History-Making Year!

Several milestones were reached this year in Cameroon, least of which is not the hitch-free holding of the 12 October, 2025 Presidential election. With 12 candidates on the starting blocks, Cameroon vibrated to the rhythm of electoral campaigns which almost gave the impression that the nation was at its wit’s end. Yet, political pundits kept reminding the population that life continues after the polling exercise. Those who have come to terms with that reality following the return to normalcy after the post-election tensions and have shifted their expectations to a renewal of the political class did well to wait for the appropriate moment. Appointments may come, but no one knows the time! Whenever that comes up is anyone’s guess!     
It would not however by wrong for anybody to keep gazing at the political promises made during the effervescence of the electoral period and most especially the commitments taken by the Head of State, President Paul Biya on 6 November, 2025 during the oath-taking ceremony at the National Assembly. With the incumbent Paul Biya of the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement having a score of 54 % as against 35 % for his immediate rival, Issa Tchiroma Bakary of the Cameroon National Salvation Front, the President had to factor the results into his next action plan. Placing youth and women at the centre of his priorities during this new seven-year tenure in office easily resonated with his campaign slogan of “Greatness and Hope” since it projects the message of an eye in the future for those who are rightfully impatient to demonstrate their know-how in terms of decision-making. If the regional election of 30 November, 2025 still came with the repeat scenario of the same faces taking command of the Regions, it might not be certain that the forthcoming Legislative and Council elections in 2026 will come and go without new actors narrowing their way into the governing class at the grassroots. There again, time will tell.     
Like the social media did during the pre-electoral period by, at times, even making fake news, hate speech and other negativism go viral, such imagery scenes have persisted of late with some even sharing cabinet positions online – a sign of impatience or just fertile imagination from persons who are keen on reading astrological signs? Whatever the case, the days ahead could be pregnant with high expectations in the air. Everyone seems to agree on the fact that people want better standards of living and the government had a hand on the plough in that direction in 2025. A simple indication is the number of Gas Filling Centres that the Prime Minister Head of Government Joseph Dion Ngute inaugurated within the year, cement production units, the Kribi Petroleum Production factory, budgeting to revive the Limbe Oil Refinery, SONARA, a FCFA 51.8 Billion loan agreement with the Standard Chartered Bank for new processing plants at the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) to take routs and so on. These are signs that the economy remains another central point in moving the country forward and the development challenges keep increasing.     
These also mean that even when the youthful population has continued to migrate abroad in search of greener pastures, the employment prospects are in place as the State forges on in providing the enabling environment and educational facilities that enable those who are industrious and resilient enough to strive. No one can nurse any iota o...