Biya holds emergency ministerial council meeting

President Biya yesterday December 9, held a Council of Ministers’ Meeting at the presidency with all cabinet ministers in attendance but for four who were said to be out on official duties.

The ministerial meeting comes after that of November 27, 2012 and coincides with the third anniversary of the government that was appointed on December 9, 2011.

While some analyst are arguing that Biya in his characteristic manner might have summoned the meeting to bid his collaborators farewell, others say the come together may just be an indication that the highly-expected cabinet reshuffle is not on the president’s agenda yet.

It should be recalled that Biya had in his 2013 end of year speech publicly castigated the Yang-led government for failing to meet expected benchmarks. It was widely expected then, that rebuttal would be immediately followed by a sweeping cabinet shake-up. It didn’t happen

While a new government was highly expected; President Biya instead summoned a ministerial council meeting during which he gave firm instructions to members of government largely judged as inefficient.

Yesterday’s meeting started at midday and lasted for less than 30 minutes. It was held in camera. But information that filtered out indicates that President Biya, the only speaker at the meeting, announced a 3-year emergency plan to foster development in all of the country’s ten regions.

The Journal learned that Biya instructed his ministers to work meticulously in the execution and follow up of his plan which has five priority sectors: agriculture, livestock, urban development, road networks as well as water and energy, warning that no act of misappropriation of funds will be tolerated.

It was equally indicated that government shall negotiate with some banks to mobilize 1000 billion FCFA to finance key projects which shall kick-off beginning 2015.

Amongst the projects the president expects his ministers to carry out is the construction of 100 low-cost houses in the cities of Douala and Yaounde, the provision of 100 water boreholes across the ten regions, modern food markets, improvement of health structures among others.