Commentary - Communion

President Paul Biya arrived in the East Region yesterday August 2, 2012 for a two-day official visit. He will today lay the foundation stone of a significant hydroelectric dam that will provide vital energy for the East in particular and Cameroon as a whole. The Lom-Pangar Dam project is expected to generate 30 megawatts of energy for the East Region and boost supply by 170 megawatts to the entire country through the Edea and Song Loulou hydropower plants on the Sanaga River.

Given the constant power failure that the locality has known for the past years, the thousands of jobs that are now available for inhabitants of the East Region thanks to the dam and the face-lift that the regional capital, Beroua has witnessed within the past weeks, the entire region has mobilised to give the Head of State a befitting welcome. Reasons for such a symbiosis between President Paul Biya and the Region are not far-fetched.

In the past, the people of the East Region have presented their worries to the Head of State through his various representatives appointed or visiting the region. His presence since yesterday gives them the opportunity to tell him directly what they think and feel, what their expectations are and what contributions they are ready to make for the Head of State's "Greater Accomplishments" programme to become reality.

The mining projects, forest resources, fishery and agricultural potentials added to the human resources of the area are assets on which the Head of State should be banking to succeed in making Cameroon an emergent economy. It is therefore understandable that President Paul Biya is taking along the Prime Minister and Head of Government, Philemon Yang and a cross-section of cabinet Ministers who hail from the East as well as other regions to widen the range of those competent to listen to the population of the region.

A logical outcome of the Head of State's visit to the East will therefore be that he returns from Bertoua with a bag full of grievances, expectations and leaves behind promises of brighter prospects for the East Region. Indeed, inhabitants of all four divisions of the regional namely; Boumba and Ngoko, Upper Nyong, Kadey and Lom and Djerem as well as the 31 sub-divisions have defied the long distances that separate them from the regional headquarters to be present in Bertoua to commune with the Head of State. The idea is not just to mark how attached they are to State institutions incarnated by the Head of State, but also to demonstrate the support they gave him for the current seven-year mandate which he won during the October 9, 2011 presidential election.

Like other parts of the country that have over the years contributed human and material resources toward nation-building in Cameroon, the East has been one of those areas endowed with huge resources. President Biya is definitely out to indicate to the population of the East through this visit that he is cognizant of their role in making Cameroon strong and the country has not forgotten them.

The people are even going to better appreciate the Head of State's message once the Lom-Panga Dam gets functional by 2014, given the many industrial and social fallouts of the project.