Consolidating Achievements

Each year comes with its challenges and at the end an assessment is important to examine the road covered and make amends where necessary. In the life of a nation, such evaluations are naturally based on the different components and how they impacted the people and the national polity. Cameroon happens to have gone through the year 2024 with certain benchmarks that could be said to have been as diverse and multifaceted as the country. Moving into a new one the hope is that the people will continue to rise up to the occasion whenever common concerns are put on the table.     
It might not have been a particularly striking year in terms of political ramifications, but the fact that many foresaw the eventuality of four major elections in 2025 attracted citizens to have their names on the voter register. With Presidential, legislative, council and regional elections in the horizon, speculations went high on the chances of success for the various polls. But guided by realistic and pragmatic projections, the President of the Republic as per the constitutional provisions which allow him to consult the Constitutional Council and ask Parliament to vote on extensions and postponement, Members of the National Assembly and Municipal councillors had to do the needful. The lawmakers and councillors elected in 2020 to serve a five-year term were to see their mandate expire on 10 March 2025, but the 12-month extension given to parliamentarians and Municipal Councillors keeps them in office up to 2026. Having the air cleared on the electoral calendar through the various legal instruments now makes way for the country to focus on the Presidential elections in 2025.     
Given that calm has progressively returned to restive parts of the country with the neutralisation of most persons known for inciting violence, be it in the South West and North West regions with separatist fighters or in the Far North where Boko Haram extremists have been reduced to sporadic attackers. An atmosphere that raises hope for a more inclusive and peaceful presidential election next year. 
It will also be coming within a context whereby Cameroon forged a strong image across the globe in 2024 with the election of the Former Prime Minister and current Grand Chancellor of National Orders, Philemon Yang to the prestigious post of President of the 79th General Assembly of the United Nations for a one-year tenure. A diplomatic victory that adds to the different outings by the head of the country’s diplomacy, President Paul Biya to Europe and Asia, meeting with world leaders to examine international trends as well as carve out a place for Cameroon on the world stage. Several citizens equally secured key positions in international organisations, thanks to their merits and effective lobby by the government. All these constitute landmark evolutions in the life of the country in 2024. And they come with the potential for brighter prospects through a vibrant Diaspora population ready to contribute their quota to national development as the years go by.     
Yet, these positive outlooks have to match up with efforts to curb corruption and the rising cost of living which the population has continued to face. Soaring cocoa prices throughout the year have rather highlighted the yearning need for local processing of raw materials and the need to move from extractive industry to embrace full-scale and improved value chain economic processes at various levels of the production of goods and services in the country. Lip-service to these concerns has not helped and the extraordinary meeting of Heads of State of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (C...