Yaounde – Within one week, Biya made two public outings in Yaounde, chairing the 50th anniversary of school of administration ENAM and the graduation of the military academy EMIA.

Early next year, as commander in chief of the armed forces he will travel to the North West chief town Bamenda to speak at an event to mark 50 years of the Cameroon army.

The visit to Bamenda is expected to be followed by a nationwide tour of regional headquarters - the third since the president came to power in 1982 - according to Unity Palace sources.

They come as Biya, 77, begins making unprecedented overtures to the Central Africa sub-region, where he expects to play a leadership role, following the death of Omar Bongo, the former leader of Gabon.

Turn-by-turn, the Gabonese, Chadian and Central African Republic heads of state have visited Yaounde, where Biya sought to strengthen sub-regional ties, which in most cases have been lukewarm at best.   Better known as an absentee leader because of his many foreign trips abroad, Biya’s national and sub-regional public appearances have been rather sparing and unpredictable. (See Standard Tribune No 058)

In a remarkable easing up, the Presidency is also making advances at the private press, which the regime has often spited.

There appears to be a process to have permanent accreditation for independent journalists to cover the Unity Palace and the president.

At the mark of his 27th year in power last November, the regime bent over backward to place a message of the head of state in private newspapers as a paid advert.

And for the second time this year, privately run television channels and radio stations have been allowed to broadcast national addresses by the head of state live.

It looks very much like a change of policy, two years into a presidential election that appears packed with high stakes and uncertainties.

What Biya takes out of the strategy, if it is one, is better relations with the people who could count most in 2011.

For Biya, the North West is his most frightful political nightmare. Though he has visited Bamenda more often that any other part of the country, he has never won a multi-candidate election there.

Biya may also be counting on the media to help him in 2011, if he decides against current odds to run.

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