Paul Biya’s 50 Days in Switzerland: The long goodbye to an era ⁰

For more than four decades, President Paul Biya has defied predictions of his political demise. He has outlasted rivals, survived crises and maintained an iron grip on Cameroon through a system built on centralized authority and carefully managed succession. Yet politics is often defined not by dramatic events, but by prolonged absences that expose uncomfortable realities. Biya’s record 50-day stay in Switzerland is one such moment.

Whether the official explanations are accepted or not by the people of Cameroon, the extraordinary length of Biya’s absence has inevitably fueled questions about his health, his ability to govern and the future of the Cameroonian state. In any functioning democracy, such questions would be answered with transparency. Instead, Cameroonians have been left with rumors, speculation and official denials from Biya acolytes that have done little to dispel uncertainty.

The issue is no longer simply where President Biya is. The issue is what his prolonged absence says about the state of power in Cameroon.

For decades, Biya’s authority rested on the perception that he alone embodied the state. That image becomes increasingly difficult to sustain when the country’s leader spends weeks away from the seat of government while critical national decisions continue to accumulate. Even if the machinery of government continues to function, prolonged physical absence inevitably raises doubts about who is truly making decisions and how power is being exercised behind closed doors.

History shows that the twilight of long-serving leaders is often marked not by a formal resignation, but by a gradual erosion of their political presence. Authority shifts quietly before power changes hands officially. Ministers become more cautious. Political allies begin calculating the future. Ambitious successors position themselves discreetly. The conversation moves from loyalty to succession. Cameroon increasingly appears to be entering that phase.

The government’s insistence that everything is normal has not prevented widespread speculation. If anything, the absence of clear communication has amplified it. In the age of instant information, silence rarely reassures. Instead, it creates space for competing narratives that undermine public confidence.

No one outside the president’s closest circle can state with certainty the full circumstances surrounding his stay in Switzerland. It is therefore important to distinguish between verified facts and speculation. But one fact is undeniable: a president who has remained away from his country for an unprecedented period inevitably invites questions about continuity, governance and succession.

For a leader who has ruled Cameroon for more than four decades, this may well be remembered as the moment when the country collectively began contemplating the post-Biya era—not because an official announcement was made but because events spoke louder than words.

Political endings rarely arrive with fanfare. They emerge gradually, as confidence fades, uncertainty grows and the symbolism of power begins to outweigh its exercise. Biya’s prolonged stay abroad has become more than a personal matter; it has become a national political event.

Whether President Paul Biya ultimately returns to Yaoundé or not, his record stay in Switzerland may come to symbolize the beginning of the end of one of Africa’s longest presidential tenures. The transition may not happen today or even this year, but the aura of permanence that once surrounded his rule appears increasingly fragile.

For Cameroon, the more pressing question is no longer whether the Biya era will end. It is whether the country is prepared for what comes after.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai