Biya, State Dignitaries Salute Advent Of 2017

A New Year wishes ceremony was organized last Friday at State House bringing together accredited diplomats and senior State officials.

It was probably for the umpteenth time that the President of the Republic was hosting a New Year wishes ceremony at State House and even if the ceremony occupies a firm position on the President’s calendar, it can never be routine, given the Republican nature of the event, which requires that all the principal actors of the political scene as well as accredited Ambassadors, High Commissioners and representatives of international organizations come together to commune.

And the best moment in the year is the beginning which provides the rare occasion to make a balance sheet of the past year and to take commitments or engagements for the coming year. The two-prong event began with the arrival of diplomats at State House grounds at about 9.45am. They were congregated at the main building lobby as they steadily came in. At about 10.30, all the guests were already on hand and could then be led to the first floor Ambassadors’ lounge where State Protocol officials placed them in a kind of semi-circle with the Doyen of the diplomatic corps Monsignor Piero Pioppo who is also the Apostolic Nuncio to Cameroon, taking the lead.

A few minutes to 11am, the president of the Republic made his way into the lounge. Then, the Doyen took the floor for a speech in which he explored virtually all aspects of national life as experienced by the diplomats on whose behalf he was speaking. The longest serving head of a diplomatic mission said Cameroon, in 2016 continued to transform its rich cultural and geographical diversity into a great asset which enabled it to consolidate the unity of the nation. He expressed the hope to see this situation bring more peace and more stability so as to guarantee progress and emancipation.

He cited the Eseka train accident of October and without mentioning the current unrest in the English-speaking regions of the country, made mention of the government’s responsible handling of the situations. “Your country showed its capacity to overcome difficulties”, the cleric said before going on to mention some of the diplomatic successes registered by Cameroon, notably the organization of two important economic events – the international economic conference of investing in Cameroon and the extraordinary summit of Central African Heads of State on the financial and economic situation of the region.

He also cited a number of visits by foreign leaders such as the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Materella, Chad’s President Idriss Deby Itno, the Senegalese President Macky Sall and the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde. President Biya’s visits abroad (Nigeria twice and the United Nations in New York) also seemed to have particularly impressed the Doyen especially with the gains such visits procured for Cameroon in material and image-building perspectives.

Unity Always