Hon.
Awudu Mbaya Cyprian: Man of the Year/ The Time
The world so wants good leadership these
days. And although we deplore the apparent lack of this, there are still plenty
of good leadership examples; those that exemplify devotion, genuineness and the
preponderance of devoted integrity.
“The first responsibility of a leader is to
define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a
servant” says Max DePree. In fact, what dictates the qualities of a good
leader is the application of legitimacy, or, put another way, the loving
integrity that comes along with the role. Hon. Awudu Mbaya Cyprian, the Member
of Parliament for Nkambe Central is also Questor at the National Assembly and
Executive Coordinator of the Pan African Parliamentarians Network on Climate
Change. He did not earn his respected positions by devious leadership, by
betraying his people or by looting the Cameroon treasury. He also did not
embark on any image laundering but as Brain Tracy puts it, he became “the kind of leader that people would follow
voluntarily; even if he had no title or position”. He achieved this by hard
work, integrity, belief in a just course, focus, pursuit of a national dream for
change and determination to live a lasting legacy for his nation and the entire
African people.
From all indications, he entered
politics because he had a dream for his people- a dream to see his people walk
side by side with development initiatives; a dream to see everyone enjoy equal
and inalienable rights. And yet he never discarded his vision in the midst of
threats and intimidations at a time when being in the opposition was like
writing satanic verses that lead to a divine sentence: but he remained faithful
to a just course of “Power to the People and Equal Opportunities”. As a front
liner in the Social Democratic Front, he sacrificed his time, businesses in
order to give hope to his people. He was resolute; he knew what he wanted and
was not ready to trade his sense of right and wrong for currency.
He was not willing to sell the cry of
his people for peanuts and then leave them to remain second tier citizens for
eternity without roads, bridges, churches, electricity etc. As Member of
Parliament for Nkambe Central ,Awudu Mbaya has worked hard to be able to
construct bridges, build community halls, churches, schools, health centers,
electrify villages, supported farmers with improved planting materials, lobbied
for the opening of farm to market roads and construction of classrooms etc. As
a diehard militant of the Social Democratic Front-SDF, he was appointed Shadow
Cabinet Minister of water and Energy, a position which he held for over 10 years until recently when he
was appointed Shadow Cabinet Minister of Foreign Affairs.
When he was elected into Parliament for
the first time, he was voted into the Bureau of the National Assembly as
Secretary from where he rose to the prestigious position of Questor. Yet he remains
a man of the people and a true leader who has the confidence to stand alone,
the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs
of others through the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.
His leadership skills caught the
admiration of other Africa Parliamentarians and he was voted to head the most
challenging Pan African Parliamentarians Network on Climate Change-PAPNCC. In
2012, he launched Operation Green Cameroon that took Cameroon MPs on a
nationwide tree planting campaign. Commonly known by his colleagues MPs as the
campaigner of Climate change, he succeeded in taking the Speaker of the National Assembly and his colleagues
to Donga Mantung, Bui and Momo divisions
where he planted trees to rescue humanity from imminent chaos. In his
capacity as HONOURABLE GREEN, he initiated a tree planting programme with rural
and Government Services to get women involved in tree planting. As PAPNCC
Executive Coordinator, he was one of the key negotiators at the Copenhagen
Climate Talks for the benefit of Africa.
Today, he is being enjoined and
celebrated as the best leader by his leadership style that Africa still has
some rays of hope. As someone once put it “hope
is not lost for our continent. We believe there are still those who would one
day remember your legacy and decide to build on the solid foundation he is
laying for our continent in order to lead us out of misery”.
From his Constituency to the National
Assembly where he is Questor and PAPNCC where he is at the helm, his
achievements have shown that he has the knack to help and put the path to
sustainable development. Hon. Awudu‘s name entered the annals of history in
2012 in various distinctions due to his concrete achievements. He was honoured
by Vanguard Newspaper as Political Icon, Best MP for Donga Mantung by CHAMECC
Consult, Best MP by the Watchdog Newspaper and presently “Man of the Year” by
The Eye Newspaper for doing Extraordinary things to foster development efforts.
It is however a wish that other leader would take a leaf out of his achievement
book and decide to put the interest of their people before their personal
interests and become more accountable to the masses. However, what also makes Hon. Awudu Mbaya
different is that any time anywhere, he talks of a future with constant power
supply, smooth roads, security of lives and property, quality education,
justice, rule of law, vibrant leadership and sustainable development.
Hon.
Awudu Mbaya: Man of the Year
One of the qualities of Hon. Awudu Mbaya
is his stability. The beautiful thing about stable leaders is that they provide
a stabilizing influence on others. They are leaders you can trust – they
are leaders you can build around. Stable leaders like Hon. Awudu model a level
of constancy and consistency that individuals, teams, and organizations so
desperately need, but often find missing. It is what we should aspire to if we
provide any sense of leadership anywhere in life. And it is simple to do if we
are selfless. With the implicit courage of our convictions our love of the
truth passes the test of integrity. Yet all of what we do is tempered never less
by love.
Never do two attributes, if we can only
have two, contribute more to our leadership than the combination of truth and
love.
What could also be observed about Hon
Awudu is that he has demonstrated that leadership is an opportunity of
learning. Hon. Awudu Mbaya once told this writer that in life “where we are
confounded by poor examples of leadership we ought to more solemnly laud the
splendid leaders we have had”. However, I would say that where we are blessed
to be led well, presently, we enjoy it” but as society is witnessing a shortage
of role models and good leaders, it is high to never take good leadership for
granted, but inevitably, like for all good things, we do. Only when good
leadership evaporates into the ether do we begin to lament the directionless
falsity that redeems scandal after scandal. Bravo Hon. Awudu Mbaya, MAN OF THE
YEAR……
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. Minute by Minute Report on Cameroon and Africa
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