Interview: Peace must become our collective project – Dr Taniform Peter.

He was speaking in an interview after being conferred the Peace Crusader and Youth Empowerment Champion award, by the Cameroon English Language Newspaper Publishers Association, CENPA. The award was “for championing peace efforts in the Bamenda I Subdivision and beyond; and for empowering youths through sports and economic sustainability”.

In the interview, Dr Taniform also called on elite to invest in the youth. He spoke to The Guardian Post’s Solomon Tembang. Excerpts. 

What are your immediate reactions after being conferred the Peace Crusader and Youth Empowerment Champion Award?

I receive this recognition with deep humility, gratitude and a renewed sense of responsibility. For me, this award is not simply a personal honour; it is an affirmation that the modest efforts we have made over the years to promote peace, unity, education, community development and youth empowerment are making a difference.

I therefore dedicate this recognition to the people of Bamenda I Subdivision, the wider North West and South West Regions, and particularly our young people, who have continued to demonstrate resilience and hope despite very difficult circumstances.

For more than a decade, our Peace and Unity Crusade has sought to demonstrate that peace is not merely a statement—it is something communities must build, nurture and protect together. 

Through football, education, community mobilisation, back-to-school initiatives and development activities, we have tried to create spaces where people can meet, reconnect and believe again in their community. 

This approach has received recognition from community leaders and authorities, while the initiative has also attracted partnerships that have supported students, farmers and young people. So, I see this award less as a celebration of what has been achieved and more as a moral charge to do much more.

Do you have any message as far as peace in the North West and South West Regions and the entire country are concerned?

My message is simple: peace must become our collective project. Peace cannot be left to governments, traditional authorities, politicians, security forces, churches or community leaders alone. Every citizen has a role to play. 

We must rediscover the values that bind us together—human dignity, tolerance, dialogue, respect for one another, social cohesion and the belief that every Cameroonian deserves an opportunity to live, learn and prosper in peace.

I also believe that peace must produce a peace dividend. When there is peace, children go to school, businesses reopen, farmers produce, investors return, infrastructure can be built and young people can dream again.

Our experience in Bamenda I Subdivision has shown that when communities, youth, traditional authorities, local administration and other stakeholders work together, positive change is possible. The relative calm achieved in the community has helped sustain schooling and attracted people from other areas.

My appeal, therefore, is that we should move from a culture of confrontation to a culture of dialogue, reconciliation and development. Let us build bridges rather than walls, and let us leave our children a Cameroon in which peace is the foundation of progress.

What message do you have for the youth in the North West and South West Regions in particular and the nation at large?

To our young people, I say: do not allow difficult circumstances to define your destiny. Your greatest asset is not what you have today, but what you can become tomorrow.

I want our youth to replace despair with hope, skills, education, entrepreneurship, creativity and service to community. They must refuse to be instruments of destruction and instead become architects of a better future.

This is why I have consistently advocated platforms through which young people can showcase their talents, access mentorship, connect with opportunities and learn from the achievements of those who came before them.

My message is particularly strong to the youth of the North West and South West: you are not a lost generation. You are a generation with enormous potential. Let education equip you, let discipline guide you, let peace give you the space to grow, and let your talents take you beyond the boundaries of our communities.

And to our elders and elite, I say: let us invest in our youth, listen to them, mentor them and create opportunities for them. We should not simply tell the next generation to do better than us; we must give them the tools and platforms to actually do so.

Peace, education and youth empowerment are not separate agendas. They are three pillars of the same future. If we get these right, we will not merely rebuild our communities—we will help build a stronger, more united and prosperous Cameroon. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3918 of Wednesday September 23, 2026