From my vintage point right here on this side of the Sanaga, if I were allowed to use a military simile, I would readily say, as concerns the staging of the CHAN in the distant rest of Cameroon, that reconnaissance announces very light cavalry ahead indeed. Even here, in Sipandang, we are grappling with the very probability that nobody would show up for the games if they were allowed to hold. Granted, we are living through stirring and trying times, people, and solidarity with the rest of our fellow citizens must prevail. We understand that, but please, don’t blame us if we do not bleed.
We were actually never invited to share in the joys and spoils of a big sporting event on national soil like the CHAN. I suggest to you that Edea, even though over here we don’t have much respect for that town, could have been picked to host a delegation or two, as it is a mere 40 minutes away from the Japoma football field. It takes at least 90 minutes from most aide-maman hotels in Akwa or Bépanda to reach Japoma.
So, if there’s no CHAN, there’s no tcha-tcha, especially for Mr. Ahmad Ahmad. Between you and me and the gatepost, that man is no friend of ours around here. We do not loathe him, we spurn him, but actually we are in awe of him. We hate him a little bit, though. So that I can only describe in german what the feeling around here is : Schaden Freude. Prejudice and joy. We bask in the spiteful and midly malicious delight in his misfortune in-the-making.
Now, who is Mr. Ahmad Ahmad going to blame since Cameroon, his favourite whipping boy, has nothing to do with the Chinese whipping up this virus in their own lab, as the story goes ? It is not our legendary alleged incompetence, carelessness, corruption or smugness that is the root cause of the coming demise of the CHAN. Could it be simply that Mr Ahmad Ahmad carries a lot of « poisse » with him ?
Léon Gwod
