By Bakah Derick
Since the beginning of insurgency in Cameroon travelling from one part of the country to another has not been easy. Security checks have multiplied while control methods have been changed completely. This has not only made travelling across Cameroon long and tiring but also boring.
It is not in any way a bad idea to control intensely in a country suffering from repeated attacks from unknown individuals. The consistency is however the point of interest noting that the intensity is determined by the events and days.
Events involving government ministers receive high level categorised security. When the President o the republic and defence authorities move, the deployment is heaviest. Other ministers, diplomats, Clergy and other officers and government functionaries receive different security attention.
While Prime Minister Philemon Yang will travel to the Northwest from Yaounde by land, the former Minister of defence Alain Menbengo will not. He makes his trips to the Northwest by air. Just to indicate how different even members of government carry security along. Many of these discrepancies can be pointed. Hopefully the new Minister of defence Joseph Beti Asomo may change things if truly the PM is head of government.
However the days of this intensive check can be another area of concern. I was taken by surprise after a trip from Yaounde recently. Unlike the complicated control I was subjected to on my way to Yaoundé on a Thursday, it was not the same on my way back. On public transport on Sunday I traveled to Bamenda with no single control stop until blue moon already in Bamenda where I stopped to show my identification card though no one bordered looking while I came down from the bus and walk pass with the prime target being the presentation of the ID Card.
For the attention of the National Delegate for Security Sunday could be a good day for terrorists to travel from Yaounde to Bamenda.
Since the beginning of insurgency in Cameroon travelling from one part of the country to another has not been easy. Security checks have multiplied while control methods have been changed completely. This has not only made travelling across Cameroon long and tiring but also boring.
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| Mbarga Nguele National Delegate for Security |
It is not in any way a bad idea to control intensely in a country suffering from repeated attacks from unknown individuals. The consistency is however the point of interest noting that the intensity is determined by the events and days.
Events involving government ministers receive high level categorised security. When the President o the republic and defence authorities move, the deployment is heaviest. Other ministers, diplomats, Clergy and other officers and government functionaries receive different security attention.
While Prime Minister Philemon Yang will travel to the Northwest from Yaounde by land, the former Minister of defence Alain Menbengo will not. He makes his trips to the Northwest by air. Just to indicate how different even members of government carry security along. Many of these discrepancies can be pointed. Hopefully the new Minister of defence Joseph Beti Asomo may change things if truly the PM is head of government.
However the days of this intensive check can be another area of concern. I was taken by surprise after a trip from Yaounde recently. Unlike the complicated control I was subjected to on my way to Yaoundé on a Thursday, it was not the same on my way back. On public transport on Sunday I traveled to Bamenda with no single control stop until blue moon already in Bamenda where I stopped to show my identification card though no one bordered looking while I came down from the bus and walk pass with the prime target being the presentation of the ID Card.
For the attention of the National Delegate for Security Sunday could be a good day for terrorists to travel from Yaounde to Bamenda.