for a lockdown.
The government and the civil society say separatists are not doing any good to the population by frustrating the education of children.
Governor Okalia Bilai tasked South West Regional Councillors and elites of the Region to multiply efforts for schools to resume across the region.
