PAUL BIYA`S USE OF ENGLISH AT THE BUEA CELEBRATION

Today, Thursday the 20^th of February 2014 was the D-Day for President Paul Biya`s visit to  Buea for the celebration of fifty years of  Reunification. Although he had been in the town since Tuesday the 18^th, it was today the keynote speech was delivered.

Dr. Yinda Godwin Sendze today commented on the president`s speech. He shared his views on Facebook: “Beginning in well spoken English, he startled us, and just when everyone expected him to go back to his traditional French, he gave the Anglophones a pleasant surprise. He continued in English and made half of the speech in English before switching to French. At the end of the speech, he went back again to English, for his conclusions.”

In reaction, Osric Tening Forton termed Biya`s visit “belated”. Belated? It`s never too late especially when crooked paths are straightened in the process. Shary Tweet wondered why the president should be praised for speaking English “31 years later”. But I say this is not the speech speech in English in those 31 years. When he visited Bamenda to celebrate the armed forces, his address was in English. When he visited Britain three years after acceding to the supreme office of state, he addressed us Cameroonians in English. It was the Cameroon Embassy in Holland Park, London. I was there.