Dirk Niebel and his delegation visited the German relics and some tourists’ sites in the SW.
Dirk Niebel, German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, who arrived Buea from Yaounde Tuesday evening in continuation of his six- day official visit to Cameroon (28 October-2 November 2012), held civility talks with the South West Governor, Bernard Okalia Bilai on Wednesday.
Dirk Niebel, accompanied by a dozen-strong member delegation, proceeded to visit some German relics in Buea including the 1884 Bismark Fountain, the German grave yard, Mount Cameroon National Park and the Prunus Africana National Park. He also visited the Palace of Chief Elkana Molua Mese of Bokwaongo Village, one of the 41 villages of the flanks of the Mount Cameroon National Park. During his stopover, the German Minister was accorded a hilarious welcome in the nostalgia of the numerous sign posts left by the hitherto German administration in the pre-independence days. The Prime Minister’s Lodge is one of the living examples of the German shadow that still stands tall in Buea. The German Minister, on the position since 2009, expressed delight that he made the trip to Cameroon and articulated his interest in bio-diversity conservation, eco-tourism revival and a general overhaul of relationship with Cameroon.
According to Sebastian Lesch, spokesperson of the German Minister, this was the first visit of a German Minister to Cameroon after the last one in 1987. The visiting German Minister stopped over at the Regional Delegation of Forestry and Wildlife. Here the Regional Delegate, Eben Ebai Samuel, explained that the KFW, a German aid agency, was co-financing the Buea–based Programme for Sustainable Management of Natural Resources (PSMNR-SW) with the Cameroon government. The programme enables the preservation of high-value ecosystems in the Region thereby improving the livelihoods of the surrounding communities.
While at the bat-cave on the western Mount Cameroon flank, the German Minister was treated to a series of presentations giving an overview of activities of the KFW -sponsored programme. At the Bokwaongo Palace, Chief Molua Mese, 35 years on the throne, voiced the historic character of the visit and mused over the joy of the old German days, what they still do today in the area of bio-diversity and what they intend to do in the future for the Buea people. The visiting German Minister had held talks with the Mayor of Buea, Mbella Moki Charles, who explored the possibility of twinning Buea with a German city.
