By Amaury Hauchard

MAROUA Cameroon —

“It was as if time stood still,” said an exuberant announcer as Cameroon’s President Paul Biya landed in the country’s north to kick-off campaigning ahead of next week’s polls.

He was in the town of Maroua on Saturday for the first time in six years, drumming up support ahead of voting on Oct. 7 when the 85-year-old will seek a seventh term.

The polls will be held to an unprecedented backdrop of violence, as clashes continue in the country’s separatist anglophone regions and Boko Haram fighters continue to threaten Cameroon’s northeast — including Maroua.

“We are proud that he is here, proud that he thinks of us,” said a pro-Biya activist who wore a blue and white pagne print smock emblazoned with the president’s face.

Nearby, a local leader wearing a pagne outfit in the presidential colors jumped with joy and took the hand of the man beside him as the president made his way down the red carpet.

“It is with barely concealed joy that we are covering this event,” a journalist for the state CRTV broadcaster told his audience emphatically.

The visit of Biya and a dozen of his ministers who come from the poor, under-developed region, was held amid tight security and only announced days ahead of the event.

‘Paul Biya is our pilot’

But in the Maroua-3 area of town, youngsters promised 3,000 CFA francs ($5.20, 4.5 euros) to help clean up the town ahead of the VIP arrival received little more than half that.

“So now they’re on strike,” sighed one of the event organizers, visibly frustrated with the clean-up effort in the town which was adorned with Biya’s signature blue.

On Friday night the main opposition party Social Democratic Front’s candidate Joshua Osih staged a night-time public meeting in the town.

But it attracted just a few hundred supporters — a far cry from the vast production staged by “Team Biya”.

Minibuses covered in Biya posters began to flow into the town from as early as Friday, bringing thousands of pro-government supporters on dilapidated roads from across the region and beyond.

“I came from Ngaoundere to transport the supporters — the RDPC paid,” said one of the many drivers in Maroua referring to his town 500 km (310 miles) away from Saturday’s event.

Another man added that “his uncle’s minibus was requisitioned to transport the activists”.

All of the Biya supporters who spoke to AFP said that the aim of the event was to shore-up the president’s voting base in a region that was solidly behind the ruling party in 2011. — AFP