On visit to Yaounde: Mayor Dighambong flags off campaign for Wum to be transformed into City Council.

The gathering was held at the Aghem Community Hall in Yaounde. The municipal authority was in Yaounde to mobilise sons and daughters of Aghem origin ahead of the Wum Council 75th anniversary to be held in April this year. 

His visit to Yaounde followed that of Muea and Buea in Fako Division of the South West Region. He will later this month visit Aghem communities in Douala, Bafoussam and Bamenda for same purpose.

Speaking during Sunday’s gathering attended among others by the Mayor of the Yaounde VI Council, Yoki Onana, Mayor Dighambong told his people that he had come to first of all inform them of the forthcoming 75th anniversary of the Wum Council. 

Mayor Dighambong who is currently serving as the First Vice President of the United Councils and Cities of Cameroon, UCCC, said his visit was also to encourage Aghem indigenes to return home and help rebuild the town which has equally suffered its own fair share of the ongoing Anglophone crisis.

He said the time to reconstruct Wum is now and the onus lies with sons and daughters of the area.

“I am here in Yaounde because when the Anglophone crisis started, I came to Yaounde talk to them on the need for us to go back home. I realised that they have been peaceful here and cohabiting with other communities and it was necessary for me to leave home and come. I have come to assess if truly there are living in peace and harmony with other populations here. It is my wish that they come back home and reconstruct our place,” he said.

“So, it was necessary that I come and encourage them,” the mayor added. 

Speaking further, Mayor Dighambong told the gathering that his main reason for visiting Yaounde “was to inform the Wum population about our 75th anniversary which is coming up between 6th and 12th of April, 2025”.

He said “Wum Council has been existing for 75 years and it is worth celebrating because in a celebration like this, you have to take three things to take into consideration: We are thanking God for being 75, we are evaluating what we have done in 75 years and we are projecting into the future to see what holds for our community”.

Stating that at 75, Wum has come of age and deserves more, Mayor Dighambong noted that: “Our hope is that in the nearest future, we should have a city council in Wum”.

Enter Aghem community leader

Meanwhile, speaking earlier during the ceremony, the Coordinator of Aghem Community Yaounde, ACOM, Teghanchuo Christopher Kang, saluted Mayor Dighambong for finding the Aghem community in Yaounde worthy to be visited.

The community leader was full of praises for Mayor Dighambong for his financial support to the Aghem community in Yaounde.

He cited Mayor Dighambong’s “numerous interventions to the benefit of this community in Yaounde”.

Teghanchuo mentioned outstanding interventions such as the mayor’s contribution of the sum of 500,000 FCFA to support the hall project, his intervention to free an ACOM Yaounde member who was detained at the Gendarmerie Brigade in Wum and ensuring his safe return to Yaounde among others.

Meanwhile, the Mayor of Yaounde VI Council, Yoki Onana, who attended the ceremony, made an on-the-spot donation of two tons of cement for the completion of the Aghem community hall.

The offer was received with thunderous rounds of applause from attendees at the gathering.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3359 of Tuesday February 04, 2025