194 New Officers Injected into the Army

President Paul Biya last Friday told the two graduating batches to display unshakeable faith in their values. All roads led to the Yaounde Military Headquarters last Friday, December 04. Family members, friends and relatives joined the rest of the military corps to feast the graduation of two batches of military officers from the Yaounde Combined Military Academy (EMIA). The two batches, that of 2004 christened ??Peace and Modernity?? and that of 2006, named ??Army and Nation??, had the traditional honour of seeing their end of three-year training immortalised by a ceremony chaired by the Head of State, himself, Commander in chief of the Armed Forces. Three main

items marked the occasion: the placing of the very first epaulettes on the shoulders of the officers, the speech of the Head of State, and the military march past. Of course, the last but not negligible item was the family ecstasy marked by the generous hugging and offering of bouquets of flowers to the happy laureates. Things went as planned in full military tradition, characterised by respect of military orders and time. The ceremony began as programmed with the arrival of the Head of State, the singing of the National Anthem and inspection of the mounted guard of honour. The long awaited moment for the attribution of epaulettes came with the President himself giving the kick off with the award of epaulettes to the first graduates; the 28-year old Naami Yang Flore Chrystelle of the «Peace and Modernity» batch and Toupo Djeukam Dieudonné Alban of the «Army and Nation» batch. All did not end with the award of epaulettes. The most important item was certainly the speech of the Head of State, which symbolises the final instructions to the officers. In fact, besides the training received, the speech usually serves as a final guide with its entire encompassing aura. The new military officers left the Military Headquarters with three main messages from the Head of State, reminder of the symbolism in the names given their batches; Peace and Modernity, a strong reminder of the natural vocation for the Army to remain at the service of the lofty ideal of Peace which guarantees stability, Army and Nation which reaffirms the umbilical cord that links the Army to the Nation and constitutes one of the key foundations of our defence policy. The second message had to do with the celebration of 50 years of the army in Cameroon, which will take place in Bamenda in 2010. Then, the assurance to pursue the reforms initiated in 2001 to modernize the defence machinery. ??Future actions will be carried out to make our Armed Forces more professional through a more aggressive training and equipment policy??, President Biya said, stating that adequate resources will be allocated to improve the living and working conditions of military personnel. Finally, they left with the message that the Cameroon ??Military Cross of Valour?? will be introduced to ??boost the spirit of Merit, Honour and Sacrifice within the ranks of our Armed Forces.?? The two batches that left last Friday underwent training in three major sequences: acquisition of military fundamentals in Koutaba, introduction to military tactics and general knowledge at EMIA and acquisition command aptitudes and understanding of institutional environment among others.
LUKONG Pius NYUYLIME, CT

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