Bertoua Sets Pace For Massive Feast at Lom Pangar Today

The welcome ceremony yesterday in Bertoua for President Paul Biya, here to lay the foundation stone of the Lom Pangar project, was indeed a good spell for a successful stay.

President Biya's blue-and-white helicopter touched down at the Bertoua-Manjou Airport at exactly 12.20 pm, breaking a few days of suspense during which many citizens continued to conjecture on the eventuality of the visit. Many knew it was in the works and the lightning visit last Monday by an advance party of senior presidential aides was already a very clear indication of the imminence of the presidential presence.

In the interim, administrative, municipal and traditional authorities, not leaving behind political party leaders, went into all the nooks and crannies of the East Region, mobilizing citizens to come to Bertoua. Though many did not quite know when. But in the past few days, the difficulties observed in obtaining space in hotels have been indication of the fact that the town's population was suddenly on the rise. Many guests seemed to make do with just anything available because by and large, Bertoua's catering industry is in a rickety posture. An immediate fallout has been the exponential increase in the number of snack and bar customers as well as a surge in the number of "night jars".

So when the President Paul Biya arrived here yesterday, it was a thorough macrocosm of the Region present. They were not only at the airport precincts, but also along the 10-kilometre road linking the airport to the presidential lodge in the city centre. Even before this show of concern by the people, a little girl at the foot of the helicopter had said it all when she handed over a bouquet of flowers as the Head of State stepped out. Her desire, she said, was to see the President spend a very good time during his stay in the Region. The President obliged with a fatherly kiss on the infant's left chick.

The President then turned to the official welcome line headed by the Governor of the Region, Samuel Dieudonné Ivaha Diboua, the Senior Divisional Officer for Lom-and-Djerem, Peter Mbu and the Government Delegate to the Bertoua City Council, Dieudonné Sambe. He then took a few steps towards the Presidential guard band for the playing of the National Anthem. This was followed by the inspection of a guard of honour mounted by members of the Presidential guards and detachments of the gendarmerie and infantry. The troops' commander, Colonel Ernest Mbendou, Head of the Division for Examinations at the Armed Forces Training Command in Yaounde, received the encouragements of the President at the end of the inspection exercise.

The President of the Republic took some 10 minutes in a difficult exercise of greeting the huge number of regional dignitaries and the local élite. He began with Emmanuel Bonde, Minister of Mines and Technological Development and continued to Michel Ange Anguing, Minister of Public Service, Jospeh Le, Deputy Director of the Civil Cabinet of the President of the Republic and Jean Baptiste Bokam, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defence in charge of the National Gendarmerie.

As we filed in from Bertoua late yesterday, it was gathered that the President was going to have a rather quiet evening after a few audiences he granted in the afternoon. With these meetings, he was obviously updated on all the files related to the inauguration ceremony of today and was also possibly debriefed on the general situation of the East Region in all its facets. The political and economic élite of the Region was also availing itself of the massive turnout to give themselves a deserved treat at a reception last evening. Many of them argue that moments such as those of last night offer opportunities to heal political wounds that are not uncommon between the leadership of the Region.

This morning, the Head of State heads for Lom Pangar, some 130 kilometres north of Bertoua to lay the foundation stone of the much-awaited and much-talked of hydroelectricity plant. On completion in 2014, the dam is expected to greatly reduce the painful energy shortages that are, in part, responsible for stagnation in some crucial areas of the economy. Again, and as to go by the promises of the Region's Governor, Ivaha Diboua, the people are mobilizing to turn out even more massively than yesterday in Lom Pangar. Its difficult access and uninhabited nature notwithstanding.