Incisive Journalism in Cameroon: The Best of ��Cameroon Report�� (1978 � 1986)

15. Cameroon Report 7/11/1982: The Task Ahead for President Paul Biya

53 15 Cameroon Report 7/11/1982: The Task Ahead for President Paul Biya Introduction: In his inaugural speech yesterday, Mr. AHIDJO’s successor, His Excellency PAUL BIYA vowed to respect and safeguard the constitution, ensure continuity in all the political options of the Cameroon National Union Party and the government. In short, he pledged to stay on the course charted by former President AHIDJO. President BIYA showed his dedication to this pledge last night when he appointed thirty-five-year-old BELLO BOUBA MAIGARI of the North as Prime Minister and reshuffled the cabinet without throwing anyone out. Nevertheless, President BIYA has much to do. For one thing, he replaces somebody who quit power at the summit of his career and that’s the problem many Cameroonians and foreigners are anxiously watching to see i.e. how PAUL BIYA will meet the challenge. ERIC CHINJE has this analysis: The last moment was breath-taking! In a terse, solemn speech, memorable, historic, unprecedented for Cameroon, unique for Africa, AHMADOU AHIDJO called it quits. A gaping, doubting, questioning Cameroon had to accept the inevitable: one generation had come, lived its time, brought its contribution to the timeless grind of history and, in the quiet words of AMADOU AHIDJO, made its exit from the centre-stage. The spotlight moves, and the show must go on. On the scene, Mr. PAUL BIYA, surrounded by a redoubtable group of well-schooled and disciplined team players, the talk is of continuity, of peace, of unity, of all 54 those cardinal elements of progress upon which the nation’s first President so successfully predicated his rule. There are prayers for the new leaders, expressions of best wishes, and hopes for a future as glorious, as resplendent, and full of achievement as in the Republic’s past two decades. The excitement is over, and euphoria must make way for some cool and level-headed thinking. Some hard questions, some difficult answers! Independence, reunification and unification; peace, stability and progress – the case for the past is closed. The new chapter must begin and we must ask loud and clear: where do we go from here? The question is unavoidable. The outside world is eager for some straight answers. Investors, who only a few days ago had Cameroon on the best-market list, are eager for some straight answers. Political pundits, who made of Cameroon the very quintessence of stability and peace in Africa, are eager, eager to read the movement of the indicator on this nation’s political barometer. Out there, everyone is hopeful, everyone is expectant, anticipative. Back in Cameroon, the theatre of all action, speculation must give room to the hard, cold, realities that confront the nation. Peace and stability in the last quarter century were founded on the solid bedrock of a fairly equitable distribution nationwide of the treasures of the land: of economic prosperity, of political power, of social advantages, of economic opportunity. Will this continue to be the case? Will Akwaya and Mulundu, Mora and Ndikinimiki, Bukwango and Essimbi become even more fully integrated in the national development effort? All indications are to the positive but those indications do not mute some popular concerns, especially among the majority of this programme, Cameroon Report’s national audience. There are obvious 55 questions about the places that English and French continue to occupy in the national linguistic package. Is one heading for linguistic oblivion, destined to be effaced and replaced by the other? Or will bilingualism rebound and the rampant social use of the unflattering “Anglo” or “Frog” be forced out of our proletarian vocabulary? On the question of regional development, will the gathering mould of stagnation, decay and neglect that hangs over once vibrant urban communities as Limbe, Kumba, Mamfe and Bamenda dissipate? Will the man in Fako feel even more a part of the SONARA reality than he has been wont to feel? On the issue of regional leadership, will the new leader exhibit that same rare aptitude for selecting regional leaders and will these leaders serve President BIYA by being more vocal about the needs and the yearnings of their people than they have been wont to be? Will the problems of Meme, Manyu, Donga-Mantung and Menchum be aired, vociferously, by those accorded the distinguished duty of airing them? Former President AHIDJO said in his last words that the path is long and the task is immense. A lot...