A Report from COPIC President, September 10, 2019
What has COPIC achieved so far? What is the future of COPIC?
The Vice President of COPIC
Fellow COPIC members
Distinguished guests and well-wishers
Ladies and gentlemen,
Compassion Peace Initiative Coalition (COPIC) was founded 4 months ago to recruit and unite Cameroon
patriots and well – wishers to step out of their comfort zones and advocate for Peacebuilding and nation
building of Cameroon due to armed conflict. Today, I wanted us to evaluate ourselves and see how far we
have come. In that way we will focus on the future with courage, honour and glorious optimism.
COPIC is forging ahead with faith, honour, courage, conviction, self-evident truths, peace, harmony, love, unity and optimism summed up in one phrase ” compassionate patriotism and glorious optimism.” We stayed true to our vision as well as our philosophy of servant leadership under God’s sovereignty based on the idea that transparency and accountability are the hallmarks of a virtuous, free, just and democratic society. We have taken pride in our beloved country, Cameroon because she is making a slow but steady progress as the land of promise and land of glory.
We have survived attempts from known and unknown adversaries / distractors to sabotage and tear
COPIC into pieces. We resisted and disciplined perpetrators of cynicism, bigotry, divisions, pride and
arrogance. We said no to small cliques and fear-mongering and projected COPIC’s vision of compassionate
patriotism and optimism for everyone. As a consequence, we are now like an imperfect family definitely
bound together by the commandment to love one another. To live and work together in the spirit of
collaboration is an indicator that we recognize and value diversity and variety in opinions.
COPIC has founding members now who are the 50 of you who have seen it all from the beginning, middle
and as of now. While others walked away as pessimistic defeatists you stayed put as optimistic
conquerors because you are convicted by COPIC ‘ s vision, servant leadership and philosophy of
nonviolence methods to solve our problems in Cameroon as a whole. COPIC raised an unprecedented
amount of money within one week up to 600.000 FRS to train peacebuilders in Yaounde, Cameroon. Our
partnership with ANICHRA gave us an opportunity to empower agents for Social Justice, Peacebuilding
and Conflict Resolution in conflict zones in Cameroon.
Whether or not they remain part of COPIC (that is their personal decision as COPIC will never oblige
anyone to feel like they owe us anything except to their conscience) so long as they always remember the
gesture to sponsor them and can give back to the community what has been given to them by others
resonate with our motto to educate, nurture and empower.
COPIC has contacted US Congress through the 12 persons delegation led by Representative Karen Bass,
Chairwoman, who visited Cameroon on July 1& 2 in the wake of the current crisis plaguing the NW and SW regions. This is part of COPIC’s ongoing diplomatic advocacy to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
We will step up our diplomatic game plan and expand our diplomatic contacts across Europe, Africa and
North America to continue sharing, suggesting and proposing ideas and solutions to help move Cameroon
forward into a brighter future rapidly unfolding within the global geopolitical economic forces. COPIC has
established a Servant Leadership EXCO through a democratic process known as nominations. Members
were nominated to assume leadership positions based on either their expertise or based on the potential
of the individual and our desire to educate, nurture and empower them.
COPIC now has a Logo and stamps for the office of the Executive President and Vice President. COPIC has
created a Facebook page and the Executive President has established videos addressing the issues in
Cameroon and calling for youths with guns to drop their weapons and prepare for peace. These videos
have been widely circulated with some having over 70 shares and up to 2.3 k views. COPIC’s courageous
and fearless outreach and appeal to the general public has resulted into a positive response. We now have
contacts of some Amba militia generals and the Executive President has chatted with 3 Amba boys
already. The feedback is positive and we are monitoring and following up.
What is next?
COPIC will focus on the following short term objectives between now and December 2019 only. The long
terms goals will be articulated based on the continuous progress of these short term foundational
achievements,
- Complete Registration and legalization of COPIC in Cameroon which is in the pipeline now.
- Fundraising for humanitarian Assistance to IDPs & Back to School for children
- Fundraising from members to acquire an office for COPIC in Cameroon as soon as registration is done.
- Launching of COPIC and PRFPNU
- Continuous membership drive for COPIC especially across the world
What are the challenges COPIC has been dealing with? - Funding is pending. We will focus on developing projects which will qualify for massive funding of our
sustainable economic development initiatives and educational programs - Difficulty in grassroots mobilization due to violence and threats of retaliation against Patriots. We will
strategize on ways to overcome fear and get more people to join COPIC at the grassroots
Editorial Commentaries
COPIC will like to appeal that all people must learn how to love their countries whether they are in
government or are governed. It is a mistake for one to think that one’s country is incapable of loving one/ them just because it is lacking of desired expectations, opportunities and possibilities. Compassionate Patriotism and glorious optimism should inspire these desires.
We must have unconditional love for country just as God has loved us unconditionally even when we go
against His sovereign principles. One does not love his or her country because it is perfect and this reminds
me of the love Rev.Dr. Martin Luther King Jr had for the United States of America and decided to pursue
nonviolence methods to end racial segregation and injustice in America perpetrated against the black
minority African- Americans.
COPIC celebrates the nonviolence stance of those servant leaders during the Civil Rights Movement era.
Being inspired by their examples we must respect the fact that if Africans are treated in the USA with
dignity today, it is because nonviolence methods for social and cultural transformation of the mindset of
Whites in America paved the way for tolerance and acceptance. If it was otherwise, let us say witch craft
or armed conflict and violence, I wonder that Africans would be comfortable here.
Those Africans who live in America and advocate or perhaps are directly involved in sponsoring any armed
rebellions in the continent of Africa should refrain from their ingratitude to those who transformed
America without advocating for arms and violence. COPIC has seen so much goodness out of our common
humanity and will continue to respectfully seek out the best for our country and people locally and
globally.
COPIC’s banner of compassionate patriotism and glorious optimism is unbeatable. Our indomitable spirit
of collaboration and partnership with state actors, stakeholders and investors will be strengthened
through nonviolence diplomacy, collective determination and hardwork. COPIC is grateful to all of you
and please remember we have an open door policy to listen and embrace new ideas within the framework
of our vision
God bless you all
Jonathan Awasom
Executive President of COPIC & Spokesperson
Cellular; 201 878 5829
Cc
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