They were ten, probably hundreds of thousands that came out yesterday in Bamenda to welcome the Head of State.

Bamenda people are not well known to particularly like the armed forces for reasons which the immediate past political history of the town could explain, but it was curiously on the 50th anniversary of the armed forces that they reserved the best manifestation of their adherence to national institutions and to the Head of State yesterday. For Christians, the best explanation can only be quickly drawn from the biblical story of the influx into Bethlehem during which the birth of Jesus Christ occurred. For most of the afternoon of Tuesday, delegations had continued to flock in from the various part of the Region. By 8a.m. yesterday morning the Bamenda Commercial Avenue was teeming with Bamenda residents as well as those from far-off locations as could be easily determined by the hunt for breakfast, which was difficult to find at that time. The 1500-seat grandstand seemed too small for the invited guests. An hour-or-so before the arrival of the President the brad-new facility was already full with guests as usual as members of the political Bureau of the CPDM such as Sultan Mbombo Njoya or Honourable Ndongo Essomba or as unusual as the SDF leader John Fru Ndi or the Mayor of Foumban, Adamou Ndam Njoya. Guests looked up into the skies to see if the President’s aircraft was already in the Bamenda skies. A few ones noticed the helicopter’s arrival. Serious things began with the arrival of the First Lady at the ceremonial grounds at about 10a.m. Her arrival from the T-Junction part of the avenue left the impression it was the President’s arrival because of the thunderous applause her arrival aroused. Understandably, because it was the First Lady’s visit to the North-West.

Some ten minutes later, the ¨President of the Republic and Supreme head of the defence forces made his entry unto the ceremonial grounds to a rousing welcome. As he stepped down from his limousine, he was led to the welcome line where the Defence Minister, Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o formally received him. He stood briefly before the banner carriers of the Presidential Guards for the playing of the national anthem, inspected a guard of honour, before taking his place in the front lodge of the grandstand flanked by his wife, the Speaker of the National Assembly, the prime Minister, the President of the Economic and Social Council, the Defence Minister and the Governor of the North-West Region.

Bamenda yesterday provided the first occasion for the public issue of the recent military awards decided by the President of the Republic. But out of the purely military distinctions, some nine military officials with the exception of one civilian (Mrs Elizabeth Regina Mundi) received medal ranging from the Grand Officer of the national Order of Valour, to Knight in the same category. Bamenda also revealed the first recipients for the three new military orders, the Croix de la Valeur militaire du Cameroun avec citation à l’ordre de la nation, the croix de la valeur militaire du Cameroun avec citation à l’ordre des armées and the croix de la valeur militaire du Cameroun avec citation de l’armée. All serving generals and some senior officers were decorated with these medals with some receiving them post-humously .

The decoration ceremony then gave way to an impressive anniversary march-past with detachments from most components of the nation’s armed forces. At the head of the parade was a detachment of presidential guards, three of the gendarmerie including one exclusively of women and one of the anti-terrorist squad, an air-borne detachment from Koutaba, two detachments from the amphibious battalion in Tiko, one of the Rapid Intervention Battalion as well as two of the air force, of the navy and one each of the fire brigade and ex-servicemen.

Before this impressive parade, the President of the Republic had listened to a welcome address from the Government Delegate to the Bamenda City Council Vincent Ndumu in which the President was told of the happiness of the entire people of the region to have the President coming back to “his second home”. The President and the First Lady were also “lavished” with a number of gifts by the people of the region.