The Head of State gave his impressions to the press on Thursrday before leaving Brazzaville.
After a 72-hour stay in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo for the 11th Summit of Heads of State of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, CEMAC, President Paul Biya granted an interview to journalists at the Maya Maya International Airport in which he said the discussions were intense, fruitful and enriching. Speaking yesterday July 26, 2012 shortly before take-off, President Biya appreciated the quality of relations between Cameroon and Congo saying the Brazzaville Summit has reinforced the integration process within the Sub-region through the consolidation of reforms undertaken within CEMAC since 2006.
During his stay in Brazzaville, the Head of State had an occasion to fully participate in deliberations aimed at giving a new lease of life to the Sub-regional organisation that has for long been buckled down by what President Denis Sassou N'Guesso of Congo called micro-nationalism. On arrival in Brazzaville on Tuesday July 24, the Head of State had a 30-minute discussion with the Cameroonian Ministers who accompanied him to the Summit including those who had come earlier to attend the Ministerial Council Meeting of CEMAC to prepare files for the Heads of State Summit. After the working session, the Head of State had just time enough to rest and join his peers from Congo, host President Denis Sassou N'Guessou, President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, Idriss Deby Itno of Chad, François Bozizé of the Central African Republic and Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon.
All six leaders met in camera from 9:30 - 1:00 a.m. apparently to fine-tune their views before the opening session of the Summit on Wednesday July 25, 2012. However, such pre-conference exchanges did not stop the interminable close-door meeting the Heads of State held on Thursday, having to meet from 2:00 pm to 8:00 pm when the final communiqué was made public by the outgoing President of the CCEMAC Commission, Antoine Ntsimi of Cameroon.
Talking about close ties between Yaounde and Brazzaville, President Biya and his Congolese counterpart demonstrated such entente through the several audiences they had in Congo. Before accompanying President Biya to the airport on Thursday, President Denis Sassou N'Guessou earlier concerted with Mr Biya at his residence located at the Palais du Peuple, a Presidential residential neighbourhood in Brazzaville where all the CEMAC Heads of State were lodged. To Mr. Biya such meetings were a sign of their determination to ensure that integration within the CEMAC sub-region become a reality. He noted during his brief interview that African countries are living in frontiers created by others and it was therefore important that they go beyond such boundaries and look for values that bring them together.
The airport departure ceremony yesterday was less spectacular than the arrival on Tuesday during which the entire Brazzaville went into hysteria on seeing President Biya. It was as if to say President Biya's presence in Congo meant the entire event had succeeded. He sought to do just that by staying throughout the discussions certainly to provide the savoir-fair needed for the gathering to end satisfactorily.
Such satisfaction was evident through Presidents Idriss Deby Itno and Ali Bongo Ondimba who left the Summit earlier on Wednesday just few hours before the end of the long close-door session. They expressed confidence that the decisions taken were mutually beneficial to all CEMAC member countries and were good enough to guarantee them a way forward.
