President Biya leaves Vatican

The Head of State and wife, Chantal left Rome yesterday after participating in the sanctification of two formers popes.

It was another moment of effervescence yesterday 29 April 2014 at the forecourt of Hotel Hilton Cavalieri here in Rome where several Cameroonians mostly of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM, the religious based at the Vatican and those doing business in Italy turned out to wish goodbye to the Presidential Couple.

President Paul Biya and wife, Chantal Biya who left Rome after attending the canonisation of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II on 27 April 2014 responded favourable to the cheerful Cameroonian crowd before driving off to the Roma Fiumicino Airport section reserved for officials at the Aeroporto Leonardo Da Vinci Ceremoniale Di Stato in Rome for departure formalities.

The hotel lobby also constituted a comfortable environment for Cameroon’s Ambassador to the Vatican, Antoine Zanga and wife, Cameroon’s Ambassador to Italy, Dominique Awono Essama and wife as well as some of their close collaborators to assemble and say “safe journey” to the Presidential couple.

They equally followed to the airport for the same brief ritual at the foot of the special flight reserved for the Head of State as he departed from Rome at about 11:55 a.m. local time which was about 12:55 in Yaounde.

All Cameroonians that made it to wish the Head of State and his spouse well sounded happy and satisfied that the presence of the first couple in Rome not only marked their commitment to the values that the canonised popes represent, but equally made Cameroon to count among nations that have a sense of history and purpose.

Goodness, reconciliation, mutual understanding and the importance of family life incarnated by Popes John XXIII and John Paul II were recalled by Cameroonian in Rome as lessons for the country and the presence of Mr Biya at the ceremony seen as a symbol of Cameroon’s determination to ensure that those messages ring out laud in the country.

Priests, Reverent Sisters, CPDM supporters and Cameroonian students and business persons in Rome and other parts of Italy could not help but join in the frenzy of drumming, dancing, singing and waving as the Head of State and wife, Chantal walked out of the Hotel to enter the car for departure to the airport.

In all, it was a happy Head of State and Cameroonian community that met in Italy for a historic event, the sanctification of two popes and separated in the same sense of joy and concord.