Yaoundé: Risking Biya’s life for the optics ⁰

The CPDM government will never run out of tricks provided those tricks help it to prove a point. They are currently concocting a plan that might expose the country’s ailing president, Paul Biya, to a massive risk.

The Yaoundé government has decided to terminate Mr. Biya’s long health visit to Geneva to prove that he is up to the task so that he can avoid the political embarrassment that may play out sometime next week.

Mr. Biya will no longer be the country’s president if he overstays the 45 days stipulated by the country’s constitution.

He has been out of the country for almost 40 days and the political opposition is already preparing a motion which will be submitted to the Parliament and Senate sometime next week which might result in the declaration of a vacancy due to poor health or insanity.

The move to take him to Yaoundé goes against the wise counsel of Swiss medical experts who hold that the long trip back home could be a death sentence to the 89-year-old Biya who has lost a lot of weight and has not been eating properly for days

A source in Geneva has informed the Cameroon Concord News Group’s correspondent in Geneva that Mr. Biya is a shadow of his former self and the long trip back home could end up being a finisher if proper measures are not taking during the flight.

According to the source, which elected anonymity, the Yaoundé government is taking a massive risk to transport a breathing bag of bones back home. The odds are stacked up against the desperately ill Biya.

“We are really watching the meaningless drama that is unfolding right in front of own eyes. Mr. Biya should be resting in a well equipped medical facility that should guarantee him good health care instead of heading home to prove that he can rule the country,” the source said.

“The best decision will be for him to honorably resign and hand over to someone who can hold the country together. Mr. Biya is sick. He is losing his mind. He is not coherent when he talks. He is frail and may not survive the fatigue that comes after a long flight. He needs to know that at his age, his health is more important than anything else,” the source added.

“The country’s ruling party is playing Russian roulette with Mr. Biya’s life and it is indeed unfortunate that his wife is playing along with those politicians who are doing all they can to protect their own parochial interests,” the source said.

“When you take a very close look at the man, you can figure out that he is really sick. He seems to be losing his mind and it is obvious that besides his debilitating heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, he is also suffering from dementia or Alzheimers. This is too much for an 89-year-old man to handle, but the pressure from Yaoundé to ensure that he returns to Cameroon, makes it hard for him to respond positively to treatment,” the source stressed.

Currently, there are police officers and soldiers in downtown Yaoundé, a sign that Mr. Biya might be returning, but nobody is really sure,  especially as his multiple diseases are determined to take him out of existence. The diseases know they are dealing with a tough cookie and they understand that his exit must be gradual and painful for him to regret the pain he has inflicted on Cameroonians.

Though there are police officers all over the capital, Yaoundé, many people still hold it is a gimmick orchestrated by the crime syndicate ruling the country to pull a fast one on the gullible people of Cameroon.

Pictures of Mr. Biya and his family returning to Cameroon will not be televised because of how he currently looks. He is frail and out of steam and is incapable of walking without help, a source in Geneva said.

The decision to bring him home is purely political, especially as he is expected to virtually preside over a CEMAC Heads of State Conference on Wednesday, August 18, 2021. It is clear that a recorded speech will be delivered while the Prime Minister will continue to represent the ailing president in other events during the conference that will be held via video.

Cameroonians are waiting to see their president who has been hastily patched together by Swiss experts, but they know that they might not be seeing him soon in public because of his failing health.

They know his collaborators are just seeking to demonstrate that he is doing well and to avoid the declaration of a vacancy in the country.

Even if Mr. Biya heads to Cameroon today, he will be returning to Switzerland in a few days to continue with his treatment. The trip to Cameroon is simply to politically protect him and his cohorts. It is not in any way a sign that he is healthy and can effectively rule Cameroon.

Cameroonians must continue to hold that dark clouds are really gathering over their country. Biya will surely leave, but he wants to leave, leaving behind chaos that will set the country back by a century. That is what is disturbing, a source in Yaoundé said.

For now, Cameroonians have taken the wait-and-see posture. They know their government. It is a government that lies through its teeth. The government has lost credibility and the current drama about Mr. Biya’s health is one more reason for them to understand that they should always take any story from their government with a pinch of salt.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai