The resounding meaning of the message behind the persistent warning by the president of the Confederation of African Football, CAF, has no other interpretation other than that Cameroon stands the risk of losing its hosting rights to an alternative choice.
But we in this Newspaper see this development not as a total condemnation of Cameroon’s efforts, but a gesture of goodwill on the part of CAF, which is bent on protecting its image. CAF president, Ahmad Ahmad simply told the Cameroonian authorities, that time seems to be running out on them. We can see clearly, Ahmad Ahmad’s fears as expressed at the CAF 40th ordinary general assembly held in Casablanca recently, based on reports of an inspection delegation to Cameroon that the country is still falling short of expectation. To quote Ahmad Ahmad: ‘’Between the inspection reports and the specifications, there’s still a deficit.’’ On the basis of this Cameroon was advised to step up its efforts if it really means business.
What, however, remains unexplained by the Cameroonian authorities is the reason for this last minute preparations, when in actual fact, Cameroon was informed well ahead of time, that is, almost five years ago, and the authorities were fully aware that Cameroon had been chosen to host the 2019 tournament. The government may make claims that they have in more than one occasion succeeded in meeting with such emergency situations, by applying the ‘’dying minute’’ formula. The Women AFCON competition which we hosted in 2016 was not altogether a success. There were loopholes which CAF seemed to have overlooked, presumably for the fact that a Cameroonian was at the time the man at the helm of that African football governing body. Cameroon experienced deficit in infrastructure, poor water supply system, hotel and recreational facilities etc.
Under the present circumstance, it is pertinent to mention that the multiple delegations that were assigned by CAF to carry out the inspection and validation of the preparedness of Cameroon to host the tournament were lavished with such pleasantries that set their minds away from some of the loopholes that plagued certain areas that would have testified in favour of Cameroon’s preparedness. This therefore eclipsed the process of the delegation’s mission. This time, however, we shall only be doing this country, as well as millions of its football lovers, a disservice, if we fail to re-echo the CAF warning. The truth is that the risk of losing the hosting opportunity to another bidder is real, not imagined.
For instance, a few days ago, it was alleged that Ahmad Ahmad dispatched a delegation to Morrocco. It is just too obvious that if this is the situation, it must be in connection with Morrocco’s burning wish to host the tournament and this will depend largely on the least error that Cameroon should commit in the process of its preparedness. The truth is that by all indications, Morrocco is fully prepared to host the tournament . It is only waiting to see where Cameroon will be declared strategically unprepared.
Let us also bear in mind that Cameroon no longer bears the same weight it carried in CAF as we used to, in the days of Issa Hayatou. Ahmad Ahmad, like most leaders who rise to power, may be itching to set his own record and build a new image for CAF. He may wish to stick to the smallest irregularity on the part of Cameroon to justify his stand to keep CAF’s image clean and high. Cameroon should therefore not play into the premises of such a contention.
Perhaps most convincing to the world at large is the security situation of the country on which CAF may justifiably hang. The insecurity of life and property in the country, particularly in the two Anglophone regions is an issue that CAF is likely to portray to the world as a mad risk for the African Football governing body to engage itself in. The city of Limbe in the South West region being one of the venues for the tournament, may no longer attract the support of the organizers on account of the military option which the government has taken to resolve the Anglophone problem. There is no doubt that a prestigious African tournament such as this deserves all what is necessary to provide security. For the moment this seems far-fetched considering the huge military presence in the region, supported by evidence of killings and the burning of whole villages.
Besides, all what we have mentioned about Cameroon’s preparedness to host the tournament, there is also the pertinent issue of internet connection that will give the tournament it’s full exposure to the continent and the outside word. The two Anglophone regions have suffered internet disconnection for long periods due to the on-going crisis. It was only re-connected when a delegation of CAF came to Cameroon. But even since then, internet service has not been functioning well enough at least in this part of the country.
Having said all this, we still strongly believe that Ahmad Ahmad’s warning is not a curse, but a blessing. All the government needs to do is to double its efforts to meet the deadline and to address the security situation in the country.