The official launching for the northern section of the country took place last Monday May 14.
"Darak and its people have been honoured, we have been lifted high and we now have a sense of belonging more than ever before." This was a common phrase that characterised song and speech on Monday May 14 as the people of the island locality of Darak, in the Logone and Chari Division of the Far North Region, on Cameroon's border with Nigeria and Chad, danced to welcome the Minister of Youth Affairs and Civic Education, Bidoung Mpkatt, on a second lap of launching commemorative activities leading up to the 40th edition of the country's re-unification anniversary billed for Sunday May, 20. The first lap was in Bakassi, another border locality in Ndian Division of the South West Region last Saturday May 12.
After braving the over eight-hour drive on a rugged road from Maroua to Katekime II before facing the inevitable canoe ride to Darak over Lake Chad, Dr. Bidoung Mpkatt was welcome on arrival by an enthusiastic crowd who forwent their daily chores of fishing, farming and petit trading to give the delegation a red-carpet welcome. In the spirit of the event-integration and national unity, dance groups, local administrative and traditional authorities and the entire population marched with the Minister and his delegation from the seashore to the ceremonial ground.
From the Sub-divisional Officer of Darak, Nsangou Mama, through the Mayor, Abdoulaye Abdourassom to the representative of the youth movement in the locality, Oumar Asala, the decision taken to launch 20th May activities in Darak was not only timely but comforting as well. "We now feel at home and pledge to relentlessly contribute our own quota so that our Head of State's Greater Accomplishment programme succeeds overwhelmingly," they said. Oumar and Abdousassom also promised to rally all forces to register when the biometric voter registration begins to showcase their respect to State institutions and exercise their civic rights by voting massively when the moment comes. According to Magra Mewalga, a Lagos-born Cameroonian resident in Makary, "communing with the people of Darak through this launch reinforces their being given that they are administratively under Cameroon but sociologically still very tied to Nigeria." The currency dominantly used in Darak is the Naira.
Addressing the people during the event, Bidoung Mpkatt said government forgets no one and that the Head of State in his new mandate driven by the wish to accelerate socio-economic development counts on all irrespective of where they are. Gifts of fishing material and agricultural inputs by the Ministries of Livestock and Agriculture, Dr. Bidoung Mkpwatt said, testify of government's will to accompany the population in their growth-induced activities. The gesture was earlier shown in Koundjara where the Minister gave a water pump and in Katekime where he inaugurated a water point donated to the local population by his ministry. He was accompanied through the 24-hour visit by Far North Governor Awa Fonka Augustine.
