1,100 Volunteers, Conscripts Selected in NW

The North West Region will feature some 1,100 volunteers and conscripts for National Civic Service training in 2014. The Regional Committee for Selection recently emerged with the list after a two-day screening exercise to qualify the best candidatures for service. The Permanent Secretary in the North West Governor's Office, Monono Woloa was in the chair when the committee demonstrated transparency and rigour in the selection exercise.

Qualification modalities stressed concern for gender, proof of land ownership or possession and good health, amongst others. It was also about balance with each of the 34 Sub-divisions of the region expected to produce four recognised working groups of five persons for a total of 20 volunteers from each Sub-division.

The selection team featured experts from related ministerial departments, a bailiff, mayors, members of the civil society, the Regional Coordinator of the National Civic Service Agency for Participation in Development, Jaidzeka Irene, and a team from the Yaounde Head office to oversee and facilitate the exercise led by Nanjoh Josephine Nahnyonga Dzengtchep.

The ugly side emerged from Menchum Division where the local authority failed to transmit the files of applicants to the Regional Selection Committee, causing the bitterness of the Committee Chairman who instructed that a query be served the concerned whose action could jeopardise the future of youths in a project that the Head of State holds in high esteem. It was against this backdrop that the committee went the extra mile to wait and treat files from Menchum division.

It was Nanjoh Josephine Nahnyonga Dzengtchep who told Cameroon Tribune that the difference this time around is the involvement of recognised working groups instead of individuals to facilitate follow-up on the field. Once endorsed by Yaounde, the selected conscripts and volunteers will be trained towards the government's support to help empower them economically.

It is all about some 400 conscripts selected from among 586 that applied. They will be trained in moral rearmament, patriotism and civic education while 700 volunteers selected from 1,800 applications will be trained in socio-economic integration.