Re-Unification Celebration Countdown Is On

The nation is gripped in celebration fever! Very much in the likes of what obtained in 2010 when the entire nation was mobilized for the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of independence.

At that time, the public authorities extended the anniversary events to include those of Reunification which were to come some time afterwards. The Reunification event was to have come up on October 1, 2011, but other national events least of which was not the Presidential election of that year, put the issue at abeyance.

Of sorts. So much, as would be justified with what is currently going on in Buea and other locations, because of the necessity to give this most important political event all the pomp and pageantry it deserves, but also the physical development of Buea and its environs in a manner as to clearly express the desire that the images of the first capital of German Kamerun should reflect the necessary transmissions it is expected to have gone through all these years.

Work started in the effort to give Buea a facelift some two years ago, but the recent acceleration of work on a number of projects leaves no doubt that the 50th anniversary commemoration could not be so far off after all. Buea streets are being widened and given a new look. Structures in any form of disrepair are being pulled down with the aim of making the town more attractive for the many visitors expected during the commemorative events.

Public buildings are being given coatings of fresh paint while Buea township taxi drivers and all those going to be involved in mass transit activities are being coached on the necessity of positing a good image of the first colonial capital of Cameroon. All of these built-up structures are going to remain even after the celebrations; and that is why every effort is being made to ensure that populations of outlaying areas to Buea feel the effect of the celebration even years after its organization.

But the Reunification events are not circumscribed to Buea exclusively. They are part of national events recently released by the National Organising Committee of the 50th Anniversary of Independence and Reunification. These are simply ongoing events which, in the same way as those leading to the celebration of the anniversary of independence, were marked by a number of intellectual and cultural events. The University of Yaounde 1 has just hosted a round-table discussion involving a cross-section of Cameroonian intellectual irrespective of the political divide on all questions surrounding Reunification.

This morning, another round-table discussion is slated for Mfoulassi, Dja-and-Lobo Division where a number of classmates in the early 1930s composed a poem that was later going to serve as the national anthem of independent Cameroon. Mfoulassi has since been recognized as the departure point of veritable Cameroonian nationalism. In the next few weeks, Foumban, headquarters of the Noun Division will also be in the limelight. This time as the host town of the constitutional conference that followed the plebiscite of February 11, 1961 by which the two former French and British colonies decided to come together as a one and reunited Cameroonian nation.

Cameroon Tribune wishes that this count-down period should provide a propitious moment for all well-meaning patriots to make useful contributions on how we can improve on national integration.