Biya refused to shake hands with some personalities on Wednesday

At the reception of the Nigerian president yesterday, the Cameroonian head of state publicly expressed his anger towards the Governor of the Central Region, the prefect of Mfoundi and the Government delegate at the Yaoundé Urban Community.

Otto Wilson, the Governor of the Central Region, Jean Claude Tsila, the prefect of Mfoundi Department and Gilbert Tsimi Evouna, the Government delegate at the Yaoundé urban community were unable to shake hands with the head of State yesterday Wednesday, at the Yaoundé Nsimalen International Airport.

According to the daily Emergence newspaper in its Thursday, July 30, 2015 edition, "When the 'Air Force' aircraft, conveying the first Nigerian citizen, landed on the tarmac at the Yaoundé Nsimalen International Airport (just after 11 a.m.), head of the Cameroonian state refused to reach out to the personalities mentioned above. President Buhari was the first to greet them.

This was an ‘open air’ humiliation, commented the newspaper. "This hostile attitude put forth by Paul Biya towards them was pensive because no one could imagine such a behavior from President Biya at a time when his Nigerian counterpart made his first visit of friendship and work to Cameroon since his inauguration May 2.”

Citing a source that is supposed to be ‘a close associate of the head of the Cameroonian State’, the journal explained that: “I think that the head of state is angry with these figures because they were unable to mobilize more people for this state visit. You could easily count the number of activists present to welcome president Buhari.”

In a second article on page 5 of this edition, the newspaper insisted that this “cold mobilization around the visit of Buhari in Cameroon is one of the most bashful in the era of Biya.”