Daily Times

“It was as if time stood still,” said an exuberant announcer as Cameroon’s President Paul Biya landed in the country’s north to kick-off campaigning ahead of next week’s polls.

He was in the town of Maroua on Saturday for the first time in six years, drumming up support ahead of voting on October 7 when the 85-year-old will seek a seventh term. The polls will be held to an unprecedented backdrop of violence, as clashes continue in the country’s separatist anglophone regions and Boko Haram fighters continue to threaten Cameroon’s northeast — including Maroua. “We are proud that he is here, proud that he thinks of us,” said a pro-Biya activist who wore a blue and white pagne print smock emblazoned with the president’s face.

Nearby, a local leader wearing a pagne outfit in the presidential colours jumped with joy and took the hand of the man beside him as the president made his way down the red carpet. “It is with barely concealed joy that we are covering this event,” a journalist for the state CRTV broadcaster told his audience emphatically. The visit of Biya and a dozen of his ministers who come from the poor, under-developed region, was held amid tight security and only announced days ahead of the event.

Published in Daily Times, October 1, 2018.