19, July 2025

Presidential election gathers momentum as candidates file for the October vote ⁰

Candidates are starting to vie for position in Cameroon’s October presidential election.

Candidacy submissions in Cameroon officially opened on Monday for October’s presidential election. But it wasn’t until Thursday that things gathered momentum, when President Paul Biya filed his candidacy via his proxy Jean Nkuete.

“We have just submitted the file of the National President of the CPDM, for the post of President of the Republic, being aware that the Cameroonian people are mature enough to know the difference between what is done, what is being done,” Nkuete told reporters.

A statement closely followed from Cabral Libi of the PCRN. But it was on the Bamenda side that SDF leader Joshua Osih gave his supporters a rendez-vous.

The candidate of the historic Social Democratic Front deposited his files at Elecam’s regional headquarters for the North-West. A significant event for Osih in a town that is suffering from the crisis in the country’s English-speaking regions.

“It’s very important to know that we have a political identity,” Osih told reporters after depositing his candidacy, “and this political identity has its roots in this town. And that’s why we have our national headquarters in this city. And so it was impossible to believe that we were going to file elsewhere.”

Picking up steam

But events have taken a different turn in the last 24 hours with the filing of candidacies in Yaounde: Bello Bouba Maigari, currently a minister in the Paul Biya government, on behalf of the UNDP, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, a resigned minister, Tomaïno Ndam Njoya of the UDC and Leon Theiller Onana, Paul Biya’s challenger in the CPDM.

UPC presidential candidate Patricia Hermine Tomaïno Ndam Ndoya, made a pitch for the female candidates in the race: “It’s high time Cameroonians understood that women are the voice of peace, of the peace we need and of sincerity. We’re going to work with all the categories, the intellectuals”.

The most eagerly awaited candidacy on Friday was that of Maurice Kamto, a fierce opponent of the Yaoundé regime.

A candidate supported by Anicet Ekane’s Manidem. Kamto, who is causing quite a stir, defying all the predictions, did not speak to the press. He and Anicet Ekane are due to hold a press conference this Saturday at their party headquarters, where they’re expected to unveil their strategy for the future.

Source: Africa News

17, July 2025

Freedom House recommends that Cameroon remain ineligible for US Trade Benefits ⁰

Given the Cameroonian government’s ongoing persecution and arbitrary detention of journalists, the country has failed to meet a US statutory requirement on progress toward the rule of law and the protection of human rights.

Ahead of the July 18 public hearing on country eligibility for US trade benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), Freedom House issued the following policy statement:

“In partnership with the Committee to Protect Journalists, Freedom House has submitted a written comment urging the US government to find that Cameroon should not be eligible for AGOA trade benefits for calendar year 2026 due to its repression and detention of journalists.

“To be eligible for trade benefits under AGOA, sub-Saharan African countries must meet statutorily defined criteria, several of which relate to human rights. They include (1) establishing, or making continual progress toward establishing, the rule of law and the right to due process, a fair trial, and equal protection under the law; (2) not engaging in gross violations of internationally recognized human rights; and (3) cooperating with international efforts to eliminate human rights violations. However, as the ongoing repression and detention of journalists makes clear, Cameroon does not fully meet these criteria.

“As detailed in our written comment, journalists in Cameroon who are charged, arrested, and criminally prosecuted are routinely subjected to egregious violations of their due process and fair trial rights. More generally, as Freedom House has documented in its annual reports, due process and the rule of law in Cameroon have declined in recent years. In Freedom in the World 2019 and Freedom in the World 2020, Cameroon received a score of 1 out of 4 on the indicator for due process and 1 out of 16 for the larger rule-of-law subcategory, but each year since based on collected evidence, the country has received a score of 0 for both subcategories.

“Moreover, by frequently subjecting journalists to prolonged arbitrary detention—which is often accompanied by torture, a lack of any formal charges or trial, and incommunicado conditions that amount to enforced disappearance—Cameroonian authorities are perpetrating gross violations of internationally recognized human rights. Finally, by ignoring the opinions of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention—which has found that the detentions of journalists Tsi Conrad, Amadou Vamoulké, Mancho Bibixy Tse, and Thomas Awah Junior violate international law and called for their immediate release—the Cameroonian government is not cooperating with international efforts to eliminate human rights violations.

“Therefore, Cameroon should be designated as ineligible for AGOA trade benefits until it makes significant progress in its treatment of journalists. Such progress must include the release of the four detained journalists listed above, as well as a fifth, Kingsley Fomunyuy Njoka, who has been behind bars in violation of international law since 2020.”

Cameroon is rated Not Free in Freedom in the World 2025.

Culled from Freedom House

17, July 2025

Biya, 92, reshuffles military top brass ahead of presidential election ⁰

Cameroon’s 92-year-old President Paul Biya, the world’s oldest head of state, has overhauled the military’s top ranks in what analysts say is an effort to ensure the armed forces back his bid for an eighth term after a public outcry.

The personnel moves, announced late on Tuesday in a series of presidential decrees, affect nearly all branches of the armed forces. They include the appointment of new chiefs of staff for the infantry, air force and navy as well as the promotion of eight brigadier generals to the rank of major general.

One of the promoted generals is the coordinator of the elite Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), a special forces unit often deployed in counter-terrorism operations and seen as central to Biya’s security apparatus. The decrees also named a new special presidential military adviser.

The decrees were published two days after Biya, in power since 1982, announced he would run for his eighth term in office in Cameroon’s presidential election scheduled for October 12. The seven-year term could keep him in office until he is nearly 100.

The announcement prompted an unprecedented public outcry in the press and on social media in Cameroon, where Biya’s age and long absences have raised questions about his fitness to rule.

The government has said Biya is in good health and dismissed any suggestions otherwise.

The decrees concerning the armed forces reflect “a strategy by President Biya and his collaborators to consolidate power by building a fortress of loyal army generals around him” that can suppress any protest to his continued rule, said Anthony Antem, peace and security analyst at the Nkafu Policy Institute in Yaounde.

Celestin Delanga, researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), said the decrees “come in a unique political and security context.”

Biya wants to ensure stability during and after the election and “additional trusted personnel are needed” for that, he said.

The cocoa- and oil-producing Central African nation also faces a host of serious security challenges, notably a conflict with Anglophone separatists and threats from Nigeria-based Islamist fighters in the north.

The government gave no explanation for the overhaul.

The last significant military shake-up in Cameroon came just last year, shortly after Biya returned in October from his latest extended stay abroad which revived speculation about his health.

Source: Reuters

16, July 2025

GHS Mamfe: Minister Victor Mengot’s tribute to Sampson Atem Akoh-Arrey ⁰

MAGGSOSANS the world over, unite physically and in spirit to celebrate the life of a remarkable man, Pa Sampson Atem Akoh-Arrey, a giant whose legacy still resonates through the halls of the then Federal Government Grammar School and today’s Government High School, Mamfe, and the hearts of countless students whose lives he touched. For those of us who had the privilege of knowing him, or even just benefiting from his vision, the loss is profound. But the memories, the impact, the enduring spirit of Pa Akoh-Arrey, these will remain a testament to a life well-lived and a legacy firmly cemented in the foundation of our Alma Mater.

Pa Akoh-Arrey was more than just the pioneer Principal of the then FGGS Mamfe; he was its architect, its guiding light, it’s very soul. He didn’t just build a school; he built a community, a family, a place where young minds were nurtured, challenged, and inspired to reach their full potential. His leadership wasn’t about wielding authority; it was about fostering a love of learning, a spirit of inquiry, and a commitment to excellence. He saw the potential in each student, even when they themselves might not have, and he tirelessly worked to unlock it.

Many of us remember his unwavering dedication, his sharp wit, his patience. These memories, personal and unique, paint a vivid picture of a man who was not only a brilliant educator but also a compassionate leader, a mentor, and a father figure. He instilled in us not just academic knowledge, but also values of integrity, perseverance, and a deep sense of responsibility. These are the gifts that continue to shape our lives, long after we left the hallowed grounds of the then FGGS Mamfe.

The secondary school today stands as a monument to his vision, a testament to his unwavering commitment. It is a living legacy, a vibrant community of alumni that continues to thrive, thanks to the foundation he laid. While we mourn his passing, let us also celebrate the extraordinary life he lived, a life dedicated to education, to service, and to the betterment of others. Pa Sampson Atem Akoh-Arrey, your memory will forever be cherished, your contributions eternally remembered. May your gentle soul find solace at the bosom of the Lord.

Victor A. MENGOT

MAGGSOSA, Class of 70

15, July 2025

October 2025 Presidential Election: the country’s youths hold the key ⁰

Over the last couple of months, Cameroonians have been very busy discussing the country’s presidential elections scheduled for October 2025, with many focusing on the incumbent believed to be 92 years old.

Focusing on Mr. Biya who has ruled the country for 43 years is a huge mistake on the part of Cameroonians, especially young Cameroonians who hold the solutions to the problems facing the country.

At 92, it is impossible for anyone to change their ways and focusing on Mr. Paul Biya’s age instead on the issues hurting most Cameroonians is the wrong way out of the political and economic issues which have lingered and festered for 43 years.

Biya’s has the right to run like any other Cameroonian who is eligible. The issue should be if he will be able to address those tough and challenging issues such as insecurity, unemployment, poor housing, a declining economy, lack of infrastructure, tribalism and corruption which have stubbornly refused to set Cameroonians free.

Even those on the opposition need to be carefully examined and scanned through some of the best political analysis to determine if they are capable of delivering the goods as they are promising.

While Biya has already proven his incompetence or competence depending on who is evaluating him, many on the opposition have never really been tested, with some having worked with Mr. Biya for decades, making it hard for anyone to dissociate them from the Biya era which has hurt many Cameroonians.

One of those who have collaborated with Mr. Biya for decades is Bouba Bello Maigari, the UNDP chairperson. Bello has served under the country’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, and Paul Biya. Though he has been in the corridors of power for decades, he has not posted any impressive results in any ministry he has headed.

He has led the ministry of tourism for a long time and that ministry clearly needs an extreme makeover. No tourism facilities have been developed during Mr. Bouba Bello’s time at the ministry of tourism and even those developed long before he became the minister of tourism have crumbled and are in need of rehabilitation.

These are some of the issues young Cameroonians should be considering when choosing the person who will be their country’s next president. Choosing a leader is not about emotions and tribe. It is about who has a great development agenda that will liberate young Cameroonians from their damnation. Cameroonians are hurting and they need a savior who will be selfless, dynamic and determined to change the development script which has left many Cameroonians in abject and humiliating poverty.

Another candidate who needs to be x-rayed is Mr. Issa Tchiroma Bakari who served under Paul Biya as the minister of communication and minister of vocational education. As the minister of communication, Issa Tchiroma spent his time antagonizing Cameroonians and openly telling them that he was appointed by Mr. Biya and not by Cameroonians. The Internet is awash with videos of him declaring that there was no Anglophone problem in Cameroon and even stressing that asking for federalism was a crime punishable by the country’s laws.

Today, he has walked away from his famous alliance with the ruling party, the CPDM, and he is telling all sorts of stories about a system he loyally and proudly served. He now claims to be a federalist who can solve a problem he once said was non-existent. Is this the man who can change a country that is in dire need of an extreme political makeover? It is up to Cameroonians, especially the youths who are in the majority, to make a determination as to whether Mr. Tchiroma is the man who can serve their interest.

If Mr. Tchiroma claims that Mr. Biya is not the person to engineer the type of change Cameroonians need, how qualified and different is he when he has served Mr. Biya for decades?

There is also the chairperson of the Social Democratic Front, Joshua Osih, who has been in parliament for a long time. He has some experience under his belt. His knowledge of the legislative process is commendable but there are doubts about his ability to steer a country like Cameroon which is mired in challenging issues in a different direction.

Joshua Osih is a likeable person but he lacks the charisma and presidential presence which can galvanize the country’s youths. Cameroonian youths are those who will determine the future of the country. That is, if they have their voter’s cards and have developed a different mindset. They can either settle for old ways or seek new paths which will bring about sustainable development in the country.

The choice is theirs and the future belongs to them. They can either make the future attractive by making wise choices or they can be stuck in their old ways which have robbed them of their happiness and dignity. There will always be alcohol and food but will they be able to live a dignified life?

Another player in Cameroon’s political game is Prof. Maurice Kamto who seems to have a huge following, especially out of the country where many of those rooting for him will not vote. Elections get won when party supporters vote and not when they spend their time on social media riling up virtual crowds, many of whom do not have voter’s cards.

Prof. Kamto is presidential, he has sound knowledge of the law, but he has made massive political blunders which might result in his expulsion from the 2025 presidential elections in Cameroon. Keeping his party, MRC, from the last municipal and parliamentary elections is turning out to be his greatest undoing.

Even if he succeeds to have alliances with other parties which may give him a chance to run, there are still many issues he has to address. His party, MRC, seems to be more regional than national and there are huge accusations against his party being a tribal outfit which might hurt him in a big and bad way.

Cameroon is at the crossroads. The country’s future is really bleak. This year’s presidential elections might steer the country in a new and different direction.

Many analysts hold that the ruling CPDM led by the incumbent, Paul Biya, will still win the elections, especially as the party has the resources to conduct a real national campaign.

In all fairness, the CPDM is the only real national party as it has served as a state party for decades, but given the internal divisions which are tearing the party apart, its edge over other parties will surely be eroded.

Today, the party’s chairman, Paul Biya, is nowhere to be found, with many CPDM insiders insinuating that he has been worn down by age and ill health.

The public disagreements between the Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh and Rene Sadi, the government’s spokesperson speak to the power tussle that is signaling the end of a reign that has been marked by dictatorship, intimidation, corruption and nepotism.

Rene Sadi is not only fighting the secretary general, he also has a bone to pick with Prof. Fame Ndongo, the country’s higher education minister who is a staunch supporter of President Biya and his wife, Chantal Biya, who is currently being accused of pulling the strings behind the scenes as her husband struggles with poor health and old bones.

There is also Laurent Esso, the country’s justice minister who is struggling with poor health. Years of stress and the burden of power have reduced Mr. Esso to a colony of diseases. He too has an axe to grind with Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh-a pawn of Chantal Biya who wants to keep Mr. Biya alive for her to continue enjoying the benefits of a first lady.

While the games are taking place behind the scenes, the country’s youths must not forget about the critical role they have to play in this year’s presidential elections. They must understand that in Cameroon, those who vote are not those who count the votes. They must therefore be very vigilant to ensure that their votes count. Cameroon’s future is in their hands and they must not open themselves up for exploitation.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Editor-In-Chief

14, July 2025

The Moudiki empire: A dynasty drunk on Cameroon oil ⁰

In a republic long desecrated by dynastic ambitions and geriatric despotism, Cameroon now bears witness to a scandal so brazen, so unrepentantly venal, that even the ghosts of accountability must surely weep. The Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH), the state oil and gas company meant to steward the nation’s most valuable resource, has degenerated into a private fiefdom of the Moudiki family, operating with all the arrogance of a medieval court and none of the shame.What masquerades as national development at Kribi Deep Seaport is in truth a festering symbol of oligarchic capture, disguised under bulldozers, steel, and state silence. The so-called Cstar Tank Farm Project – a shady petro-venture being shoved down the throat of public interest – is not merely a corporate overreach. It is a state-sanctioned incest of power, privilege, and plunder.

A family affair, draped in the national flag

At the rotting center of this farce is Adolphe Moudiki, the 86-year-old director-general of SNH – senile in sight, but still omnipotent in reach. Too frail to stand, yet firm enough to rule by proxy, he has now crowned his wife, Nathalie Moudiki, queen-regent of SNH’s new era of nepotism. As legal director and now inspector general – a newly invented post tailor-made for dynastic expansion – she commands the institution like a duchess inheriting ancestral land.

Nathalie Moudiki, who now presides over Cstar, SNH’s shady new subsidiary, is pushing forward a multi-billion-dollar petroleum project without board approval, as if the nation’s hydrocarbons were the inheritance of a noble house, not the patrimony of a people. The project lubricated by dubious Dubai meetings, offshore shell structures, and suspicious partnerships, bears all the fingerprints of a classic kleptocratic heist. The involvement of Franck Hertz Biya, the First Lady, Chantal Biya’s son, only sharpens the stench. That the President’s inner court is now dabbling in opaque oil ventures, playing puppeteer over contracts and concessions, makes mockery of even the pretense of governance.

Kribi: Where dreams go to be laundered

Franck Hertz-Biya is playing an active role in the current negotiations for the attribution to SNH of a 250-hectare site in Kirbi port. A memorandum of understanding between the Port Autonome de Kribi (PAK) and SNH is expected to be signed soon. The project is driven by the special-purpose vehicle (SPV) Cstar Tank Farm Project Management, which groups SNH, its distribution subsidiary Tradex, and Ariana-RCG consortium, owned by the secretive Lebanese businessman Azzam Makhlouf, who is Vanuatu’s honorary consul and special envoy to the Middle East. Cstar is planning to build a refinery, a petroleum product storage terminal, and a gas pipeline in Kribi.

Although SNH’s Board of Directors have yet to approve Cstar as a strategic partner, Nathalie Moudiki, legal director and now inspector general of SNH; who doubles as CEO of Cstar, is already acting as if Cstar is an integral part of SNH; and she is pushing the project forward. On June 19, Cstar’s managing directors met in Dubai to approve the company’s development plan and the creation of its local subsidiary, the Joint Operating Co (JOC). According to a confidential communiqué reviewed by Cameroon Intelligence Report, the JOC will be in charge of “operating and maintaining the terminal for the storage of strategic reserves of petroleum products in Kribi.”

Among the figures present at the Dubai meeting were Franck Hertz-Biya, Emmanuel Patrick Mvondo, Tradex CEO and Mougnal Sidi, Director of Legal Affairs at the Ministry of External Relations. Sidi, has been tipped to officially replace Nathalie Moudiki as head of SNH’s legal department, is the mastermind behind Cstar’s sprawling legal structure.

The Kribi storage terminal, on paper, is a symbol of industrial growth. In practice, it is an altar to corruption, constructed with no transparency, no parliamentary scrutiny, and no credible oversight. The Dubai-based legal structure, orchestrated by Mougnal Sidi, another foot soldier in this grotesque theatre, is designed not for efficiency, but for obfuscation. It is a legal maze meant to hide profits, evade scrutiny, and funnel public wealth into private vaults. This isn’t development. It is plunder at the speed of progress. It is the reanimation of feudal Africa by way of petroleum pipelines.

The Deafening Silence of Power

The scandal has drawn public outrage from public figures like Akere Muna, whose called for an independent audit of Cstar have so far met a brick wall of bureaucratic cowardice. Where is Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, the powerful secretary general to the presidency that publicly spars with the Moudikis, yet does nothing to sever the rot? Where is Energy Minister Gaston Eloundou Essomba, whose portfolio has been hijacked by this royal family and its foreign co-conspirators? Where is the Cameroonian state, when its wealth is being handed to Lebanese middlemen, Vanuatu consuls, and princeling operatives? Cameroon is governed not by law, but by clan, by a coven of career courtiers who sip champagne while villages burn kerosene to light their homes. The SNH has ceased to be a state enterprise. It is a cathedral of corruption, and the oil it controls is not black gold; it is black betrayal.

From Republic to Petrocracy

The Biya regime, now entering its fifth decade of zombified rule, presides over a country where oil flows upward, not outward, and where institutions serve only to formalize theft. SNH, instead of funding roads, schools, or hospitals, has become the treasury of a twilight monarchy. The Moudikis, Hertz, Makhlouf, and their ilk are pimps of the public purse, trafficking national assets in luxury boardrooms while millions live and die in darkness. The Kribi refinery and storage terminal will not store hope. It will store fuel — for yachts, not ambulances; for Range Rovers, not rescue boats .And while Adolphe Moudiki clutches power from his hospital bed, and Nathalie sharpens her knives at SNH headquarters, the very concept of republicanism drowns in an oil slick of cynicism.

Let this be a warning

To the Moudiki clan: your names will not be remembered as builders, but as plunderers wrapped in tricolor. You will not be praised as visionaries, but cursed as vandals of the nation’s soul. To the silent enablers in government: your complicity will not be forgotten. History does not absolve cowards who looked away while the nation was auctioned at Kribi’s gates. To the Cameroonian people: this is not governance. It is organized theft, polished with protocol and perfumed with PR. Do not be deceived.

And to the next generation: remember that your inheritance is being siphoned by a few, in Dubai boardrooms, under fake titles, behind closed doors. But oil is not eternal. And neither is tyranny.

Cameroon deserves a future unshackled from dynastic parasites. The SNH must be returned to the people — or it will become a monument to everything that ever went wrong in post-colonial Africa.

Let the Moudikis build their empire elsewhere. The nation is not their plantation.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with intel files

14, July 2025

Paul Biya: A requiem for the mummified despot of a dying nation ⁰

After 43 years of zombified rule, Biya’s candidacy at 93 years, is a declaration of war on Democracy

There are tyrants – and then, there is Paul Biya, the nonagenarian necromancer of Yaoundé, who has shamelessly decided to plunge the grotesque theatre of Cameroonian politics into yet another farcical act of brigandage-the world’s oldest head(ache) of state has announced his intent to cling to the presidency once more, seeking an eighth term at the antediluvian age of 93; when most men kneel before memory and prepare for judgment. There are tyrants – and then there is Paul Biya, the decomposing sun-king of Mvomeka’a; who has made a mausoleum of the Cameroonian presidency, embalmed in arrogance, hubris and mummified in deceit. Like a moth drawn to the flame of self-deification, Biya stumbles forward, blind to the rot he has sown across 43 years of zombified rule. Biya’s candidacy is not courage. It is not continuity. It is not service. It is vanity wrapped in delusion; a final insult hurled at a people he long ceased to care about. Let no one be fooled by his empty phrases and digital proclamations. The emperor has no vigor, no mandate, no soul. Only a seat he refuses to vacate. He rules not as a leader, but as a fossil clinging to the illusion of motion, while the nation stumbles from one avoidable tragedy to the next. It is not only time for Biya to step down. It is time for his memory to be expunged from the pantheon of history. Let future generations learn of him only as a political poltergeist, who mistook a nation for his armchair, and ruled until time itself rejected him. And let the Cameroonian people, especially the youth, rise up at last, to bury this era of gerontocratic tyranny and claim the national rebirth and new dawn they have long been denied.

This is no longer governance. It is taxidermy in motion – the marionette-like twitching of a regime so old, so ossified; it has forgotten the difference between life and performance. And yet, the frail, aged despot shamelessly dares to whisper on social media: “Rest assured that my determination to serve you matches the urgency of the challenges we face,” adding sarcastically that: “…The best is still to come.” No, Mr. Biya. You are now the challenge; you have nothing more to offer. This latest insult to national dignity – a 93-year-old autocrat seeking an eight extension of his personal kingdom – is not an act of ambition. It is a declaration of war on youth, on democracy, on the very idea of national renewal. The justification is laughable: “numerous and insistent” calls by people from all regions in Cameroon and the diaspora. Which people? The hungry, poor and destitute masses who are scavenging for survival? The displaced IDPs and victims of Boko Haram? The war-orphaned Anglophone children? Or the cabal of sycophants fattened on patronage and corruption; the same parasites,greedy for another drop of the poisonous nectar the regime offers them? Which people? He dares to call it “service.”But his service is not to the nation; it is to the great altar of self-preservation, where he burns time, dignity, and present and future generations for the sake of his own shadow.

The Cadaver in Chief

There is a cruel poetry to the sight of a man who has become a waxwork of his former self; a living corpse and walking relic presiding over the funeral of a nation, under the guise of leadership. Paul Biya, has mutated from president to pharaoh entombed in the presidential palace, ruling through silence, absence, and “on-high instructions” whispered decrees. He governs not from Yaoundé but from his Mvomeka’a palace, or the marbled suites of Geneva’s Intercontinental Hotel, while Cameroonians sleep in darkness, choke on dust, and bleed in the streets of Buea and Bamenda. His rare public addresses are relics, his political instincts reduced to mechanical repressions. If governance is an act of presence, of listening, of sacrifice; then Biya has not ruled Cameroon in decades. He has haunted it. Under Biya’s gaze, Cameroon has not lived. It has endured. The country has become a mausoleum of squandered opportunities, shattered dreams, and broken promises – a land where roads dissolve like sugar in rain;

where hospitals resemble war zones; where students graduate into despair; where the Anglophone regions smolder in genocidal silence, and innocent blood is the mother tongue. Forty-three years of corruption, embezzlement, tribalism, nepotism, poverty, bad governance, and fatalism – and now he is asking for seven more?

Biya’s governance is an entrenched dictatorship kept alive by bureaucracy, brutality, and ritualized elections and nourished by apathy, silence, and the poisoned loyalty of cowards in tailored suits and agbada. He has never truly led; only loitered. He has not presided; only sat, slept, and signed useless decrees, appointing his Beti kith and kin to all commanding heights of authority positions in the army and public service. What began in 1982 as a hopeful transition from Ahidjo has festered into a monarchical parody, where term limits were abolished, institutions hollowed out, and elections turned into ceremonial endorsements of despotism. In Biya’s Cameroon, ballots do not measure the peoples’ will. Biya imagines himself eternal, and sees the presidency as his personal inheritance, not a trust of the people. He has turned Cameroon into a caricature of post-colonial failure; a textbook example of how a nation dies – not by war, but by the glacial tyranny of tired old men who mistake power for purpose.

A Dynasty of Decay: this Is Necrophilia

Biya’s 2025 re-election bid is not an act of patriotism. It is a necromantic spectacle – the dead ruling the living; a grotesque attempt to stitch eternity into the skin of one man, while 27 million Cameroonians decay under the weight of his denial. What man seeks to rule until he is a centenarian corpse propped up by protocol and improvisation lies and official deception? Which country of sound minded people will allow such a mockery to continue? This is no longer tyranny; it is senile theocracy, with Biya as its high priest, chanting decrepit slogans over a nation in chains.

Biya’s legacy is a nation betrayed with abusive patronage and ethnic-inspired clientelism as the official currency of governance. A bilingual state fractured into violent conflict due to his lethargic indifference to Anglophone grievances; a youth majority strangled by unemployment and hopelessness; a judiciary in chains, a legislature emasculated, a cabinet neutered, a press gagged. Over $300 million in public funds looted annually, according to various watchdogs, while hospitals rot and schools crumble. He has not merely misruled; he has institutionalized failure. Cameroon under Biya is a living contradiction: rich in resources, poor in purpose; blessed in geography, cursed in leadership. His CPDM co-travelers have also perfected the art of doing nothing, besides looting the public treasury. This is not stagnation. This is national asphyxiation.

The End of the Farce

Biya fancies himself immune to the fate of Ali Bongo, toppled next door by a fed-up military after a fraudulent election propped up another decrepit dynasty. He believes his regime is eternal. But power decays faster than flesh, and no throne lasts forever. Paul Biya is not the president of Cameroon; he is its plague, its undertaker, its oldest curse, which doesn’t deserve to be eulogized. Let his statues fall like ash, let his portrait rot in moldy government offices, let history remember him not as a statesman and father of the nation, but as a human vampire.

So, let his 2025 re-election bid be the final insult. Enough is enough! Let the youths, awakened from forty-three years of coma, rise like rivers after drought, and nail the coffin of this regime shut. Let the bell toll not for Biya, but for the rebirth of a republic that was never allowed to breathe, never allowed to dream, because one man refused to die – or quit the stage even after the curtains were down. The sword of history is unsparing. And when it falls, it does not ask for clarifications. To the elites of CPDM, to the doddering politburo of geriatrics who toast champagne while the people drink from dry taps -take heed. There comes a day when even the most docile nation remembers how to roar. Even termites know when to abandon a collapsing pillar. And so, we say: Go, Paul Biya. Go – not with thanks, not with fanfare, but with the full weight of our rage, our grief, and our judgment. Go before the wind of history blows you away like the dust of all failed emperors. Your time is not just over. It is damned.

By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai

14, July 2025

Global shame as Cameroon ordered to repay €1.3 million of Looted Covid-19 Funds ⁰

In a searing indictment of embezzlement and misappropriation and reckless corruption, Cameroon has been thrust into the eye of an international storm; its name dragged through the mud by the very scandal that ought never to have happened: the mismanagement of precious funds meant to save lives. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the world’s leading financier of health programs in low-income countries, has delivered a damning ultimatum: repay €1.3 million, (FCFA 852,744,282) or face severe consequences. This comes after an April 2025 delegation to Yaoundé unearthed a tragic litany of fiscal chaos, ineligible expenditures, and grotesque misuse of Covid-19 relief funds. What was meant to preserve life has now become a theater of disgrace.

In what reads like a tragic poem of state dysfunction, auditors and investigators scoured ledgers and warehouses, only to find a tale of 238 second-hand freezers, alleged medicine thefts, and vanishing equipment – all under the shadow of a health system gasping for breath. At the heart of the storm is Cameroon’s own Ministry of Public Health, led by Minister Malachie Manaouda, whose name is now etched into the global ledger of embarrassment. Even more damning: the delegation met with the Secretary General of the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, and the Minister of Finance, Louis-Paul Motaze; clear evidence that this scandal has touched the upper echelons of Cameroonian power. Despite promises and posturing, the rot ran deep.

The Global Fund’s Head of Grant Management, Mark Edington, delivered a stinging rebuke during a high-level meeting at the 78th World Health Assembly in Geneva. He did not mince words. Cameroon must comply with its co-financing commitments or face a brutal 20% slash in future grants. A blow that could leave millions without medicine, testing kits, or hope. Is this another shameful legacy of Paul Biya? That funds meant to shield our people from death are turned into a feast for the corrupt?

This is not the first time Cameroon has danced dangerously close to international condemnation. A 2022 report placed the nation among a quartet—alongside Mali, Mauritania, and Zambia—that had allegedly misappropriated a staggering US$25 million in grants. That revelation triggered Sweden to withhold its Global Fund contribution. Even earlier, in 2021, the Global Fund’s Inspector General had warned of weaknesses in Cameroon’s financial governance. And now, the chickens have come home to roost.

Where is the outrage? Where is the accountability?

In an era where every franc counts and every vial of medicine could mean the difference between life and death, the Cameroonian government has, in spectacular fashion, fumbled the moral imperative of stewardship. This is more than a bureaucratic blunder; it is a betrayal of the sick, the poor, and the vulnerable. It is a moral crime.

The silence from Etoudi is deafening. President Paul Biya’s administration, already marred by decades of opacity, now finds itself facing international censure and domestic indignation. With public health on the line and national honor under siege, the government must act swiftly.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Launch an independent, international audit with full transparency.

• Prosecute those responsible for embezzlement, no matter how high their rank.

• Publicly commit to a reform of all Global Fund grant management processes.

• Restore public trust through regular and transparent communication with Cameroonians.

• Establish an oversight task force comprising civil society, international observers, and anti-corruption experts.

Cameroon stands at a moral crossroads. It can either cleanse its institutions and restore dignity, or wallow in the mire of disgrace while the world watches in horror. The time for spin is over. The era of silence must end. History is watching; and it will not be kind.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

13, July 2025

CPDM Crime Syndicate: 92-year-old Biya to seek eighth term ⁰

President Paul Biya said Sunday that he would be seeking an eighth term in office in October’s elections in a bid to extend his nearly 43 years in power.

Biya, 92, posted the announcement on X in French and English.

“I am a candidate for the 12 October 2025 presidential election. Rest assured that my determination to serve you is commensurate with the serious challenges facing us,” he wrote.

“Together, there are no challenges we cannot meet. The best is still to come.”

Biya was already the de facto candidate of the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM), of which he is party leader.

Several longstanding supporters of Biya have appeared to distance themselves from him in recent months, and there have been two high-profile defections from Biya’s camp in recent weeks.

But the opposition is deeply divided and is struggling to unite behind a single candidate.

Source: AFP

13, July 2025

Former Nigerian leader Muhammadu Buhari dies aged 82 ⁰

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, who has died age 82 in a London clinic, was a former military ruler and self-styled converted democrat who returned to power through elections but struggled to convince Nigerians he could deliver on the change he promised.

Never a natural politician, he was seen as aloof and austere. But he retained a reputation for personal honesty – a rare feat for a politician in Nigeria.

After three failed attempts, Buhari achieved a historic victory in 2015, becoming the country’s first opposition candidate to defeat an incumbent. In 2019, he was re-elected for another four-year term.

Buhari had always been popular among the poor of the north (known as the “talakawa” in the Hausa language) but for the 2015 campaign, he had the advantage of a united opposition grouping behind him.

Many of those who supported him thought his military background and disciplinarian credentials were what the country needed to get to grips with the Islamist insurgency in the north. Buhari also promised to tackle corruption and nepotism in government, and create employment opportunities for young Nigerians.

But his time in office coincided with a slump in global oil prices and the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.

His administration also came under fire for its handling of insecurity. While campaigning he had promised to defeat the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. But the group remains a threat and one of its factions is now affiliated to the so-called Islamic State group.

There was also an upsurge in deadly clashes between farmers and ethnic Fulani herders in central Nigeria. Mr Buhari, a Fulani, was accused of not being tough enough on the herders or doing enough to stop the crisis.

The activities of so-called bandits in the north-western part of the country saw the abduction of hundreds of secondary school students.

Under his watch armed forces were accused of human rights abuses – like opening fire on anti-police brutality protesters at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos in October 2020.

Who was Muhammadu Buhari?

Muhammadu Buhari was born in December 1942 in Daura in Katsina state in the far north of Nigeria, near the border with Niger. At the time, Nigeria was controlled by the British and it would be another 18 years before the country gained independence.

Buhari’s father, who died when he was four, was Fulani, while his mother, who brought him up, was Kanuri. In a 2012 interview, Buhari spoke of being his father’s 23rd child and his mother’s 13th. He said his only recollection of his father was of the two of them and one of his half-brothers being thrown from the back of a horse.

AFP Buhari campaign poster — After three failed attempts, Buhari won victory at the polls in 2015

The young Buhari attended primary school in Daura and then boarding school in the city of Katsina. After leaving school, he was admitted to the Nigerian Military Training College, joining the Nigerian army shortly after independence.

Buhari undertook officer training in the UK from 1962-1963 and then began his steady climb up the ranks.

In later years, Buhari attributed his disciplinarian bent to spending his formative years at boarding school, where corporal punishment was the norm, and in the military. He was “lucky” to have experienced such tough environments, which taught him to work hard, he said.

In 1966, there was a military coup and then counter-coup in Nigeria – a time of upheaval for army officers but Buhari always maintained he was too junior to have played any significant role.

Less than 10 years later, under a military government, Buhari had risen to become military governor of the north-east, an area then comprising six states.

After less than a year, Buhari, now in his mid-30s, was promoted again, becoming federal commissioner for petroleum and natural resources (in effect oil minister) in 1976 under Olusegun Obasanjo in his first spell as Nigerian head of state.

Indiscipline and corruption

By 1978, Buhari, then a colonel, had returned to being a military commander. His tough stance in 1983 – when some Nigerian islands were annexed in Lake Chad by Chadian soldiers – is still remembered in the north-east, after he blockaded the area and drove off the invaders.

The end of 1983 saw another coup, against elected President Shehu Shagari, and Buhari, now a major-general, became the country’s military ruler. By his own account, he was not one of the plotters but was installed (and subsequently discarded) by those who held the real power and needed a figurehead.

Other accounts suggest he played a more active role in removing Shagari than he was willing to admit.

Buhari ruled for 20 months, a period remembered for a campaign against indiscipline and corruption, as well as for human rights abuses.

About 500 politicians, officials and businessmen were jailed as part of a campaign against waste and corruption.

Some saw this as the heavy-handed repression of military rule. Others remember it as a praiseworthy attempt to fight the endemic corruption that was holding back Nigeria’s development.

Buhari retained a rare reputation for honesty among Nigeria’s politicians, both military and civilian, largely because of this campaign.

As part of his “war against indiscipline”, he ordered Nigerians to form neat queues at bus stops, under the sharp eyes of whip-wielding soldiers. Civil servants who were late for work were publicly humiliated by being forced to do frog jumps.

Some of his measures might have been seen as merely eccentric. But others were genuinely repressive, such as a decree to restrict press freedom, under which journalists were jailed.

Buhari’s government also locked up Nigeria’s greatest musical hero, Fela Kuti – a thorn in the side of successive leaders – on trumped-up charges relating to currency exports.

Buhari’s attempts to re-balance the public finances by curbing imports led to many job losses and the closure of businesses.

As part of anti-corruption measures, he also ordered that the currency be replaced – the colour of the naira notes was changed – forcing all holders of old notes to exchange them at banks within a limited period.

Prices rose while living standards fell, and in August 1985 Buhari was ousted and imprisoned for 40 months. Army chief Gen Ibrahim Babangida took over.

Historic election victory

After his release and, he said, having seen the consequences of the break-up of the Soviet Union, Buhari decided to enter party politics, now convinced of the virtues of multiparty democracy and free and fair elections.

Despite this, Buhari always defended the 1983 coup, saying in 2005: “The military came in when it was absolutely necessary and the elected people had failed the country.”

He also rejected accusations that his measures against journalists and others had gone too far, insisting that he had been merely applying the laws that others had been breaking.

AFP Muhammadu Buhari and his wife Aisha Halilu — Buhari’s wife, Aisha, joined the criticism of her husband’s administration

He was elected president in 2015, becoming the first opposition candidate to defeat an incumbent since the return of multiparty democracy in 1999.

As president, Buhari made a virtue of his “incorruptibility”, declaring his relatively modest wealth and saying he had “spurned several past opportunities” to enrich himself.

He was plain spoken by nature, which sometimes played well for him in the media and sometimes badly.

Although few doubted his personal commitment to fighting corruption and there were several notable scalps, some questioned whether the structures enabling mismanagement had really been reformed.

And attempts to improve youth employment prospects were, at best, a work in progress.

‘Bag of rice’

On the day Buhari left office, some Nigerians were asked in a video that was widely shared on social media, what they would remember most about his time in office, and all respondents said the same thing: ‘Bag of rice’.

The reason was simple – rice is the staple food in the country.

A standard 50kg (110lb) bag of rice, which could help feed a household of between eight and 10 for about a month, cost just 7,500 naira ($5; £3) under President Goodluck Jonathan, who was defeated by Buhari in 2015, but went up to 60,000 naira a few years afterwards.

This led to hunger in many parts of the country.

The huge surge in the price of rice was because, in an echo of his earlier policy as a military ruler, Buhari banned the importation of rice to encourage more Nigerian farmers to grow the crop.

However, local producers were unable to meet the high demand and many of his supporters lost their faith in him.

Ismail Danyaro, a resident of the northern city of Kano, said he had backed Buhari since he first contested the presidency in 2003.

“I used to buy a 50kg bag of rice under Goodluck [Jonathan] but when Buhari came, I found it difficult to buy even a 25kg bag of rice because it became so expensive,” he told the BBC.

At one point, even Buhari’s wife threatened not to support his re-election bid.

AFP Muhammadu Buhari — Buhari never accepted that his measures as military ruler were repressive or over-zealous

‘Baba go slow’

Nigerians love nicknames and some of the country’s leaders’ nicknames have stuck even long after they left office.

For example, former military leader Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida is still called “Maradona” for what people perceived as his tactical dribbles on issues and situations.

For Buhari, it was “Baba [Father] go slow” after it took him six months to name his first cabinet on assuming office in 2015.

Responding to his nickname years later, Buhari said it wasn’t his fault that it took so long to get anything done.

“Yes, we are slow because the system is slow. It’s not Baba that is slow but it is the system so I am going by this system and I hope we will make it,” he said in 2018.

Nigerian politics in 2022-2023 remains one of the most interesting in the country’s democratic history.

In the minds of many, it was the first time that a sitting president wasn’t really bothered about who his successor was going to be.

Openly, Buhari declared he would support whoever won his party’s (All Progressives Congress) nomination but insiders say behind the scenes he was ambivalent.

Buhari’s body language emboldened all five candidates seeking the APC’s endorsement and their supporters all went around saying they had his backing.

At one point it felt as if Buhari opposed the candidacy of his eventual successor, Bola Tinubu.

What followed was the declaration of the “naira swap policy” which the Buhari administration announced would, among other things, limit the influence of money in the 2023 elections.

Many Nigerians believed that the policy was targeted at preventing Tinubu from becoming president even though he had been chosen as the APC candidate.

The policy involved the confiscation of trillions of old naira notes and their replacement with new notes for the highest denominations.

However, there were not enough new notes, leading to shortages and suffering by millions, particularly the less well-off, who rely on cash for their daily transactions.

The policy was only suspended after a Supreme Court ruling, just days before the election.

Tinubu won narrowly, with 37% of votes cast, as the opposition was divided.

Any assessment of Buhari’s presidency must take account his declining health, which caused him to take significant absences from work, especially during his first term.

The former military ruler may have reinvented himself as a democrat but there was no such commitment to transparency concerning his own health, with Nigerians left uninformed about the fitness of their head of state for office.

Muhammadu Buhari married twice, first to Safinatu Yusuf from 1971-1988, and then in 1989 to Aisha Halilu, who survives him. He had 10 children.

Source: BBC