“E dong bad for Biya”

By Akoson Raymond

I watched the president's visit to the Grand North over CRTV with a lot of consternation. He visited to sympathise with the flood victims in the Far North region. But the turn out was nothing but a mockery. I am very certain that Biya was very disappointed. One could read it all over his face ... he only managed to force out the smiles. I kept asking myself: is this the turn out for a head of state's visit? Not just a political campaign but a visit to show sympathy! Did they not allocate for heavy envelopes to 'langa throat' dance groups? Or these dance groups simply said, 'no, but thanks'? One could actually count the number of people in attendance: nothing more than the family and relatives of top government officials - governors, DOs, SDOs and a few, yes a few civil servants.

An Ayah Paul rally in a similar place could pull a crowd two thousand times more than what we saw. In fact, if someone like Fru Ndi were to disgrace Biya's turn out, let him make a similar visit.
It is important to note that soon after the flood disaster, Biya dispatched his ministers to go issue the usual bags of rice and make contributions. The CRTV sang the event for close to a week. It seems a team came back to Biya and said something like, 'Mr. President, those guys are really mad... you sep sep go because e dong bad!' And the old man goes and received a provocative turn out!
The Northerners may be thinking; 'who the hell does he think he is? He messed with us in 1984 - an act for which we're yet to react and now our very own Marafa?' The pack of cards will soon crumble one way or the other. Detractors, I didn't make this up. Watch CRTV images on these events.