Paul Biya Launches Campaigns in Maroua: Stakes and Challenges

The incumbent president and flagbearer for the Cameroon People Democratic Movement (CPDM) Party, Paul Biya, is in Maroua, Far North Region.

According to information from the civil cabinet of the presidency, Paul Biya, accompanied by his wife, Chantal Biya, shall launch the national campaign as a candidate for the CPDM party.

His visit comes on the heels of an invitation offered to him by the population of Maroua in August 2018. The mayor of Maroua I, Hamadou Idou, on August 24, 2018 invited the CPDM presidential flagbearer on behalf of the population to launch his campaigns in the capital of the Far North Region.

Handing the invitation letter to the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, the mayor insisted that President Biya would secure 100 percent of the votes come October 7, 2018.

It was during an occasion where the MINAT boss handed bags of rice, millet, soap, vegetable oil, tonnes of sardines, and financial packages on behalf of President Paul Biya to victims who suffered the ravages of floods in the nights of July 24 to 25, 2018.

Stakes and Challenges Of Biya’s Visit

A lot has changed since President Paul Biya last visited Maroua in 2011. While he announced agriculture as his top priority if he were elected in 2011, the population of Maroua and the Far North Region has witnessed sweeping changes that have completely changed their way of life in that Muslim-dominated region.

The Boko Haram insurgency has been the biggest challenge in the Far North Region. Since 2014, the soaring socioeconomic emergence of Maroua seems to have been punctuated by the crackdown on the Boko Haram insurgency.

President Paul Biya declared war against Boko Haram militias in France, hence the commencement of full-fledged war in the extreme North. This is the first time he will set foot in the land he declared war in, perhaps to get stock on the level of progress made in completely wiping out the militant group.

Another aspect that has been preoccupying the population of Maroua is the recurrent floods plaguing parts of the city and the region.

When rains pour heavily, the river Logon overflows into people’s houses and properties. Such has been the case every year since Biya last went there.

Though the government has been assisting victims of such incidents, the population has, however, been crying for a long-term solution to the menace.

Biya will surely use the opportunity to talk about the challenges of climate change and the measures that have been taken to revitalise the Lake Chad basin.

The CPDM flagbearer shall no doubt be dwelling on the huge investments that have befallen the Far North Region since the resurgence of the Boko Haram militancy.

Education, health, and socioeconomic revamp have been the topmost priorities of the government in integrating the population into activities that will distract them from being lured by the Boko Haram group.

He shall summarise all of that with a call for the population of the Far North Region to give him another 7-year mandate.

Why Maroua is Strategic

There’s no gain in saying that Maroua has always stood tall as the city with the highest number of electors. Maroua in particular and the Extreme North in general have always facilitated President Paul Biya’s overwhelming majority at the previous elections.

The latest figures from ELECAM put the number of registered voters in the Far North at over one million, which is above other regions in Cameroon.

Perhaps that tells us why there has been a huge trooping of the different presidential candidates to the Extreme North.

Therefore, Paul Biya is returning to Maroua after his massive 2011 presidential polls to thank the population for the previous confidence bestowed on him and to request a fresh mandate come Sunday, October 7, 2018.

Y. Fonki