Social issues should be at the heart of political discussion–Hoza

The US ambassador to Cameroon, Michael S. Hoza made the call during his recent visit to the University of Buea where he talked about the US foreign policy and answered some key questions from the audience about Cameroon and the US relation. He also urged people to discuss and know the policies of their candidates.

The reference of having social issues at the heart of political discussion and debates was made by the ambassador in relation the high maternal deaths that are recorded in the country at alarming rates, when it can be controlled.

In relation to a query about their policy towards Cameroons elections, he stated that that it is “Do no harm… we respect Cameroon and stand for free and fair elections…..democracy is very cultural and changes in different areas”. On other societal issues like gender equality, the ambassador stressed on the need to empower women whom according to him, are trained from birth to nurture as oppose to men who according to are trained to compete.

He further stated that women govern better and any society that does not make good use of their women folk in governance is using just about 50 percent of its potentials.

To Hoza, the struggle in the struggle in the 21st century will be to negotiate the relationship between men and women in order to build a bright future because as he said, men and women are the only two tribes existing in the world.

H.E Michael Hoza encouraged young Cameroonians to register and vote as he stressed that their role in Cameroon is to help Cameroon achieve peace and prosperity alongside putting an end to Boko Haram. He said Cameroon and the US are facing the same problems that need careful handling.

To him, there exist bias and corruption to both Cameroon and theUS; as he said, a man is arrested every hour in the US due to bribery and corruption.

He stated that he is not criticizing Cameroon but urged Cameroonians to fight bribery because they are the tax payers who feel the pain.On the fight against Boko Haram, he says their role has been in training Cameroon military personnel as well as providing intelligence in the coordinated fight and identifying enemy positions to minimize the risks of ambushing of troops by the extremist.

He note that the economy of the northern region affected by the Boko Haram insurgency has contracted by over 60 percent while in Cameroon as a whole, the economy has been at the growth rate of 5.9.As he pointed out, if not of the Boko Haram insurgency, Cameroons economy might have been at a growth rate of 9percent.

On the race to the White House, he noted that his job prohibits him from saying certain things but he thinks it’s a race and test for American values although he noted the with dismay the fact that certain candidates are advocating and campaigning to deport and stopped certain groups of people from coming to the USA.

On Hilary Clinton, he asserted that ‘she is exceptionally good in projecting American values. The Vice Chancellor of UB noted that it was in line with celebrating the two recent international days of la Francophonie and Commonwealth that the Ambassador was visiting UB. She also went further to note that it was also in relation to the fact that over 50percent of research money received by UB comes from the US.