His Royal Highness,
Her Highnesses,
The National Chairman WICUDA-USA
The Dallas WICUDA President and team
The Organizing Committee Leadership
Fathers and Mothers
Various Titleholders
Brothers and Sisters
Friends and well-wishers
Sons and Daughters
Permit me to start by expressing the emotions that are running in me ever since my arrival, accompanied by my wife and partner who supports me in the private on this job.

Emotions of gratitude to the National Chairman, Dr Abel Ngwang and his team who decided to invite me to this convention.

Emotions of appreciation and admiration to the head of the organizing committee of this convention, Dr Fabien Ebong and his committee members.

Thank you to everyone that has been speaking to me from the time it was clear I will be attending the convention. Thank you to Ta Nformi Julius Ndishangong and wife for the sumptuous dinner on arrival. It was so good that I punished myself with food!

You all showed so much concern, especially in ensuring that I get healed from the cold that is threatening my ability to speak clearly.

I can go on and on to express, my gratitude. And that is because I believe love is expressed in little gestures of attention and care. You have shown me love and I feel comfortable.

On behalf of my wife, who is traveling with me, on behalf of the wimbum people whom I represent today, I say THANK YOU.

I also bring you greetings of love from our people back home. Just like me, they are bubbling with anxiety and expectations of the outcomes of our time together here.

Today will definitely go down into the annals of the history of WICUDA, or at least with regards to my time in the honorable and humbling office of our development association, the one and only Wimbum Cultural and Development Association.

Yes, I say so with the pride of being a son of a great people of a great land with great potentials. There are no two wimbum communities in the whole world after all!
Opportunity of the Dallas Convention
On a very personal level, and against the backdrop of my vision and mission as WICUDA General in my time; today presents with a wonderful opportunity for which I am immensely grateful to God Almighty:

• An opportunity to be heard and the hope to be understood, by the wimbum people in the USA in particular and around the globe in general, including even those back home.
• An opportunity to connect with and learn from WICUDA-USA leadership as we engage each other in both major and small talk and even just by observing.
• An opportunity to clear the air of the controversies and prejudices which have created an enabling ground for conspiracies and divisions that are making the road to progress unfairly harder for me than it should be.

What do I want to be heard and understood?

Please hear me out tonight. Kindly listen well. Then try to understand what I am trying to say and do.
I am fully aware that to understand someone doesn’t mean to agree with them. But it is fair to understand them. And it is a right to disagree or agree with them.
My simple and uncomplicated beliefs:

• – That wimbum cultural and development association is one
• – That there are no two wimbum communities in the whole wide world!
• – That every person born of wimbum belongs to the wimbum community
• – That participating in the wellbeing of your community is the right thing to do

• – That it is best to work together to make any task easy, efficient & sustainable
• – That working together means someone has to lead at a point in time.
• – That it is desirable that the person leading at a given moment be competent, but also that nobody in leadership is there because they know too much more than everyone else. Time and chance put them there. They showed up or were called.
• – That it is fair to give the leader his/her chance and assist them with the knowledge and resources he/she needs
  Standing on these beliefs, you will understand why for three and a half years, I have been conducting the office of the General President of WICUDA the way I do.
  Understand me:
  I am implementing the project that I proposed to the General Assembly that elected me. The project was “strengthening the Abee yu ngerr” by bridging gaps, fixing cracks, and gluing the whole to ensure maximum inclusion and oneness of purpose at all times.

This project as intangible as it seems, is the foundation that is not only necessary, but is imperative for any sustainable infrastructural development we may desire. The relevance of this project may not be perceptible to all, but I am convince if people take time to think about it, it won’t be that difficult to understand that we cannot build a strong wimbum if we are divided.

Our villages, clans, WICUDA & branches and geographical locations of our people around the world should be our strength, when you consider the benefits of diversity bearing in mind that diversity is NOT division. That’s why the WICUDA General Constitution today has the spirit of globality and inclusion. NOT for control on interference, but for oneness of purpose and leveraging on our different strengths and resources.
My mission here:
My presence at conventions out of Cameroon are costly to me. But they are the price I am paying for the realization of the mission I am committed to deliver before the end of my term of office.
From the WICUDA-EU maiden convention in Belgium to this WICUDA-USA, 2025 Dallas convention to upcoming WICUDA-EU 2025 convention in the UK, I am pursuing nothing more than,

• – Giving WICUDA General relevance. WICUDA is facing an existential crisis when her own sons and daughters start thinking and referencing laws of association to justify their readiness or unwillingness to be part of the whole. We were not born wimbum by choice. It can therefore not be by choice to belong to WICUDA.
  – Promoting Oneness. Call it cooperation, collaboration, partnership etc etc but do not take out the unity of purpose. We cannot promote individualism in a unity context, unless we do not believe in the Abee yu nger. Parts of the same body acting in silos on the grounds of autonomy.
  – WICUDA as an institution of the wimbum people, strongly branded and commanding respect for her people, NOT for any individual. Institutions are run by people, but institutions are not people.
  I am not seeking to control anybody; I am not seeking to lord over anyone (individual or group of people); I am not seeking visibility for whatever purpose; I am just a servant who is probably too committed and dedicated that it is difficult to imagine there’s no selfish ambition behind the commitment.
  I simply do what I accept to do with all my heart and mind.
  Through my stay here, I am committing myself to be engaged on any issue that will move us towards the accomplishment of the wellbeing of wimbum leadership and our common purpose. My desire is that around the world, wimbum people who speak one language should be intentional and coordinated in the pursuit of the wellbeing of the Mbumland.
  Opportunities for strengthening unity:
  I believe that projects, whether small or big, tangible on intangible present us with an opportunity to build on our unity if we identify them together, evaluate them together, execute them together and celebrate them together.

In that light, WICUDA back home assigned me to present the following ongoing projects with which they are struggling to WICUDA-USA and WICUDA-EU in particular and the diaspora in general:

• – WICUDA Sports & Culture National Tournament
• – Wimbum Cultural Center
• – Resources for functioning and sustaining WICUDA
• – A grand Wimbum Cultural Event (Ndee-rlah)

In conclusion, I would like to make this observation: that the display of our culture is given admirable attention to its genuineness abroad even more than back in Cameroon. Your conventions truly uphold our cultural values. I am appealing to WICUDA out of home to assist WICUDA back home in organizing a grand national cultural event, our Ndee-rlah.
We are desirous to see this momentum around your conventions happening back home. But we need your support and encouragement.
I want to end my speech by thanking God for bringing us all from various states and continents safely to this convention. And I pray and declare that you will all be preserved here as we catch fun and after as we all travel back to our destinations & homes.
The Lord God Almighty bless, protect, provide and prosper you all in Jesus name.
Thanks for your kind attention.
Apostle Rogers Nforgwei
General President