16, February 2022
Who decides if President Biya is unfit to serve? Amougou Belinga 0
In Cameroon, the head of state is not required to pass mental health exams or psychological and psychiatric evaluations even after staying in power for 40 years. No Cameroonian psychologists and members of both the National Assembly and the so-called House of Senate have called for such mental health exams mindful of the fact that President Biya is now 89 years old.
The idea of requiring President Paul Biya to undergo mental health exams is considered a treasonable act. Consequently, there is no panel of physicians who would routinely evaluate the most powerful politician in Cameroon and decide whether his judgment such as the declaration of war against the people of Southern Cameroons was clouded by a mental disability.
This week, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the television channel Vision 4, Amougou Belinga fired Dieudonne Essomba, a senior political analyst who opined that President Paul Biya was no longer fit for office.
The French Cameroun political commentator had been invited to sing the normal CPDM praises on Biya who turned 89. However, the outspoken Dieudonne Essomba instead told the world via Club d’elites that Biya is now unable to lead Cameroon. Essomba furthered “At 89 years old, one cannot manage a country. Biya who is 89 years old is at 25% of his capacity.”
In a statement published by the Groupe L’Anecdote accompanied by Essomba’s picture, Vision 4 said Dieudonne Essomba’s contract had been terminated.
“We would like to advise the public that Dr. Dieudonne Essomba, who was a consultant, in the capacity of guest speaker in Club d’elites, is no longer a member of staff with immediate effect. Vision 4 disassociates itself completely with any statements, be they political or of any other nature, that he has made in the past or may make to the press in the future.”
Vision 4 also removed the video of the Club d’elites program from its face book and YouTube pages.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
18, February 2022
Franck Biya to run for president 0
The ruling CPDM is planning to hold an extraordinary congress of the party that will nominate Franck Biya, the eldest son of the 89-year-old dictator as a presidential candidate, Cameroon Intelligence Report has learnt from a well-placed source in the nation’s capital Yaoundé.
Cameroon, the so-called giant in the Sub Saharan region littered with French backed dictators is one of Africa’s most repressive, corrupt states and little is known about how the Biya Francophone regime makes day-to-day decisions. The country has never held any free and fair vote, and Biya’s next-of-kin will almost certainly face no real opponents in the next presidential election.
The country has no free media, honours President Biya’s acolytes with lucrative political positions and is yet to make any major arrest ever since it was revealed coronavirus funds were siphoned by top government officials including the Prime Minister and Head of Government Joseph Dion Ngute.
Paul Biya who is the country’s president and commander-in-chief since 1982 hardly chairs cabinet meetings but has been Cameroon’s decision-maker for the last 40 years.
His pastimes –holidaying in rural areas in the South of France, long stays at the InterContinental Hotel in Geneva and encouraging internal divisions deep within his ruling party including returning to Cameroon to fill his pocket with tax payer’s money — have made him a curiosity across the globe.
At 89, his followers mainly from his Beti-Ewondo tribal extractions say he is still the right man for the nation’s powerful job.
Franck Biya is currently nothing in Cameroon government’s political chain of command but underneath that nothingness is a young man with a broad influence over the politics and economy that key Biya family allies think is now eligible to run for president.
It is expected that both the political bureau and the congress of the ruling CPDM party will unanimously support the candidacy of Franck Biya for the post of President of Cameroon in the next presidential election.
Recently, he has been boosting his national profile with bereavement visits to his dad’s loyalists in the North and West regions of the country.
Franck Biya’s exposure on media only began to grow after the Biya family invested on the television channel Groupe L’Anecdote headed by Amougou Belinga.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai