Officially, Franck Biya, the son of Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, has no political ambitions. As discreet as he is influential with his father, he has made efforts to surround himself with childhood friends and relatives, most of whom have economic or financial backgrounds.

Franck Biya has never run for political office and does not appear in any official organisation chart. However, he regularly finds himself on the front page of Cameroonian newspapers, which tend to view him as a potential successor to his father, 88-year-old Paul Biya, who has served as Cameroon’s president since 1982 and is the leader of the powerful Rassemblement Démocratique du Peuple Camerounais (RDPC).

49-year-old Biya is nevertheless careful not to reveal any of his intentions. He is very discreet as he avoids the media and has never given an interview. Biya’s entourage is also careful to deny any rumours about his political ambitions.

A movement called the “Friends of Franck Biya” began in Cameroon and spread throughout the diaspora. What is its objective? To support the 2025 presidential candidacy of the eldest son of Paul and Jeanne Irene Biya (who died in July 1992).

Some view it as a test run, as a means of gauging public opinion. Others see it as a means of exerting pressure on this businessman who has so far shown little interest in public affairs.

In Central Africa, family successions are a regular occurrence. For example, in neighbouring Gabon, Ali Bongo Ondimba took over from his father, Omar.

And in Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the country’s vice-president and Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and Constancia Mangue Nsue Okomo’s son, is biding his time.

Although he has always stayed out of the spotlight, Biya has not hesitated to use his influence with his father to promote members of his mother’s family to prominent government positions.

Robert Nkili, who served as minister of labour and transport between 2002 and 2015, is his mother’s younger brother and Louis-Paul Motaze, the current finance minister, is his cousin. Both owe their positions to Biya.

The latter also serves as a gateway to the head of state. For instance, Biya invited Yannick Noah to the president’s birthday celebration on 13 February. The former tennis champion, whose real estate project – “La Cité des Cinquantenaires” in Yaoundé – is entangled in bureaucratic red tape, was able to plead his case in between glasses of orange juice.

One of the reasons why Franck Biya has remained under the radar for so long is that he left Cameroon in the 1990s to study in Los Angeles. He then moved to South Africa and France, where he lived until March 2020, when he returned to Cameroon just before the country’s first Covid-19 lockdown.

In each of these countries, Franck Biya has taken care to live in a tight-knit circle, surrounded by childhood friends and relatives who are mostly technocrats with an economist profile or working in finance.

For example, he met Modeste Mopa Fatoing, the director-general of the tax department, through Alamine Ousmane Mey, a mutual friend. In South Africa, he rubbed shoulders with Acha Leke, who has been a member of McKinsey’s Shareholders’ Council since May 2020.

Now based in Yaoundé, he is close to Samuel Mvondo Ayolo, the director of the head of state’s civil cabinet, and Paul Elung Che, the deputy secretary-general of the presidency. This 52-year-old English-speaking man, who trained at Enam and Harvard, was the head of the Caisse de Stabilisation des Produits Pétroliers et des Hydrocarbures (CSPH).

After a stormy beginning, his relationship with his father’s wife, Chantal, has calmed down. On the other hand, relations with his cousin, Bonaventure Mvondo Assam, a former deputy and ex-partner in the Compagnie Forestière Assam (Cofa), have become more tenuous.

However, many people make up Franck Biya’s inner circle. Listed below are some of the most prominent ones.

Ghislain Samou Nguewo

Aged 44, he is one of Biya’s closest collaborators. An economics graduate from the University of Yaoundé II, Ghislain Samou Nguewo took over the board of directors of Boissons Vins et Spiritueux (BVS) in February 2019. This agro-industry was launched by Guillaume Sarra and his wife Virginie Palu-Sarra, the latter whom is French industrialist Pierre Castel’s niece.

Based in Douala, the company is managed by Stéphane Soumahoro, former Ivorian president Robert Gueï’s son.

Christian Mataga

Christian Mataga is the son of Philippe Mataga, a former ambassador and ex-director of Paul Biya’s civil cabinet. Philippe Mataga also previously served as President Biya’s minister of labour and foreign affairs. The two men are so close that Paul Biya agreed to be Christian’s godfather.

Biya considers this finance graduate from the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne as his own brother. Mataga runs the Société Commerciale Industrielle et Forestière (Scifo), which specialises in the production, processing and marketing of tropical wood species from concessions granted by the Cameroonian Ministry of Forests.

Alamine Ousmane Mey

The current finance minister is a long-time friend of Ghislain Samou Nguewo, who introduced him to Biya. Alamine Ousmane Mey trained at the RWTH Aachen University in Aachen, Germany, served as director-general of Afriland First Bank, the second largest bank in the country, and then – on Franck Biya’s recommendation – became President Biya’s minister of finance.

In the latest government reshuffle, Mey moved from managing the finance portfolio to the economic one, swapping with Louis-Paul Motaze.

Serge Akounou

One of Biya’s childhood friends, Serge Akounou followed him to the US, where the president’s son pursued his university studies. He received an MBA in Finance from the UCLA Anderson School of Management in California and returned to Cameroon to work for the local branches of Standard Chartered Bank and City Bank before moving to Gauteng, in the Johannesburg region of South Africa.

However, their friendship is reportedly going through a rough patch. Perhaps this is because Akounou is the son of Gervais Mendo Ze, a former director-general of Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV) and former minister of communication, who has been imprisoned since 12 November 2014.

Culled from The Africa Report

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday exchanged congratulations with Cameroonian President Paul Biya on the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

In his message, Xi said that over the past half a century since the establishment of their diplomatic ties, China and Cameroon has been standing side by side through thick and thin, and the traditional friendship between the two countries has grown stronger with time.

In recent years, the friendly cooperative relations between the two countries have enjoyed a strong momentum of development with deepening political mutual trust and fruitful results in practical cooperation, Xi said.

The two countries have understood and supported each other on issues concerning each other’s core interests and major concerns, and have coordinated closely in international and regional affairs, he noted.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, China has been working with Cameroon and other African countries to help and support each other in fighting the epidemic, which demonstrated the brotherly friendship between China and Africa that shares weal and woe, Xi said.

Xi emphasized that he attaches great importance to the development of China-Cameroon relations.

He expressed the willingness to work with Biya to take the opportunity of the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic ties to implement the outcomes of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and enhance their joint efforts to build the Belt and Road, so as to benefit the two countries and peoples and to make positive contributions to forging a closer China-Africa community with a shared future.

In his message, Biya said for a long time, with the efforts of the heads of state of the two countries, the friendly cooperative relations between Cameroon and China, which are mutually-beneficial and win-win, have been fruitful and continuously consolidated.

The fruits of cooperation between the two countries have made great contributions to enhancing the Cameroonian people’s well-being and helping Cameroon achieve national modernization, Biya said.

Noting the Chinese leadership is far-sighted and the Chinese people are diligent and brave, the Cameroonian president said China has become a significant force on the international stage.

What is even more encouraging is that China has been attaching importance to South-South cooperation and supporting African countries in achieving development and vitalization, Biya said.

On the occasion of grand celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries, Biya said he wishes Cameroon-China cooperation becoming closer with a broader prospect to better benefit the two peoples.

Source: China.org

Will new US President Joe Biden change the situation in Yaoundé? Opposition leader Maurice Kamto certainly hopes so. However, Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, who intends to maintain his relationship with the US, hopes that it will not interfere in Cameroonian affairs.

On 19 January – in front of US senators – Antony Blinken was sworn in as US secretary of state. Delaware Democrat Chris Coons asked him about Africa. Blinken replied, saying that “I share your concerns about the recent elections held in Uganda and Cameroon, especially the violence directed against the English-speaking population.”

President Paul Biya’s balancing act

He added that “there are a whole series of places where I think the United States can help make a difference.” Blinken – who is already familiar with Morocco, Djibouti, Nigeria and South Africa – has for years been in favour of a stronger partnership between the US and Africa.

In a speech broadcast on 7 February at the 34th African Union summit, US President Joe Biden echoed this sentiment saying that “America is back. [We will work] to renew our role in international institutions and regain our credibility and moral authority.”

But what form will this turn of events take? As soon as Biden was elected, Cameroonian opposition leader Maurice Kamto welcomed the news. Congratulating the Democrat, he wrote that “The United States is proving that democracy and democratic institutions matter. So does political change. I look forward to working with the Biden administration on a new path for Cameroon.”

A diplomat in Yaoundé adds that “the opposition’s future is also at stake in Washington. Due to the crisis in the English-speaking regions and the fact that opponents are being incarcerated, Paul Biya does not have good press there.”

The fight against Boko Haram as an asset

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya knows that the Anglophone crisis is a subject of concern for Washington, which advocates dialogue to resolve the conflict, while Yaoundé favours the security approach.

“For the moment, the United States has not gone further than the stage of declarations, notably at the instigation of the Senate, but the Biden presidency could go a step further,” continues the diplomat. One of Yaoundé’s fears is that the new US administration will bring up the Anglophone crisis more regularly during UN Security Council meetings, through their ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

Thomas-Greenfield, who is an African-American and a seasoned diplomat who was former President Barack Obama’s Africa adviser, knows the continent well and met with Biya at a UN General Assembly in 2016. She has already set up a team to work specifically on African issues in New York.

“However, Paul Biya does not lack assets, such as his army’s fight against Boko Haram, which is important to the Americans,” says an analyst.

To conclude: “On the one hand, he does not want to cede anything to the Americans or the opposition regarding the Anglophone crisis. On the other hand, he does not want Cameroon to be blacklisted or for some of its officials to be targeted by sanctions. He has to find a balance between firmness and tact.”

Culled from The Africa Report

The numerous conflicts in Cameroon have failed to draw in major global powers except the French supporting the 88-year-old President Biya and members of his ruling crime syndicate.

The Biya family has ruled Cameroon since 6 November 1982 and now the man who took over from the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo is using the network he has built as the Commander-in-Chief of the Cameroon military to get his first son, Franck Biya, to succeed him.

To maintain his position as head of state over the last 38 years, Biya has implemented the divide and rule system and personalized power to such an extent that only he alone is seen by the international community as the person who can hold the country together.

Mindful of the fact that President Paul Biya has not groomed anybody within his ruling CPDM party to take power, the political elites from his tribal extraction are now aware that his successor would inherit a weak government and weak state institutions.

Many around Biya do not want someone from outside the Biya tribe to take over.

 Similarly, the ruling Francophone political elites from the Centre and South regions are working tirelessly to get Biya’s eldest son, Franck Biya, to take over power.

Cameroon Intelligence Report has been reliably informed that Franck Biya is already receiving presidential protocol lessons and getting intelligence briefing from senior officials in the military, the gendarmerie, the secret service and the police.

Our source revealed that a cream of prominent Francophone media gurus have been recruited and tasked with the responsibility of making public the plan to the Cameroonian people to appear as if it is still a rumour.

Yaoundé has hinted all its CEMAC allies who also have the same philosophy of a son succeeding a father. 

President Idriss Deby, who has ruled Chad for 30 years and recently got a nomination to run for a sixth term in the April election, is in support as he too has plans for his son to take over in Ndjamena.

Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo Brazzaville, who like Idris Deby, has his children and blood relations as army generals, has reportedly given his blessings.

Sassou Nguesso has accumulated 36 years in office — he was most recently re-elected in 2016, after which the opposition was effectively sidelined and his two main rivals sentenced to 20 years’ forced labour.

It was a big yes from President Ali Bongo of Gabon bearing in mind that President Biya personally travelled to Libreville and supervised the handing over of power to Ali following the passing to eternity of his father, Omar Bongo.

It was not a big surprise to see more than six Cameroonian ministers, including Paul Atanga Nji of Territorial Administration and Joseph Beti Assomo of Defense in Equatorial Guinea after a series of explosions at a military barracks that killed at least 20 people and wounded more than 600 others.

Equatorial Guinea already has a President-in-Waiting who is the son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

We also gathered that Franck Biya has been holding secret meetings with his father’s coterie of CPDM barons, many of whom supported him when he took over from Ahmadou Ahidjo.

As we write, Cameroon’s key institutions, such as the security services and military, including key ministries and state agencies are all headed by President Biya’s trusted allies.

Although these institutions are very weak politically, they serve as important vehicles of patronage and will provide an essential link between Franck Biya and his dad’s support base.

They are presently guaranteeing Franck Biya a strong sense of loyalty among state employees and beneficiaries and, in doing so; they are sturdy pillars of the Biya family’s continued stay in power.

French multinationals with interest in Cameroon are presently and carefully cultivating a number of journalists both at home and abroad, academics and policy-makers to help Franck Biya appear accessible, sympathetic and thoughtful.

If things go according to plan, then Cameroon is really in for tough times as many groups will emerge to make the country ungovernable.

Southern Cameroonians have already made their intentions very clear. They want an independent country that will not be part of the mess known as La République du Cameroun. They also want to run their country based on Anglo-Saxon political values and principles; a country that will be bereft of French baneful influence.

For the northerners, they are sick and tired of being treated as second class citizens in a country they think is also theirs. They too are already setting up their own militias designed to challenge Yaoundé’s authority in the northern part of the country.

The days ahead are challenging and if the international community does not come out of its loud silence to condemn the chaos being orchestrated in Yaoundé, it will be left with a sticky situation on its hands once Mr. Paul Biya exits the world and the different factions and militias roll out their plans.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

There have been mixed reactions in Cameroon to 88-year-old President Paul Biya’s orders that his party-dominated upper and lower houses of Parliament re-elect officials who are over 80 years old to top positions. According to the central African state’s constitution, Marcel Niat Njifenji, the 87-year-old president of the Senate, the upper house of Parliament, would take over and organize elections if Biya were to die.

Members of the National Assembly, the lower house of Cameroon’s Parliament Wednesday applauded as Cavaye Yegue Djibril was re-elected speaker. The 81-year-old Cavaye said he appreciated Biya’s making his re-election possible.

Djibril said he is highly indebted to Biya for asking his ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, or CPDM, lawmakers to retain him in his position.

Djibril has been National Assembly speaker for 30 years. The lone candidate, he garnered 147 votes in the 180-seat body.

Many Cameroonians expected he would be replaced by a younger lawmaker. However, Biya summoned the 152 CPDM lawmakers together for an emergency meeting. CPDM Secretary General Jean Nkuete said Biya asked them to re-elect Djibril.

Emmanuel Banmi, a CPDM lawmaker from the English-speaking North-West region said they obeyed instructions from their party hierarchy. He said Djibril has enough experience as National Assembly speaker.

“Cavaye Yeguie Djibril is doing his work. I want to commend his devotedness. We know we have difficulties; we have concerns of security. We need to move ahead. Let the government work hand-in-hand with the representatives of the people (National Assembly) to see that the security issue is collectively addressed with the collaboration of the people,” he said.

Mukete, at 105, the oldest member of Cameroon’s Senate

Banmi said he was optimistic Djibril will work in collaboration with the government to find solutions to youth unemployment and the several armed conflicts Cameroon is facing. He said priority will be given to assisting people affected by COVID-19 and stopping the spread of the pandemic.

Djibril is Cameroon’s third most powerful state political figure after Biya and Marcel Niat Njifenji, president of the Senate, the upper house of Parliament.

The 87-year-old Njifenji, who has been Senate president since the body was created in 2013, was reelected Wednesday with 85 votes in the 100-member chamber. The CPDM controls 63 of the 70 elected Senate seats. The other 30 members, appointed by Biya, are loyal to him.

Niat said he was also grateful to Biya for his re-election.

Twenty-six-year-old Nguenang Cosmas, member of Cameroon’s National Youth Council, an independent state body that discusses issues related to the well-being of youths, says octogenarians are keeping young people from leadership positions in Cameroon.

“How could we elect people at the head of the legislature who could barely walk. The president of the Senate, Marcel Niat Njifenji, could barely walk to the hall. [The] same goes for the president of the National Assembly. Where are we heading to? It beats my imagination why the same people have been ruling. It is not good. They should leave the younger generation to show what they are capable of doing. Does it mean that only the old can rule? It is not good at all,” Cosmas said.

Under Cameroon’s constitution, if Biya were to die, were to resign or become incapacitated, Njifenji would take power, although elections would have to be organized to elect a new president in 20 to 120 days.

Culled from VOA

A senior Southern Cameroons academic with strong ties to the Ambazonia Interim Government, Dr Patrick Ayuk, says the much publicized Swiss talks for resolving the crisis opposing French and British Southern Cameroons has not offered anything to the suffering people of Ambazonia.

“Those who announced the talks are following the same policies as those of the Biya French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé. The talks are only on social media and the Swiss government has not offered anything to the English speaking people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia. Bern is rather helping the corrupt French Cameroun regime of President Biya” Dr Patrick Ayuk said in interview with Cameroon Concord News on Wednesday evening.

Dr Patrick Ayuk pointed out that the so-called Swiss talk is simply nothing. “Through the Ambazonia leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, the people of British Southern Cameroons have offered their vision plan for a solution to the Southern Cameroons crisis which includes withdrawing all French Cameroun forces from Ambazonian streets, freeing all British Southern Cameroons prisoners, granting general amnesty to Southern Cameroonians in the diaspora and committing to an international mediated negotiation, in a neutral venue. The people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia are waiting for a response from La Republique du Cameroun.”

“The Ambazonia Interim Government is ready to engage in negotiations but as Vice President Dabney Yerima recently opined, due to the many Covid-19 deaths recorded in Southern Cameroons lately, the humanitarian issue should be separated from military and political matters” Dr Patrick Ayuk furthered.

The Swiss government is yet to appoint a special envoy for Southern Cameroons, but claims that consultations have been going on with some Southern Cameroons pro independence groups.

The Biya Francophone regime does not appear interested in a ceasefire at this moment, and is supposedly prioritizing a military campaign to stifle the Southern Cameroons uprising.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Jostled by the opposition during Cameroon’s last presidential election and regularly criticised for its inertia, the RDPC is determined to change.

However, despite the party’s best efforts, it’s facing resistance from many of its older leaders who do not have plans to retire anytime soon. On 10 February, Cameroon’s 88-year-old President Paul Biya in a speech to the youth talked about a “generational transition” that his young compatriots should prepare for by integrating various bodies within the public sphere.

Biya’s words did not go unnoticed. They have since been analysed, commented on, dissected and widely reported in the local press. Some even see it as a message or warning from the head of state to his most faithful colleagues, whose loyalty and obedience have allowed him to govern with peace of mind for over 38 years.

At a crossroads

Since then, Cameroon’s entire political landscape has been in a state of expectation. Especially since the president has awakened the heart of his political machine, the central committee of the Rassemblement Démocratique du Peuple Camerounais (RDPC). Under the leadership of 77-year-old Jean Nkuete, the party’s secretary-general, the central committee is busy preparing a major summit, which will be announced this year. This event, which is supposed to take place every five years, has not been held for 10 years.

After a tumultuous electoral cycle – which saw the emergence of Maurice Kamto’s Mouvement pour la Renaissance du Cameroun (MRC), while traditional opposition parties, which the government had learned to accommodate, were relegated to the background – the RDPC is at a crossroads.

Although it has an ultra-majority in all institutions, it has realised that it needs to rebuild its political base. It also knows that it will have to become more effective and get rid of some of its numerous bodies which were created mostly for electoral purposes, but which are empty shells with no identifiable leaders.

Above all, the RDPC is like the rest of the country’s police and administrative elite: ageing and less and less in tune with its citizens.

“As in all similar organisations, the lack of young people in prominent positions of power is due to two things: the longevity of those in power and the absence of alternatives,” says Cameroonian political scientist Moussa Njoya. “Those who are old today came to power when they were quite young, as is the case with the president of the Republic himself. But once established within the upper echelons of the administration, they preferred to safeguard their interests. And most young people now make up the opposition. One only has to look at those who surround Maurice Kamto in the MRC, from Mamadou Mota to Bibou Nissack.”

THE RACE TO TRANSFORM

A reconstruction of the party is therefore necessary, and this includes replacing deceased members of the political bureau and the central committee whose seats have remained vacant.

On 9 March, Nkuete gathered together the members of the committee responsible for carrying out a complete “cleaning” of the party at its headquarters. This operation – the first phase of which officially began on 13 March and will last until 13 April – consists of establishing the main roles of the party’s different bodies. New leaders will then be appointed. “These steps must be undertaken in order to hold the congress,” says Christophe Mien Zock, the director of RDPC’s media outlet.

Immobility and status quo

Will the RDPC succeed in its transformation? This question seems to be on everyone’s mind as this political party appears to be a breeding ground for immobility and the status quo.

Most have not forgotten that after his re-election in October 2018, Biya had already launched a similar appeal to the country’s youth saying that he had “understood [its] deep desire for change. I will take this into account, bearing in mind that the Cameroon of tomorrow will be made with you,” he said on that occasion.

Three years later, the president’s stated intention has been slow to materialise and has been met with resistance from within his own camp. Despite his reassurances that young people would be well represented during the February 2020 legislative elections, most of RDPC’s leadership positions in government are still being held by people who are much older than the country’s average age, which is around 19 years old.

Even though Biya feels that “many young people have integrated the various parliamentary, municipal and regional bodies”, they have not been appointed to key positions.

For example, the presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate, Cavayé Yeguié Djibril and Marcel Niat Njifenji, are respectively 81 and 86 years old. The former has been in office for nearly 29 years and the latter’s health is so fragile that he is frequently treated abroad and Yaoundé has not ruled out the possibility that they may need to replace him. And not one of their vice-presidents is under 60 years of age.

During the regional elections of December 2020, in which the RDPC was the favourite in nine out of ten regions, the infighting that occurred before the party’s candidates were selected was mostly instigated by the RDPC’s older members. As a result, none of its regional candidates was less than 65 years old.

“The absence of young people within the RDPC should be put into perspective,” says Njoya. “When we look at the municipal authorities of most cities, we can see that there are many young people. In Douala, for example, one of the deputy mayors is 34 years old. In the far North, a number of deputies are between 32 and 40 years old. Yaoundé’s sixth district is headed by a young man, Yoki Onana [43 years old]; the same is true of the 2nd, led by Yannick Ayissi [39 years old]. And it is important to stress that they are not there solely out of the goodness of these older members’ hearts!”

He concludes: “We must make efforts to include young people. In any case, this change will take place, it is the natural order of things, and it will come from the bottom up.”

Source: The Africa Report