Aminatou Ahidjo, Board Chair of the Yaounde Conference Centre
The new President of the Yaounde Congress Hall was installed on Monday, July 4, 2016. The daughter of the former President of the Republic, Amadou Ahidjo, says Paul Biya has accepted her outstretched hand.
Aminatou Ahidjo was installed yesterday as the President of the Board of Directors of the Congress Hall in Yaounde. The daughter of President Amadou Ahidjo, was very happy to take her new position.
“This place was inaugurated by H.E. Amadou Ahidjo, my father, on May 12, 1982. I come back and I was appointed by H.E. Paul Biya, I am very moved,” she said.
In an interview on the national radio station, CRTV after installation, Aminatou Ahidjo, militant of the CPDM (Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement) since September 6, 2013, reveals the challenges ahead in her new position, and the relationship she has with Paul Biya, and ridicule raised after her commitment to the CPDM and her appointment.
Appointment to the Congress Hall
When my appointment was released, I took full measure. I know that the task ahead is big and heavy, but to serve my country is so exhilarating that I still do not see what could make me anxious. I will fulfill my mission with energy, with courage, with determination and with great humility. I think I can.
The conference hall for a country that is going to emerge will become the Palace of Culture. Everything converges to the Congress Hall. It must be the showcase of Cameroon like other Congress Halls in other countries.
And we must come to this Hall which has to live events and be a center of events. This is a great site, and Cameroonians will find a promising project.
Decree of the President of the Republic
We do not always expect a decree. I was not consulted. You are just surprised. We trust the Chief, everything has its own time, and he alone knows when to call you, if he calls you.
Thanks to Paul Biya
When I reached out to H.E. Paul Biya, he accepted my outstretched hand, he trusted me to campaign for parliamentary and municipal elections of 2013. This confidence has never been denied. It is a high mark of confidence by appointing me to the head of the Congress Hall.
The only thing I can say is thank you so much, Mr. president. Really it’s so beautiful, what the President did.
Relationship with President Paul Biya
This is the relationship of a daughter to her father. I said when I started the campaign everything was bringing me to this man. I was a child, I found a father. The father is still there. When we reach out after many years of absence and when the Head of State accepted that I returned to Cameroon, the child had found the father.
The child does not have to see his father every day. But we know that the father is there, we know that the father looks after us. And if he was not watching over me, maybe I would not be here today.
Engagement in the CPDM and taunts of opinion
I think we should accept any servitude. And I think that we are neither slaves to anything nor anyone. Neither the memory nor history. My freedom is intellectual first, and it forces me to build my responsibility.
It is true that I am carrying a heritage that makes things difficult and bright things. But I make my way. The bright things outweigh the difficult things. The proof, I’m here.
