Paul Biya is the longest serving president on the African continent, longer than even Yoweri Museveni. He came to power in 1982, when the founding president of that unlucky country, Ahmadou Ahidjo, stepped down after he had presided over his country’s decline since 1960.

There was some drama in that changing of the guard. Ahidjo was not particularly popular with the French, and Biya, his prime minister, looked like he could be more useful. So they cooked up a conspiracy involving telling the president he had a terminal cancer and his days were numbered, and maybe it was proper for him to go to France and live his last days in good care and great comfort.

But once in France, Ahidjo sought a second opinion and discovered that his “cancer” had been a hoax hatched to get rid of him and install Biya in his place. So, he came back home and, simply, demanded that Biya give him his job back. All hell broke loose, Biya saying he was there to stay and Ahidjo mobilising his supporters to fight for him in a brief civil war that killed a few people. Biya managed to keep Ahidjo at bay, and when his former master mounted an unsuccessful putsch, had him arrested, tried and sentenced to death, a sentence which was later commuted to life in prison.

Ruled single-handedly

Since then, Biya has ruled the country single-handedly, and as his age advanced, he got into the habit of staying out of Cameroon, returning only a few times a year to visit and meet and know his ministers.

Over this period, he has not exactly endeared himself to his people, who have coined very nasty sobriquets for him, including “Sphinx,” or “Dinosaur” or even “Mummy.”

So, why did the “Mummy” think that he could go to Paris for the celebration of his 40 years in power? Well, most probably because he thought his country was too backward to provide the kind of décor for such an auspicious occasion. Having lived so much in Europe he possibly did not know a venue in his country that could do the appropriate catering for the feast.

But when he got to the venue of the event in France, he found irate Cameroonians waiting for him, with clubs, knives and crossbars, chanting expletives and punching and kicking members of Biya’s entourage. Among the chants I could catch from the riot were things like, “Celebrating 40 years of what? Murder, looting? Crap!”

While the president was lucky enough to have himself whisked away, there was a fatality in his delegation, reportedly a minister.

To me – and, I daresay, many others, it was clear this old man, who despite his age – he is almost 90— spots jet-black hair, only betrayed by his rickety walk and over-powdered face, tell-tale signs even the vainest of our despots cannot hide – was unaware of his surroundings.

Sycophantic hangers-on

As with most African rulers who have overstayed their welcome, Paul Biya surrounds himself with sycophantic hangers-on who travel with him and keep telling him the things he desperately needs to hear to keep him under the false belief he is still in charge of his country.

Now, in his absence, it is like when the cat is away the mice will play. Well before the fiasco of the president’s anniversary party, in June, his minister back in Cameroon was summoned before a court of law to answer charges of corruption, involving huge defence contracts granted to companies owned by his wife!

So, the former minister appears in court in his dapper, double-breasted suit and looks extremely well-groomed, which is okay for a former minister, I suppose. But to complete the picture of a former minister in touch with the times, the gentleman arrives in court sipping on a coupe of champagne, just to underline what the whole thing was about.

I loved the optics, the spectre of a small Biya doing his thing at home while the big boss is strutting his stuff abroad. It is a case of emulating the leader. In fact, looking at the cheek that this young man was displaying, I had this feeling that he was going to evoke Biya in his defence by saying, “I am only doing what my president is doing, nothing more, nothing less. But it is a sad sign of the times in a country that has a lot of colour.    

The story of Cameroon is much more colourful than an overaged president running a bankrupt country. It is about a people that has been traumatised by extreme poverty, growing threats of terror attacks by Islamist groups afflicting the whole sub region and an absentee government by its president who comes to visit from time to time.

A brief historical study shows us that the man Biya is supposed to have conned into early retirement, Ahidjo, was not even the legitimate freedom fighter who had fought to drive the French out of Cameroon. That role was played by Felix-Roland Moumie, who was assassinated by French intelligence agents in Switzerland in 1960, aged 35. His fault was that he was too much like Patrice-Emery Lumumba of Congo, who was also killed for the same reasons: too anti-west, most likely a communist.          

Such is Africa for you.

Culled from The East African

At 89 years old, one of the oldest leaders in the world, President Paul Biya of Cameroon has marked 40 years as head of state. He assumed office in 1982.

He is the second longest serving leader in Africa. The longest is Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema, in power since 1979.

Cameroon experienced a long spell of political stability under Biya’s iron hand. But this eventually unravelled when an Anglophone rebellion broke out in the south-west and north-west and when radical Islamists entered from Nigeria. Domestic pressure for Biya to accept a transition has also been persistent.

But Biya remains non-committal about relinquishing power in 2025, which would be the end of his current seventh term of office.

What explains Biya’s longevity in office and why is Cameroon unable to marshal a transition?

I am a scholar of democratic studies and regime types in Africa and a commentator on African political developments. I’m interested in why the continent is saddled with ageing presidents who ought to be enjoying their retirement when it desperately needs young, agile and innovative leaders equal to its challenges.

A bright start

Biya succeeded Ahmadou Ahidjo, Cameroon’s president from 1960 to 1982, after his surprise resignation. Ahidjo had been struggling with an economic crisis and widespread corruption. He had superintended a one party state and an exceptional centralisation of power in the presidency.

When Biya became president in 1982, he promised political liberalisation, including democracy, civil and human rights and economic advancement in Cameroon.

For a while, he worked to achieve some of these goals. The country achieved political stability and unity, and relative economic transformation through his “new deal”. There was even a momentary easing of the draconian police state.

But in the late 1990s, there was a gradual halt to political liberalisation, fiscal discipline and government accountability. This happened after the 1984 bloody coup attempt by the Republican Guards.

Biya became increasingly unyielding to political accommodation. First he purged Ahidjo’s faction within the ruling party and eventually he locked out any meaningful challenge to his leadership from within or outside the party. Ultimately though, under external pressure, he agreed to a multiparty dispensation in 1990.

This has gradually and systematically been hollowed out, creating a monolithic system that entrenched Biya in office for the last 40 years.

Biya’s staying power

Cameroon’s politics has long been dominated by Biya’s Rassemblement Démocratique du Peuple Camerounaise, which rebranded from the Cameroon National Union in 1985. It had been the dominant party since 1966. After a formal opening up of the political space to multipartyism, this has gradually been weakened.

There has been a failure of political party institutionalisation. Hundreds of small parties mushroomed – 300 to date, many allegedly secretly bankrolled and controlled by Biya. They provide a façade of democratic competitiveness. In reality, they have weakened legitimate political opposition.

The absence of a united and consolidated opposition has enabled the entrenchment of a dominant party system. The ruling party has a dominant majority in both the National Assembly and the Senate (63 seats of 70). This erodes any chance of genuine checks and balance.

The party has also used electoral mechanics like redrawing boundaries for electoral advantage and in places outright fraud to expand victories and consolidate majorities.

Elections have become little more than a procedural inconvenience, where Biya runs with no possibility of losing.

For instance, in 2004 Biya won with 70.9% of the vote. After the 2008 constitutional revision to remove term limits, he was re-elected with 78% of the vote in 2011.

In 2018, he got 71.28% against his challenger, opposition leader Maurice Kamto.

Biya has created a rent seeking political class that not only does his bidding but keeps him in power with minimum resistance. Cameroon is a leading exporter of timber in Africa and fifth largest cocoa producer in the world.

The country should have enough resources to reduce extreme poverty and underdevelopment. Yet the proceeds are plundered through corruption and to maintain a clientelist network.

Politicians must show allegiance and loyalty to Biya. The alternative is being out in the cold or in jail. Biya has also filled senior positions in the administration, the military and security agencies and the civil service with people from his southern ethnic group. Most notably he has relied on the Rapid Intervention Battalion, a highly trained military commando unit, to ensure the regular army is unable to move against him.

The Anglophone conflict has also enabled Biya to deflect attention from his misrule. The violent conflict has left thousands dead in a civil war against the secessionist English-speaking regions of the country.

Biya, relying on French and recently Russian backers, used the conflict to strengthen his domestic hand and deflect international criticisms.

Another factor is the concentration of power in Cameroon. Nothing substantive gets done without the sign-off of the president. No arm of government or entity of the state has gone unpoliced, including the judiciary: judges are nominated directly by the president.

Simply put, there is no facet of public life untouched by the Biya regime.

Contemplating a post Biya era

The president’s mandate runs out in 2025, at which time he will be 92. While he has shown no signs of exiting the stage, talk of a post Biya era is rising.

Although the ruling party has not held a party congress since 2011, hence dampening the transition debate, there is periodical internal party reorganisation. The president has used it to reward and check potential threats to his supremacy.

Biya’s stewardship has long run its course. Its longevity relies on ruthlessness and political astuteness.

Sadly, the real cost is to the country’s democracy, which has long suffered fissures that can only be healed by political renewal through a change of guard. And this change is one that even Biya can do little to forestall.

Culled from The Conversation

CPDM stalwarts were in Bamenda today to celebrate Biya’s 40 years of incompetence, corruption and arrogance.

Led by the CPDM Secretary-general, Jean Kuete, speakers at the event highlighted what they thought were Mr. Biya’s achievements – indeed his appalling failure – over the last four decades.

But Cameroonians cannot be fooled. The results are there for all to see. The country has been caught up in a downward spiral with corruption becoming the regime’s hallmark.

Since coming to power in 1982, Mr. Biya has legalized corruption. He and his followers hold that nothing can be achieved without corruption. They use money to buy loyalty, corrupt those who criticize the government and imprison those who refuse their bribes.

Cameroon’s jails are full of Mr. Biya’s former collaborators who have embezzled state funds and he and his wife have been involved in many financial scandals which have helped to erode the people’s confidence in the moribund government.

Regarding the economy, Mr. Biya’s government has disappointed millions of Cameroonians. Many had seen him as a savior when he came to power in 1982, but his incompetence has taken the country down the wrong path.

The country’s economy has been in a free fall in decades, spreading pain and death among desperate and hungry Cameroonians.

Millions of Cameroonian youth are without jobs and even those employed are simply eking a living. The country’s civil service is bloated with civil servants finding it hard to make ends meet.

This financial challenge has transformed many civil service workers into   con artists whose main objective of joining the civil service is to line their pockets.

The regime’s failure to create jobs for millions of young Cameroonians has transformed the country into a net exporter of human capital as young Cameroonians look outwards for greener pastures.

Regarding infrastructure development, Cameroon lags behind most African countries in this regard. For forty years, instead of investing in infrastructure which could drive development and create jobs, Mr. Biya and his collaborators have transformed the country’s treasury into their personal ATM.

The country is bereft of roads, hospitals and educational facilities. Mr. Biya has created many primary and secondary schools, but these institutions only exist on paper as there is no modern infrastructure.

For tertiary institutions, there are many of them in Cameroon today, but the quality of training leaves much to be desired.

The country’s state universities have been transformed into brothels where lecturers with very high libido satisfy their sex needs. Young girls are being dehumanized and robbed of their self-esteem by unscrupulous lecturers just because there are no checks in government-run universities.

Some lecturers even demand bribes from their students, especially those seeking to defend their thesis. This unfortunate situation in the country’s state universities truly reflects what is happening in a nation where young girls are asked to have sex with company heads before they can be given jobs.

Today, even young men are required to sleep with unscrupulous employers for them to get hired. Mr. Biya and his bunch of godless, hell-bound and depraved collaborators have made of Cameroon a fertile ground for homosexuality.

Morals have simply taken French leave of the country and there are no signs that they will return even after Biya and his gangsters leave power.

Today’s meeting in Bamenda, the place where the demon-possessed CPDM was created, is indeed a celebration of evil in human form.

Incompetence, corruption and demonic powers have been firmly rooted in the country under Biya and there is no doubt that the CPDM is very pleased with its leader’s abysmal and appalling failure.

By Rita Akana and Fon Lawrence in Bamenda

Cameroon’s 89-year-old president, Paul Biya, on Sunday marks the 40th anniversary of his rise to power amid splashy ceremonies where the word on everyone’s mind — succession — will almost certainly be absent.

The Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (RDPC), which Biya founded in 1985, says it will hold “a big party” up and down the country to mark the anniversary.

The festivities will celebrate “political stability and peace — the biggest successes of these last four decades in Cameroon,” said Herve Emmanuel Nkom, a member of the party’s central committee.

At the RDPC’s headquarters in Messa district, a couple of dozen party members were busy selling caps, scarves, shirts and multi-coloured garments emblazoned with Biya’s face.

“Lots of people come by and look — we get a lot of orders,” said Sylvie Beyala, 42, a party member for 20 years, next to a photo of a beaming Biya and the slogan “Unity, Progress, Democracy.”

The crowning event on Sunday will be a “regional mega-rally” in front of city hall in Yaounde, the capital, but no word has emerged as to whether Biya himself will attend.

The anniversary bash aims to divert attention away from “the crucial question,” said Stephane Akoa, a professor and researcher in political science.

“It’s not whether Cameroon is doing well or could be doing better, but how the president is,” he said.

Biya rose to the top job on November 6 1982 after seven years as prime minister.

He is only the second president in Cameroon’s history since the central African nation gained independence from France. He is also the continent’s longest-serving leader after Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who seized power in 1979.

– Wily leader –

Commentators ascribe Biya’s extraordinary political longevity to a mixture of astuteness and ruthlessness — he has a constellation of loyalists in key positions and crushes or sidelines opponents and rivals.

But his public outings, except for a few choreographed TV appearances, have become rarer and rarer in recent years, stoking speculation about his health.

Any official talk of succession is taboo, and none of the most visible figures around Biya has publicly uttered a word about entertaining any wish to succeed him.

“Ministers have fallen into disgrace just for thinking about a theoretical departure of the president,” said Aimee Raoul Sumo Tayo, a defence and security specialist on Cameroon.

“Mr. Biya has put the saying ‘divide and rule’ into practice… forces which could have challenged him for power have been unable to get organised and, even less so, unify,” said Akoa.

Even so, conversations about a successor are rife.

Those most commonly named are Biya’s son, Franck Biya, and Finance Minister Louis-Paul Motaze. The younger Biya already has a discreet following among supporters called “Franckists.”

Another name in the mix is that of Biya’s right-hand man, the presidency’s chief of staff, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh.

Reputed to have the backing of Biya’s influential wife, Chantal Biya, Ngoh Ngoh has been the longest-serving chief of staff in the presidency’s tenure.

He wields extensive de-facto authority through executive powers that have been delegated by Biya and, like his boss, also has his supporters in senior jobs, said Akoa.

– All-eclipsing debate –

“No (potential) candidate enjoys unanimity,” said Akoa, adding that the succession debate “eclipses all other concerns, such as strategies for health, education and infrastructure.”

The jockeying for power has been intensified by Cameroon’s weak mechanisms for handing on presidential power in an emergency, said Sumo Tayo.

If the president becomes unable to continue in office, presidential authority is handed down in the interim to the speaker of the Senate — currently 88-year-old Marcel Nial Njifenji, whose health is at least as much a concern as that of Biya.

The scenario stokes “the probability that certain parts of the army may intervene,” said Sumo Tayo.

Military leaders appointed by Biya may fear their privileges will be at threat once he exits the scene, which increases the risk of turbulence, he suggested.

Culled from AFP

Cameroon’s government and its supporters are holding events this week ahead of celebrations Sunday marking President Paul Biya’s 40 years in power. Meanwhile, opposition parties are holding rallies calling for the 89-year-old Biya, the world’s oldest head of state, to change what they say are unfair election laws.

On Thursday in Nanga Eboko on the outskirts of the capital city of Yaoundé, supporters of Biya sang that Cameroon has remained one, undivided and prosperous despite the numerous challenges the central African state has faced since Biya became president in 1982.

The singing and dancing was part of week-long activities marking the 40th anniversary of Biya’s rule.

Biya’s Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, or CPDM, said it dispatched party officials to towns and villages to organize conferences and mobilize more support for the 89-year-old leader who, it said, has achieved a lot for the country.

Elvis Ngolle Ngolle is one of Biya’s close collaborators in the ruling party. He says freedom is top among the things Biya should be credited for and that “every citizen can express themselves in any way they want.”

He says that under Biya’s rule, Cameroon has enhanced women’s rights and vastly improved its education system. “In 1982, we had one state university,” Ngolle Ngolle said. “Today we have more than 11 state universities and hundreds of private university institutes. Incredible in 40 years.”

Ngolle Ngolle says Biya has stayed in power this long because a majority of Cameroonians love and always vote for him.

However, opposition political parties accuse Biya of rigging elections for decades, and wanting to stay in power until he dies.

The Cameroon Renaissance Movement, led by Maurice Kamto, says Kamto won the October 2018 presidential election and that the victory was stolen from him.

Another party, the Social Democratic Front, has joined the CRM in asking civilians not to attend anniversary celebrations to protest Biya’s long stay in power.

Christopher Ndong, the CRM’s secretary-general, said Biya shows no signs of giving up the presidency and that, “Cameroonians are aggrieved because of him.”

“The opposition political parties want him to revise the electoral code, making sure the next president of this country should be democratically elected,” Ndong said. “Cameroonians now want a democratically elected president.”

Ndong said many of Biya’s supporters have resigned from the ruling party and joined the opposition CRM during the anniversary event.

The ruling CPDM acknowledges that it has some internal leadership wrangling but has provided no details.

Loic Kankeu, a lecturer of public law at the University of Yaoundé, said Biya’s absence from conferences aimed at drumming up support indicates the aging ruler is tired. He added that many CPDM supporters want Biya to leave but fear reprisals if they express their views in public.

According to Kankeu, Jean Nkuete, the secretary general of the CPDM party, acknowledged during a meeting with decentralized CPDM party structures this week that leadership squabbles are tearing the party apart. He said malaise within the CPDM is pushing supporters and disgruntled CPDM leaders in many Cameroonian towns and villages to cross over to the opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement party of Maurice Kamto.

Biya’s supporters are calling on the octogenarian to run for president again in 2025 while the opposition is asking him to hand over power to a younger leader. On July 30, during a visit to Cameroon by French President Emmanuel Macron, Biya said he still has time to decide if he will run again.

Source: VOA

Separatist leaders flown into Canada from Nigeria to attend the Canada talks have agreed to continue talking with other faction leaders in order to give peace a chance.

Some three fighters who obtained their visas from the Canadian embassy in Abuja said they had been mandated by the fighters on Ground Zero to represent them at the talks which recently ended in Canada.

Asked if they had been bought over by the government of Cameroon, the separatist leader who spoke to Cameroon Concord News correspondent, Chi Prudence Asong, on condition of anonymity, said that he and his colleagues had not received any assistance from the Yaoundé government.

He added that their visa process had been facilitated by the talks organizers, stressing that he and his fellow fighters were returning to Nigeria and then to Southern Cameroons to update their colleagues on the ground on the way forward.

He said their bills including air tickets, visa fees and per diem were taken care of by talk organizers who had contacted them months before.

As to why some other factions were not represented, the separatist fighter stressed that those invited to the talks were people who hold that talking with other factions was the way forward.

He said Sako Ikome and Chris Anu had not been invited because they did not really represent anybody.

“Chris Anu only represents himself. He has recently been installed as the chairman of an IG faction which has no following. He has ruined his reputation and nobody in the international community has confidence in him. He has stolen lots of money and he now spends most of his time dancing and enjoying himself in the USA,” the fighter pointed out.

“For Sako Ikome, it is clear that his ambition is to keep power and not to unite the people of Southern Cameroons. His name keeps popping up wherever there are issues of embezzlement and this is hurting our cause. A true leader should be above all of those little accusations. Many young men and women have lost their lives because of this struggle and it is indeed shameful that those who have been working hard to grab power from Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe have been doing so just to steal much-needed resources,” he added.

“We cannot continue to project such people as our leaders when they cannot live up to our expectations. Julius Ayuk Tabe remains our leader and we hold that talking with leaders of other factions could result in the liberation of many of our people who have been held in jails in East Cameroon for a long time,” he pointed out.

“We want Julius Ayuk Tabe and his colleagues to be liberated. They were our best leaders. The government of Yaoundé had its representatives at the talks and some participants argued that freeing Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and his close collaborators would be the first step towards sustainable and meaningful peace,” the angry fighter pointed out.

“We have been told that there will be more talks and that the just-ended talks were designed to serve as the first in a series of negotiations which are expected to lead to a peaceful settlement,” he said.

“Though no concrete agreements were reached, it is becoming clear that most Southern Cameroonians are gradually accepting that a federal system will bring peace to our country. I have seen the way Canada is developed and organized and I think a federal administration based on the Canadian system may help address most issues plaguing Cameroon,” he said.

“We are looking forward to further talks which will help to end the bloodshed. We have lost many young men and we are out of financial resources to continue fighting. Ever since Sako and Chris Anu made the embezzlement of resources their main goal of being involved in the struggle, things have not been the same. We need huge amounts of money to turn things around. But this cannot happen when Sako and Chris Anu are permanently at each other’s throat,” he pointed out.

“I am heading back to Nigeria satisfied that it is possible to bring about peace in Cameroon through negotiations. This is my first time of leaving Africa and I must say that peace is vital for political and economic development efforts to be sustainable,” he pointed out.

“We must continue to talk though while keeping Yaoundé troops at bay. They have killed our people, raped our women, but fighting forever will not address the issues. We must make peace but we must not throw ourselves into the hands of the enemy. The Yaoundé government cannot be trusted but if we work with international actors, we will be able to come up with a peace plan which will make it easy for us to live in peace with our brothers east of the Mungo,” he concluded.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The chairman of Cameroon’s election management body (ELECAM), Abrams Enow Egbe, recently held talks with the delegate general for national security, Martin Mbarga Nguele, on clearing the many blockages that stand in the way of digital ID card issuance in the country.

The national identity card is a compulsory ID credential for those of voting age to participate in the electoral process in Cameroon, but obtaining the ID in the Central African nation has become a nightmare for millions, with many waiting up to two years to get the credential.

The talks, which took place 10 October, were part of a series of consultation meetings that ELECAM has held with different stakeholders in past weeks with the aim of gathering opinions and suggestions on how to better organize the next cycle of elections coming up between 2023 and 2025.

Cameroon has national assembly and presidential elections in 2025, but before then, in 2023, a new senate has to be voted in.

Enow Egbe told reporters that apart from discussing how the ID issuing authority (known by the abbreviation DGSN) can clear the backlog of ID card applications, it is important for Cameroonians who have not withdrawn their cards from police stations to visit such stations to check whether their credentials are already available for collection. People apply for the document at their closest police station accredited within the scheme and then collect the finished card there.

“The main focus of our discussion was on the obtention of the national identity card. Many Cameroonians are complaining that they are unable to obtain their cards. We got clear and precise information from the delegate general who assured us that all will be done for citizens to get the national ID card,” said Enow Egbe.

“However, we want to inform Cameroonians to first go and check out their ID cards from the different police stations where they applied for them. There are many of the cards abandoned there. They have to collect them because they need it to register for elections.”

It is worth mentioning that the national identity card is crucial at two major stages of the electoral process in Cameroon. It is a requirement at the time of enrolling on the electoral register, and then for identity verification at the time of voting at polling stations. Cameroon does not yet use biometrics for voter verification.

The call by ELECAM for the DGSN to rush ID production has been hailed as necessary as it comes at a time when problems with delivery of the cards in the country have reached strange and disturbing proportions.

Recently, many citizens have been expressing their frustration with the process, asking why previously-announced plans to overhaul the current ID system have stalled.

There have also been testimonies in local media, seen by Biometric Update, from citizens confessing to paying bribes from between XAF50,000 (US$74) to XAF 500,000 (US$740) to obtain the document within a few days.

Source: Biometric Update

To tackle complaints of discrimination against English speakers, Cameroon’s President Paul Biya has ordered officials to enforce a 2019 law on bilingualism and make life easier for English speakers in the French-speaking majority country.

The sense of marginalization among the English-speaking minority in Cameroon sparked a separatist conflict that, since 2017, has left more than 3,500 people dead. Earlier this week, civilians assembled at the city council in the country’s capital Yaoundé to complain about difficulties they encounter in public offices because they speak only one of the central African state’s two official languages. Civilians who fled the fighting in western Cameroon between troops and separatists say they often face discrimination in public offices when speaking English.

A December 2019 law states that French and English have the same value and should be used equally in public offices, and says Cameroonians should be able to express themselves in either language. But according to officials dispatched to enforce the bilingualism law, people reportedly abuse public office by refusing to attend to civilians who speak either in English or French.

The Cameroon president is said to no longer tolerate French-speaking workers imposing the French language on English-speaking citizens, and English-speaking workers should also be patient when they receive French speakers in public offices. After educating citizens on the importance of the two languages co-existing peacefully, the government is now ordering Cameroonians who do not speak the two languages to register in language schools. Signboards written in one language are being pulled down and replaced.

Culled from North Africa Post

Although ‘Franckists’ are not very well organised, they nevertheless manage to make themselves heard. Who are they and why do they want Franck Biya, the son of Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, to come to power one day?

The text has the feel of a religious sermon. Published on Facebook on 24 September, it speaks about the “sacred union of hearts” and the need to keep “the flame of peace and unity lit”. The name of its author attracts more attention than even the content of the text, which evokes “the Cameroon [we] would like to teach our children”. For Mohamed Rahim Noumeu is none other than the founder of the Mouvement Citoyen des Franckistes pour la Paix et l’Unité du Cameroun, MCFPU, (Citizens movement of Franckists for the peace and unity of Cameroon)

‘A man with a divine destiny’

The term “franckists” refers to men and women who support 51-year-old Franck Biya, the only son of Jeanne-Irène, who died in 1992. They openly express their hope of seeing him succeed his father, Paul Biya, as soon as the latter steps down from the position he has held for nearly 40 years.

Borrowing expressions from the Gospel, the MCFPU behaves like the political party it is not, without paying much attention to those who accuse it of wanting to transform the Cameroonian Republic into a monarchy governed by a law of dynastic succession. After all, its members see Franck Biya as “a providential man with a divine destiny”.

The MCFPU is the main one of the so-called Franckist movements. It has existed since 2013 and, for a long time, its activities were limited to posting on a Facebook group. Franck Biya’s return to Cameroon in 2020 has given it a certain prominence. Previously removed from his father’s business, the eldest Biya child is now one of the head of state’s advisors. He has set up an office at the Etoudi Palace, from where he manages the dossiers that the president has entrusted to him.

Does he hope to succeed him? The question is now being asked, even though the main person concerned has not answered it and has neither welcomed nor rejected these overflowing expressions of affection. This cleverly maintained vagueness has also thrown 52-year-old Noumeu into the spotlight. Many see his movement as a tool that can be used to gauge public reaction in the event that Franck Biya becomes a candidate.

Signs and banners

Little concerned until now by the activism of this Cameroonian living in the US, the Etoudi palace began to pay special attention to him when France’s Emmanuel Macron visited Yaoundé last July. The Franckists hoped to take advantage of the French president’s visit to make themselves heard. They had even planned to deploy activists, placards and banners along the route that Macron was meant to take through the heart of the capital.

But things didn’t go as planned. Other organisations showing their support for Franck Biya entered the fray. Anxious to ensure that the cacophony would not disrupt the official programme, the Cameroonian presidency’s civil cabinet asked the security forces to silence them.

Five hours before Macron’s plane landed on the tarmac, the police took action. Commissioner Messanga, head of the Territorial Security branch at Nsimalen airport, and the Yaoundé central commissioner had banners and placards seized.

About 20 activists were arrested and placed in police custody. An investigation was opened and entrusted to the Directorate of General Intelligence. Police officers conducted a series of interrogations over three days and tried to unravel the web of this intriguing phenomenon.

Constellation

In addition to the MCFPU, there is the Réseau National des Jeunes Acquis à Franck Emmanuel Biya pour la Paix et la Stabilité au Cameroun (National network of youth in support of Franck Emmanuel Biya for peace and stability in Cameroon) , headed by Garba Aboubakar, as well as the Mouvement des Febistes (Febist movement) and the Rassemblement Républicain des Franckistes du Cameroun, RRFC (Republican Assembly of Cameroon’s Franckists).

There is not one Franckist organisation, but rather groups that are independent of each other.

Not to mention the Mouvement Citoyen pour la Paix et l’Unité  (Citizen’s movement for peace and unity) and the Mouvement Citoyen pour l’Émergence (Citizen’s movement for emergence) – both founded by MCFPU defectors. There is even a second MCFPU, which bears the exact same name as Noumeu’s movement, but is instead led by a certain Alain Fidèle Owona. The Réseau National des Jeunes Musulmans, which supports Franck Biya, is the latest addition to the political landscape.

“There is not one Franckist organisation, but rather groups that are independent of each other,” says Bertrand Ndzana, a member of the RRFC. “What brings us together is the desire to see the president’s son in power. Some see him as a kind of new version of Paul Biya, who will be able to preserve the values [that his father defended]. Others want to keep or obtain an enviable position,’ he adds frankly. The RRFC makes no secret of the fact that it is based in Ebolowa, in the southern region where Biya is from.

“The profusion of support movements for a figure, especially for one that is close to power, is nothing new,” says someone familiar with local political life. “Before the Franckists, we saw organisations such as Jachabi (Jeunesse Active pour Chantal Biya) and Presby (Jeunesse de Paul Biya) dominate the landscape, then disappear. Today, Franck Biya arouses such interest because the matter of succession has not been resolved.”

The hand of an influential minister?

Is Franckism a spontaneous phenomenon or is the hand of an ambitious man behind this sudden enthusiasm? In Yaoundé, some people, speaking on condition of anonymity, have linked this movement to an influential minister from the South who, in the clan war that is tearing Yaoundé apart, would like to tip the balance in favour of the South and the Bulus.

This clan revolves around Samuel Mvondo Ayolo, the director of the presidency’s civil cabinet, Bonaventure Mvondo Assam, a nephew of the head of state, and Franck Biya himself. This clan’s fiercest opponents include many people from the eastern region, the first lady Chantal Biya and the presidency’s secretary-general Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh.

“When we look at the career of some Franckists, we may have some doubts about the sincerity of their activism,” said the source. “In the past, Mohamed Rahim Noumeu was, for example, a fervent supporter of the singer Lapiro from Mbanga, a virulent critic of Paul Biya. Today, he finds himself on the side of power… And he is far from being the only one.”

How far will the Franckists go? Although the activists arrested during Macron’s visit have been released, the Cameroonian services are now keeping an eye on them. Paul Atanga Nji, the minister of territorial administration, demands that these organisations be legalised before they are allowed to carry out any activity.

The licence issued to the RRFC has been cancelled as a result of this pressure. “In the Cameroonian context, the legal recognition of political associations remains an exclusive prerogative of the territorial administration,” Sylyac Marie Mvogo, the prefect of Mvila (South), said in a statement. It will undoubtedly take more to discourage the Franckists, who are aware that their champion was officially presented to Macron on 26 July.

Culled from The Africa Report