Silver Jubilee Celebration Of Fon Fozo’o Of Awing, Fixed For December 15-16, 2023

Awing will be in a festive mood late this week, precisely on Friday, December 15 and Saturday, December 16, 2023, as sons and daughters of the village, as well as all well-wishers, will be celebrating the silver jubilee of their traditional ruler, HRH FOZO’O II, a civil engineer by training. It should be noted, that Awing with the popular Lake Awing, is one of the biggest villages in Santa Sub-division, Mezam Division in the Northwest Region of Cameroon.

Meanwhile, an illustrious son of Awing, Ntumfor Barrister Nico Halle, has invited all sons and daughters of Awing across the country as well as in the Diaspora, to actively celebrate the silver jubilee of their great traditional ruler, HRH Fozo’o II. He has urged those Awing sons and daughters living outside the village, including those in the Diaspora, who can make it to the village for the celebration, not fail to do so. As for those Awing sons and daughters outside the village, including those in the Diaspora, who can’t make it to the village, probably because of time constraints or for whatever reason, Ntumfor Halle says they should on December 15 or 16, try to make time to sit down at their homes or wherever with their family members and friends, to celebrate the Fon’s silver jubilee.

It should be noted that Ntumfor Barrister Nico Halle made the call during a grand Triple Award Event in Douala on December 6, 2023. The occasion which was chaired by the Bishop Emeritus of Buea, Mgr. Immanuel Banlanjo Bushu, was organised for the presentation of three different awards by two independent media houses and an independent organisation, to give awards to Ntumfor Barrister Nico Halle, who today counts a record number of 178 awards in the Ntumfor Barrister Nico Halle Awards Gallery.

It should as well be noted that at the December 6 event that took place in the ultramodern conference room of the Nico Halle & Co Law Firm in the huge Shalom Building in Bonaberi, Douala owned by the Halles, Ntumfor dedicated one of the three awards to the Fon of Awing, HRH Fozo’o II, on the occasion of his silver jubilee on the throne. Worthy of note that the prestigious award that Ntumfor Halle dedicated to his Fon, was the “Diaspora Excellence Award, Lifetime Achievement 2023”, which was given to him by the international, NAIJA DIASPORA MAGAZINE (NIGERIA DIASPORA MAGAZINE).  The Publisher / Editor –In – Chief Of NAIJA DIASPORA MAGAZINE, ISMAILA ADEGBOLA, personally present the award to Ntumfor Halle. “This esteemed recognition is a tribute to your remarkable humanitarian efforts in promoting peace globally and your goodness in the society”, Adegbola told Ntumfor Halle while handing him the award.

It was while dedicating the award to Fon Fozo’o who was ably represented at the event by Thompson Mofor Tawo, that Ntumfor Nico Halle seized the opportunity to make the call for all Awing sons and daughters at home and abroad, to strive to take an active part in the celebration of their Fon’s 25th anniversary on the throne.

As to why Fon Fozo’o II should be celebrated or why he deserves to be celebrated, Ntumfor Halle explained that the traditional ruler has in his 25 years on the throne, among others being a crusader for peace and development in Awing and beyond. He asserted that a crusader for peace and development deserves to be celebrated.  “In fact all Cameroonians should celebrate Fon Fozo’o II. A traditional ruler, or somebody who crusades for peace and development, deserves to be celebrated by all people of goodwill”, Ntumfor Halle asserted.

 Ntumfor Halle added that Awing sons and daughters will also be celebrating Fon Fozo’o II for his character.  “Fon Fozo’o II is a loving, honest and dynamic traditional ruler. It is also very interesting to note that Fon Fozo’o has respected the wish of the Awing people in general, by being apolitical. Despite several attempts to pull the Fon into politics, he has stood his ground and stayed apolitical.  So Fon Fozo’o is truly a father of all sons and daughters of Awing, be they those who are in politics or those who are not, like me. So we will also be celebrating our father, Fon Fozo’o II, for his character”.

Worth noting that the position of Ntumfor Barrister Nico Halle, an independent personality,  on traditional rulers and politics, has over the years been very clear that traditional rulers should stay out of party or partisan politics. He strongly argues that the traditional ruler of a village is supposed to be the father of all sons and daughters of that village, and that when a traditional ruler gets involved in party politics or becomes a militant of whatever political party, he is no longer neutral and so lose legitimacy as the father of all his subjects, because he has taken side or has become partisan.

As Halle rightly argues, if a Fon or Chief becomes a militant of Party A, the sons and daughters of the village who are militants of Party B, C, D and so on, as well as those who are not into politics, will no longer consider him as their father, for he is no longer neutral as a father should be to his children. Rather, they will henceforth see the Fon or Chief as a militant of a political party.

 Ntumfor Halle is proud to point out that Fon Fozo’o of Awing is one of those Northwest Fons that has not fled from the village since the Anglophone Crisis escalated. He says this is definitely because of the Fon’s character and his neutrality in politics which has made all the sons and daughters of Awing, to see or consider him as their father. He says because of Fon Fozo’o’s character and neural position, when he preaches or crusades for peace in Awing, nobody sees any politics in it, or suspects that politics is attached to it.  “Because of the character of Fon Fozo’o II of Awing, I firmly stand by him. My support to the Fon is unquestionable”, Ntumfor Halle declared at the December 6, 2023, Triple Award Event in Douala.

 It would be recalled that it was during the tenure of Ntumfor Barrister Nico Halle as President General of the Ndong – Awing Cultural and Development Association, NACDA, that the Awing Palace was rebuilt and electricity brought to Awing.  Ntumfor Halle, the Spokesman of the Northwest Fons, always says that the most beautiful house in a village is supposed to be in the palace.