President Biya and wife Chantal resurfaced in Yaoundé yesterday after about a month away from the country. The presidential couple hit the Yaoundé International Airport at about 4:50 P.M. Cameroon time yesterday.
Both had left the country on March 1 to an undisclosed destinations in Europe. A communiqué from the Civil Cabinet of the Presidency at the time of their departure merely stated the presidential couple was leaving the country for a brief private stay in Europe.
The President and Chantal emerged at the airport seemingly looking strong and healthy. The President appeared to walk with such briskness and excitement like would a wrestler after he stepped onto the red carpet unrolled for him.
He was, however, not very forthcoming in answering questions from a state television reporter who yearned to have him utter a word or two for his audience.
Biya does not grant interviews to journalists of the private media in Cameroon, he prefers to do so abroad. He has most often preferred to speak only to state media with his choicest journalist being Charles Ndongo.
But he refused on arrival yesterday to take questions from same Ndongo. He attempted a response to the journalist’s first and only question but with his mouth away from the microphone.
Question: “…Mr. President, you are back and seemingly strong and healthy…” “Yes I am…,” was all he mumbled before hurriedly whisking himself away from any other unsuspecting question.
Thousands of hired CPDM supporters and dance groups littered the airport and the Etoudi Palace to give the first couple a grandiose reception.
As he gets settled back home, Biya would have to address several issues that have tainted his administration while he was away. Among them, he would have to revisit the photoshop scandal at the presidency’s website; apportion blames and establish responsibilities.
He would also have to revisit the IRIC scandal to dispense sanctions to deserving officials so as to rescue his government from an indelible embarrassment.
Other issues that may still be haunting the president’s mind even as he returns home include Le Monde’s recent allegations of the couple’s poor health and the harassment on him by some diaspora Cameroonians in Europe at his Inter-Continental hotel in Geneva. The chances of him putting in place a new government cannot also be rolled out.
