In the absence of the President of the Senate, Marcel Niat Njifenji, on November 12, it was Aboubakary Abdoulaye, the first vice-president of the upper house of Parliament, who spoke at the opening ceremony of the ordinary session of November.
Aboubakary Abdoulaye took the opportunity to ask members of the government to take a greater interest in issues of social cohesion. “The government must take up the challenge of improving the living conditions of our compatriots,” he declared. “While it is true that the various crises at the global level have objectively weakened the capacity of governments to respond satisfactorily to the expectations and needs of the population, it is equally true that credible and effective responses must be provided to issues related to security, education, health and the purchasing power of Cameroonians,” continued Aboubakary Abdoulaye.
The First Vice-President of the Senate is concerned about security issues, because security crises are inconveniencing certain regions of the country. This is the case in the North-West and South-West regions where English-speaking separatist groups are active. In the Far North region, thugs from the Islamic group Boko Haram continue to raid certain villages. The newspaper L’œil du Sahel reported that nine people were killed on November 12 in a village in Mayo-Tsanaga after a Boko Haram attack.
Aboubakary Abdoulaye also points to the level of students, which is plummeting, as evidenced by the poor results in the 2023-2024 school year exams. “The drastic decline in the level of learners, the phenomena of school dropouts call for the common and total commitment of all stakeholders in the chain and the educational community to find imperative, suitable and sustainable solutions,” the senator said in his speech.
He made other recommendations to the government for the urgent improvement of social cohesion in Cameroon. “We therefore expect the government to continue, among other things, the cleaning up of public accounts and tax justice, to reduce inflation which remains high. Access to drinking water, the quality of communication networks and infrastructure, unsanitary conditions, the preservation of state property, the maintenance of economic infrastructure, such as the recently acquired sports complexes in Japoma, Olembé or Garoua, are all major concerns that deserve to be addressed,” suggests Aboubakary Abdoulaye.
SBBC