The French President is the defacto Commander-in-Chief of the Cameroonian Armed Forces 0

Biya has been president of Cameroun since  Ahmadu Ahidjo handed over power to him. He has been on the saddle for 35 years. He has survived many coups and  many sham elections. He has left Cameroun rural, desolate.  But no one cites him as an example of a political  tragedy.  Mugabe is the  African tragedy. Biya spends months on end holidaying in Switzerland. But the western press leaves him in his peace. No one is intent on bringing him down in the name of democracy.

Biya has repressed  political opponents. Biya has supervised genocidal incursions into the English speaking parts of Southern Cameroon.  But nobody thinks of Biya and remembers the  ICC. France is the nanny of Cameroun. But that apostle of freedom and rule of law would not open her mouth and tell President  Biya to step down. The French president is the defacto commander-in-chief of the Cameroonian Armed Forces.  But he won’t nudge the army to do a Zimbabwe in Cameroon.

Western news media celebrated crowds on the streets screaming obscenities at a Mugabe held down by the army. But western media won’t call on France to tell the  Camerounian army to hold down Biya so the party in Harare  can move to  Yaounde. Biya can remain on the throne. France is happy with him. He  can junket around the  European Union. He can loot the Camerounian treasury and stash it in France and Switzerland. If he challenges French authority then his sins will come to the fore and he would become a demon. We are happy Mugabe has gone. But the West must let go of its stinking hypocrisy. It is more abhorrent, more tyrannical, than Mugabe’s  despotism.

 

Source: The Vanguard