French event planner awarded AFCON contract

Constrained by a mentality that always ascribes ineptitude to local genius, Government has awarded a multi-million contract to a French event planner as the country prepares to host the November female Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON come November, 2016.

In a move described by many sports pundits and proponents of patronage for local talent as “charity that begins abroad”, the French events planning Firm is charged with managing the opening and closing ceremonies of the women’s Africa cup of nations, AFCON, to begin on November 19, 2016 and present the artistic and cultural diversity of the people of Cameroon to the world.

Sports lovers have wondered how a French firm will be able to project the culture of Cameroon without prior knowledge of the socioeconomic and political dynamics of the country, given that it has not had previous local experience.

According to George Michael Kemto, a sports critic, the opening and closing ceremony should be the prerogative and rights of Cameroonian event planning firms since they better understand the dynamics of a country with more than 200 tribes.

“I am not totally ruling out the ability and capability of this firm to handle this ceremony; they have done it before in other countries. But I am concerned about the disregard for what is Cameroonian and whether this firm will project the true image of a united Cameroon that we all crave for or it is just one of the customary maneuvers in this country”, he queried.

‘I expect therefore, that since the contract has been awarded, this firm should work directly with Cameroonians and look at the realities on the ground and don’t bring a European way of entertaining people but African and Cameroonian since the opening and closing sessions is practically entertainment’, he cautioned.

The opening ceremony, the first of such an event to be hosted by Cameroon, will take place at the Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium on November 19, 2016 to be followed by the closing event three weeks later, (on December 3), at the Limbe Omnisport stadium, The Rambler learned

Speaking to media and sports men and women, in the presence of the Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Bidoung Mkpatt, the Chief Executive Officer of the firm, Adrien Daniel Charpentier, on Monday, 27 June, 2016, said the opening and closing ceremonies of the women football event would be the first ever of their kind on the African continent.

Charpentier, whose firm reportedly took charge of the opening ceremony of the 2002 male AFCON in Mali and later Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, told reporters that the ceremonies will be unique in terms of choreography, harmony and style.