Prime Minister Philemon Yang yesterday received the sealed message from the Nigerian envoy for onward transmission to the Head of State.

The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, August 25 sent Nigeria’s Minister of Water Resources, Obadiah Ando with a special sealed message to President Paul Biya. Cameroon’s Prime Minister Philemon Yang in the Star Building audience received the sealed message from Goodluck Jonathan’s special envoy for onward transmission to President Paul Biya.

After the over 30 minutes audience, the Nigerian special envoy, Obadiah Ando who headed a seven-member delegation told the press that he could not speculate on the content of the sealed message. On his assessment of the bilateral relations between the brotherly people of Nigeria and Cameroon, he said, they were “very good” and expressed the wish for the relations to further be improved in all areas.

Nigeria’s Minister of Water Resources coincidentally came to Cameroon at the moment the country’s North and Far North Regions that share common borders with Nigeria are hit by a cholera epidemic that has already claimed nearly 300 lives. Answering a question on the cholera problem, he admitted that the disease was present in the northern states of Nigeria that have borders with Cameroon. The Prime Minister Yang and Obadiah Ando used the audience to discuss the water problems that constitute the main cause of cholera. “Our doctors are looking into the issue”, Nigeria’s Minister of Water Resources said and added that, “both Nigerian and Cameroonian doctors are working to see how we can reduce all the incidences of cholera”. The main concern will be ensuring potable water as, “water-borne diseases is what our people in the rural areas suffer from both in Cameroon and Nigeria”, the Nigerian special envoy concluded.

President Goodluck Jonathan’s special envoy was accompanied to the Prime Minister’s Office by Senator Simeon Ajibola ; the Under Secretary for African Affairs in Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, A.A. Abbas and the Nigerian High Commissioner to Cameroon, Philip Ali Dauda among other key officials.

Emmanuel KENDEMEH