Biya to make rare public outing

Written by Eugene N. Nforngwa, Standard Tribune Writer

Tuesday, 01 December 2009 12:10

Yaounde – In a rare public outing President Paul Biya would attend an event to mark 50 years of the school of administration and magistracy ENAM, according to Unity Palace and Ministry of Communication sources.

Biya is planned to speak sometime this week, during a weeklong line-up of activities beginning Tuesday at the ENAM campus and at other localities around the city, the sources said without elaborating.

The outing would amount to a key endorsement for an institution that is often tainted by alleged corruption in enrolment procedures and which is increasingly losing popularity.

Critics have called the school, left behind by French colonialists, old-fashioned and ripe for an outright shutdown. ENAM officials have had to carry out several reforms and restructuring over the years to keep the institution relevant.

But it is the prospect that Biya would be out at all that is making the 50th anniversary top news. The president traditionally limits his public outings to two events annually: the National Day and the football Cup of Cameroon final.

In the past, he also chaired the graduation of cadet officers from the combined military academy, EMIA. But his repeated unavailability has stopped the event from taking place for at least the past three batches.

Biya has, however, been seen at public events on a few other occasions recently. He was out and about, attending a mass at the multi-purpose Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium here, when the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI, visited the country in March.

In June he took part in the inauguration of the Chinese-built Yaounde sports complex, which is perhaps one of the most outstanding infrastructural accomplishments of his 27-year presidency.

Biya, about 77, came to power in 1982 but his public outings can be counted on the tips of the fingers. Just after assuming power, he made his first tour of the country in 1983, followed by a second at the peak of unpopularity in 1991.

In 1985, the president travelled to Bamenda for the congress of the then governing party, the Cameroon National Union, where he founded the Cameroon Peoples’ Democratic Movement, the current ruling party.

Biya has also made two partial tours of the country for campaign reasons, and was in Buea after the 1998 volcanic eruption.
But it is his many trips abroad, some lasting several weeks, that have probably kept the president in the public eye.

More exceptions to the rule include a controversial tour of the capital after voting in the twin-elections of 2007. At Christmas 2007, he was spotted with his family at the St. Anastasie Woods here.

Biya has taken part in two youth events so far, inaugurating a schools computerisation programme in 2003 and showing up unannounced at a Youth Day event in Yaounde.

At ENAM, the president is expected to highlight the role the school has played in training top civil servants, from tax inspectors to magistrates. Biya will probably use the event to underscore its relevance to the nation.

And for ENAM authorities, it would be a sign of many more days to come.