Nkendem FORBINAKE

The press, across the political and ideological divide, has been awash with commentary on the largely successful outcome of last week’s visit to the North-West region by the President of the Republic. The aim of the visit was two-fold, as a State House statement indicated while announcing the outing. On the one hand, the President was going to Bamenda to chair the commemorative evnts of the 50th anniversary of the Cameroon armed forces while on the other, it was also an official visit to Bamenda. While it was easily discernable that the anniversary side was already well-prepared and that nothing really was to be worried about, the political side of the visit had underpinnings which an ordinary and uninformed eye could hardly fathom.

In choosing Bamenda for this important outing, the President of the Republic was fully aware of the fact that he was getting into politically gregarious territory and the events of the early nineties remained very fresh in his mind. The ensuing political ostracism which many could have expected the President to go for never took place. Rather he undertook to win back the people’s hearts through a number of developmental activities and operating significant forays into the political strongholds of the SDF, to the extent that the North-West began to emerge as CPDM-friendly. While this was happening, public opinion continued to portray the North-West as essentially hostile to the CPDM, especially as activists of the Southern Cameroons National Council continued to make their voices heard as they cried marginalization from rooftops. Except there have been other forms of demands, the SCNC has often referred to the perceived marginalization of the people of the territory occupied by Cameroonians of the colonial British extraction, that is, today’s North-West and South-West regions as the object of their political stubbornness.

President Biya certainly brought good news for these compatriots. Hear him as he addressed the nation from the Bamenda commercial avenue last Wednesday: “We are a great country: one people, one nation, one prosperous future. Do not be afraid of the future. Together we will succeed and become an emergent nation. We must learn to see the coming decades as sources of hope and numerous aspirations. I promise that in our programme of national development, no region, no division, sub-division or village will be forgotten. My objective is to give hope to every person in our nation”.

This is the President’s cue and even a commitment to say that any Cameroonian uncomfortable anywhere will be attended to. Very clear signs of this presidential posture are clearly seen from the generous developmental package he promised for the people of the region, the least not being the specific things that the people requested, namely: the University of Bamenda and the Ring Road. These acts are expected to build new comportments which augur better for a feeling of belonging to one nation; for the more united we are, the stronger shall we always be. And this objective can only be attained when the governed the rulers work in a symbiosis and in an atmosphere free of suspicion.