Yaounde: Bilingualism Commission hails Nsimalen airport authorities for use of official languages.

The delegation was led by Abbe Jean Marie Bodo. He was accompanied by Angouing née Ndanga Francoise. 

Meanwhile, the Bilingualism Commission was received by the Director of the Yaounde Nsimalen International Airport, Amougou Edzoa Emile.

They were dispatched by the President of the Commission, Peter Mafany Musonge as part of an ongoing campaign to facilitate the implementation of Article 27 of Law No. 2019/019 of December 24, 2019 on the promotion of the official languages in Cameroon.

When the Director of Yaounde airport received the delegation from the Bilingualism Commission, he first presented a synopsis of the activities of his facility.

He told the visitors that multiculturalism and bilingualism are given the pride of place at the airport. 

Amougou explained that: “If you look at all the messages posted here, there are in French and English…the airport staff also express themselves in French and English. We've opted to train our staff in both English and French”.

He continued: “Let's just say that we're in the process of improving the use of these two languages in our airport. You'll see for yourself, when you take a look at the circuits, we're running messages in French and English”.

“We want to have a collaboration with the commission to improve our bilingualism,” he hoped. 

Speaking in course of the visit, the head of the Bilingualism Commission delegation, Abbe Jean Marie Bodo, told the airport officials that: “As we said in our introduction, the Commission is continuing its work to promote the law promulgated by the Head of State in 2019. This law ensures that all public entities and even private entities benefiting from State support and subsidies should put into practice the provisions of this law…so that all documents to be issued by these entities, all communications to be made, must be in both languages…it's the law promulgated by the Head of State”. 

Bodo added that: “The commission is there to inform the people in charge of the entities we visit, and also to make sure they know. That's why we distributed this law. We need to see that these entities have actually started to implement it, the recommendations or whatever the law requires them to do in terms of bilingualism”. 

He continued that: “But now that the commission is also concerned with promoting multilateralism, we're urging the leaders of these structures to highlight what's unique to us. Our culture, our values, and also our way of life, because you know, with all the hate speeches and everything we've been through, have weakened national unity. If we talk about bilingualism and multiculturalism, it's so that we can all work for peace and unity in our country”.

Enter Angouing Ndanga Francoise

Taking the cue during the visit, Angouing nee Ndanga Francoise, a member of the delegation, who spoke to newsmen, said: “As already said, it was presented to you that the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism is a strategic advisory body to the Head of State”.

She added that: “…for so doing, we have to go to the field and start evaluating what is going on there as far as official languages are concerned. Once we have been on the field, we have to evaluate what is good and when we do restitution, we present where they are some drawbacks, then we propose which corrective measures can be taken to improve bilingualism in the entity”.

“So, we are here for that purpose today. The prescriptions come to reinforce what or was already integrated in the Constitution as it was said. The Constitution didn't get text of application about the equal value of English and French. Now that we have a law that shows the direction to take, while functioning with both languages, it is our own duty to come to the field and sensitise all managers, all service managers about the application of this law,” she mentioned.

“We have been evaluating the notice boards; what is written on doors, what are the documents produced by the public structures- are those documents written in French and English and what is the fluency of the officials. We check if they are able to express themselves in French and English and if not, we have to give recommendations,” she concluded.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3152 of Friday June 28, 2024