How to become president of the world

Written by Eugene N. Nforngwa

Friday, 25 December 2009 14:00

Roland_Kwemain_elected_JCI_president YAOUNDE--At 33, he claims, he was already a millionaire. Now he rules the world. Eugene N. Nforngwa sat down with the freshly elected 2010 world president of the Junior Chamber International, Roland Kwemain.

How did your election go?

We had a successful congress. This was the second time the congress was taking place in Africa after that of 1977 in South Africa. That South Africa was an apartheid South Africa, and so some Africans believe this was our first JCI congress.

Let me congratulate the host country Tunisia. It is a wonderful country with a great sense of organization.

We were elected, so we can say the congress was successful. We [Cameroon] had a delegation of 40 people out of the 3000 that the congress registered. This made Cameroon the biggest African delegation, excluding the host country. I am really proud of JCI Cameroon. I am also grateful to all who came, that were not members of JCI. There were seven of them in our delegation. Because of the work of the media, they decided to travel to support a fellow Cameroonian.

Let me also thank the head of state. His support was very instrumental, in terms of material and diplomatic support. It is important to mention that I have a diplomatic passport and this was a plus. It was a strong sign that my government was with me.

Le me also thank the mayor of my city, who is an elected official, and who traveled with us. Remember JCI is a grassroots and membership-based organization, so we were very pleased to have the mayor Mbella Moki Charles with us.

Was your election a fait accomplis, even before your arrived Tunisia?

In JCI we cannot say that. We are an organization with strong democratic values. Important positions like the world president and executive vice presidents are elective. Even when you are alone, you must pass through the general assembly and there you need 50 plus one percent of the vote to be elected.

I was the lone candidate. I was voted by acclamation. But to be voted by acclamation, the constitution is very clear: you need a motion, which must be seconded and voted by at least two-thirds of the general assembly. We had more than that. All the national president raised their voting stick saying, “we want Rolland.”

Despite the fact that I was alone, we still had to carry out a tough campaign. Let me thank my campaign manger, the Cameroon 2002 national president, Senator Ted Eyong. He never slept. We had more than six months of campaigning around the world.

What message did you carry along?

My campaign slogan was “Let be the change,” which the general assembly has now adopted as our working theme for next year.

In JCI, it is the national presidents that vote. They have the mandate of their chapters. It was thus important as a candidate to go all over the world. We have big gatherings and we have divided the world into four zones. I went to all these four zones and gatherings.

Then, I also went to individual countries that have big voting strengths. At those meetings you are often given ten minutes to present why you think you should be world president. After that there is also a lot of lobbying to do. You have to meet chapter and local presidents. These are the people who vote in their national organization.We offered symbolic gifts made up of African shirts in the colours of our country. We had some crafts from Foumban, which were donated to me by many young people during a fundraising in Douala. We also had the Bamenda bag and caps. We invested in all these traditional articles also as a way to show them our culture.

That must have been expensive. How did you fund your campaign?

We had the strong support of the president of the republic and JCI senators in Cameroon. Senators are outstanding members who are more than 40 years and have graduated from JCI. There are like 30 of them in Cameroon. They sponsored part of the campaign.

You also have my city. There was a fundraising activity within Buea and - you would not believe me - the mayor, city dwellers I don’t even know and students gave their support.

Some African countries like Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso came together and said this was our time. There were four vice presidents assigned to me and they really did a lot of work to come up with support.

It was a`collective effort: my company, the media, my family, my church gave me their support.

I am a Catholic. Two weeks before my departure, my Bishop received me and prayed for me and said, “Roland, let me be very clear with you, if God is with you, and if he has decided, even you cannot do anything about it.”

Before you got elected you were executive vice president. Tell us a little about your growth within JCI?

My experience is unique. It is not how it happens very often. That is why I see the hand of God behind everything.

I joined JCI in 2002. The national president of JCI Cameroon at that time was from my city, Buea. He came to my office and encouraged me to join. He said he he had seen what I was doing in the community and thought the organisation would make me better – improve my skills in leadership, entrepreneurship and social responsibility.

I was impressed by the elements of entrepreneurship and social responsibility. I believe, as the first born of ten children, I was born a leader. But in the university they don’t train entrepreneurs. I went to a business school but there we were trained to go and work in companies and make money for others. Also, I love social responsibility. I have always believed that young people should stop complaining. All of us are stakeholders in the building of our communities.

In 2003, I started my international experience when I attended the Conference of Africa in Libreville, Gabon. There, the world president made me his partner. We had a lot of capacity building seminars and I participated fully, asking many questions. That is where the 2003 president met me. Also, the guy who was running for 2004 was one of the trainers. The two became my mentors and I could have access to them through personal e-mails.

They then invited me to go to the world congress in Copenhagen. I never skipped a congress since then. With the capacity building I benefitted from, I saw how my business was growing.

In 2006, I became national president of JCI Cameroon. That year, the President Biya cited JCI as an example during his speech to the youth. That is how the spotlight turned on me. The media jumped in and started projecting JCI Cameroon. I went all over the country, talking to young people, motivating and training them.

In 2007 I became international vice president of JCI. During one of the world congresses, the vice president made me the most outstanding vice presidents, out of 17 of us. From then, many things changed.

In 2008 I became chairman of the Africa and Middle East Development Council. This is a council that works hand-in-hand with the headquarters in terms of growth and development. It looks for where JCI does not exist and tries to take the organisation there. That year we started three national organisations; Tanzania, Chad and the United Arab Emirates.

The world president was so happy that he made me a member of the Strategic Planning Committee. This is an elite group that meets every five years to define the vision of JCI. It is a club of less than 12 people. We had three past vice presidents in that group. I thought is would be possible for me to make it to the top. I was thinking of 2011, because I will be forty years then. I never imagined it would come earlier.

When I was elected executive-vice president in New Delhi, Obama had just won. Many delegates came to me and said Roland, we think it is time for us to have our first black president of the organisation.

But it was not up to me. I started working with other African presidents, telling them that we needed to be united and show the world that we can do it. The only way we could do that, I said, was to be professional, focused and grow the organisation in Africa. We grew the organisation 10.7 percent, better than the 10 percent target that the world president gave to the four executive vice presidents. That gave us hope and we were convinced that it was possible. Then we started lobbying with Japan, USA and Korea.

From then we wrote to the president [of Cameroon] that we would like to run for the position, and that is was important to have his endorsement. As JCI world presdient you meet many world leaders and thus it would be important to have a diplomatic passport. The president understood and quickly gave instructions to all the ministers involved.

The minister of external relations Eyebe Ayissi has just been outstanding. He became more than a minister to me: he coached me and advised me a great deal. I saw the friendship and support I needed.

You are the first black president. What difference does it make?

I believe in the strength of symbols. This organisation has had 64 world presidents. Each had one year to lead the organisation. And it has taken us 64 years to change.

This organisation has been preaching about positive change in the community but was never ready to have a black president. Before me, we had outstanding guys – I met some. But they could not become world president.

I think the organisation was ready for that change this time around. But also I think, with all modesty, that I did my homework. It was important to convince the others.

What do you bring to the organisation, now that you are world president?

It is teamwork: you have the headquarters staff, 24 of them; there is the 25-member board and 25 other people I will appoint to help fulfil three goals in 2010.

The first is to grow this organisation by 15 percent. A strategy has already been elaborated. We have asked every member to bring just one member. I have already recruited mine. We want to look at cities where JCI is absent and start chapters. JCI is about helping people to become active citizens. We need more and more young people to have this concept to make the world better. We need a critical mass to bring about change.

The second goal has to do with media and marketing. Despite 65 years of wonderful reputations; despite the projects we are carrying out in more than 5000 communities around the world, JCI is still one of the best kept secrete of the world. I feel so bad about this. In 2006 as national president I saw the role the media can play. I want to take this experience to the international level. We want to have a database of journalists that are JCI members and friends and then tell them what we are doing. It is important to have a close collaboration with the media. In the 21st century we cannot cope without communication. And when we talks about communication, it is about all the modern tools like Facebook, twitter etc. There is a marketing department at the headquarters that is going to be heavily involved and work for that.

The last goal is getting involved in the UN Millennium Development Goals. JCI enjoys a 52-year relationship with the UN. This year, the secretary general of the UN visited our headquarters. It is very important for us to pay back. We are going to focus on one of the eight millennium goals, which is the eradication of Malaria. Malaria is the number one killer disease in the world. We can address malaria by mobilising funding. We want to distribute one million bed nets. For that we will need the strength and goodwill of JCI. We know that there many in the world that are wealthy, that are generous and are looking for a cause they would want to identify with.

In all of this, what does Cameroon stand to Benefit?

The first this is the image of the country that would be enhanced. The world president will visit more than 70 countries and in all these countries he shall be talking about Cameroon. He will be meeting political leaders, business leaders and grassroots people and we are going to project our country.

The gifts that I will be presenting to all these leaders are cultural. We are also going to promote our country in terms of investments. JCI has a very strong relationship with the international chambers of commerce, where JCI sits on the board as an adviser. I want to use this position as an instrument of service for my country, my continent and the world.