For those who think that the “greater achievements” pledge by the President of the Republic is mere political rhetoric; the past few days have sufficiently debunked any such feelings. In the East Region, the Lom Pangar electricity dam project was on its onward march as villages and inhabitants along the future high-tension lines were being identified for indemnisation in the near future. But the big news came from where it was least expected. The Bamenda-Mamfe-Ekok-Abakiliki-Enugu road project finally came out of the drawing boards. The Minister for Public Works Bernard Messengue Avom and his Nigerian counterpart Senator Sanusi Daggash were all smiles at Mfum (Nigeria) and at Ekok (Cameroon) where they respectively unveiled commemorative plaques to formally launch the construction of the 443-kilometre road. The heaving of a sigh of relief by the thousands of users of this road, either partially or entirely is literally a litote given the amount of suffering they had gone through all this while. For many people who turned up for the event from as far as Bafoussam, Bamenda, Kumba, and even Nkongsamba, it was a “doubting Thomas” situation as they would rather see effective work begin before believing. And for good reason. The project has stayed too long in the drawing boards. Part of the road had formed part of the trans-African highway and the feet-dragging in the project’s start was one key factor justifying the apprehensive posture of the local people.

The project has set some records of its own. So far, it is the most ambitious road project undertaken by the Cameroon government in terms of cost and distance. The whopping CFA 190 billion to be engulfed by the project is yet to be equalled. It is also the first major road project Cameroon is undertaking concomitantly with a neighbouring State. And more significantly with Nigeria, which is not a member of the Economic and Monetary Comity of Central African States, CEMAC; of which Cameroon is an influential member.

If things go according to plan then Christmas 2013 will be particularly festive for the people of the zones covered by the road. It is in December 2013 that the road will be formally handed over. But many observers, among whom even senior construction personnel, believe that with the enthusiasm with which the project has started, the road could be ready much earlier. For the good of promoting friendlier relations with Nigeria. The road is appropriately referred to as a corridor. A corridor, indeed, because it carries the image of people moving to and fro; an idea which vindicates the spirit and the letter of the June 12, 2006 Greentree agreement by which Cameroon and Nigeria buried the hatchet of war and decided to smoke the pipe of peace.

At Greentree, near New York on June 12, 2006, Presidents Olusegun Obassanjo and Paul Biya sealed the end of years of struggle over the ownership of Bakassi. The agreement did not come to shut doors at each other. Rather, it was forward-looking in its objective. Paragraph four of the agreement considered that “the question of the withdrawal from and transfer of authority over the Bakassi Peninsula should be treated in a forward-looking spirit of goodwill in order to open new prospects for cooperation between the two countries after decades of difficult bilateral relations”, and encouraged the “consolidation of peace between their two countries for the wellbeing of their peoples and for stability in the region.”

What happened at Mfum and Ekok on Thursday are the first fruits of this political will on the part of Nigeria and Cameroon. And surely, many more initiatives will come, in the spirit of the Greentree Agreement.