Cameroon and La Francophonie share longstanding relations

The Secretary General of the La Francophonie intergovernmantal organisation, Michaelle Jean is visiting Cameroon for a three-day official trip on the invitation of the President of the Republic Paul Biya.

The high level visit which will feature encounters with government ministers and most especially the Head of State will be an ideal forum to strengthen bilateral relations between La Francophonie and the Cameroon government.

It will mark a turning point in the 30-year old relation between Cameroon and La Francphonie.

It is worth recalling that Cameroon became a full member of La Francophonie on 19th November 1991 after being an associate member of the Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation since 1975.

The new scribe of la Francophonie who took over from Abdou Diouf less than five months ago is on her first official outing to Africa after her humaniterian trip to Guinea in March when the country was terribly shaken by the Ebola epidemic.

The execellent state of cooperation between Cameroon and her institution and the fact that Cameroon supported her canditure probably explains her choice to visit Yaounde in her second official outing since she was elected in Senegal.

Some current affairs analysts contend that Michaelle Jean’s visit is in appreciation of the efficiency and long experience of the Cameroonian leader who is a regular participant at Francophonie summits.

In addition, her country, Canada shares a common linguistic heritage with Cameroon; two bilingual countries that have English and French as official languages. Both countries are members of the Commonwealth and La Francophonie.

Cameroonian-born Pr. Jean Loius Atangana Amougou was appointed by Michaelle Jean on 13th February 2015, to the position of Director of Cabinet at the General Secretariat making him the third personality of the Organisation.

Besides high level meetings with government officials, the visiting Francophononie scribe is expected to meet representatives of the youth, women and economic operators. It will be an opportunity to appreciate cooperation between Cameroon and la Francophonie which covers: politics, the economy, sustainable development, education and training, publishing and distribution of books, culture, audiovisual and sports.

Some of the fruits of the cooperation include the Central African Bureau and the Great Lacs Franchonie Univeristy Agency which Cameroon hosts since 1995.

Cameroon has also hosted three parliamentary assemblies of La Francophonie. Moreover, La Francophonie sends election obervers to Cameroon regularly since 1997.

Before Michaelle Jean, former Francophonie Secretaries General, Abdiou Diouf and Brutus Brutus Ghali had also paid official visits to Cameroon.