2025 presidentials: What if Biya decides to step down?.

Why in the first place are CPDM politicians, many well-groomed in law, screeching that President Biya, 91, and over four decades in power, should take another seven-year term at a time even three terms are considered a taboo in democratic parlance?

Does their party's constitution not say as president of the CPDM, he is a "natural presidential candidate" of the party?

Why do the "callers" not wait till the end of his current mandate when he said he would decide to retire to "the village" or not?

The million-dollar question which has dominated national and international debate has been: "What lies ahead for post-Biya era in Cameroon?"

"His influence is as nebulous as his presence, a spectral figure from an era defined by a conspicuous assertive leadership," researchers say.

It is disheartening to see how politicians are clamouring for a cryptic almost one-party rule, silently ignoring the collective challenges the country is smeared in.

The era after Biya predicts akin to navigating uncharted territory. When a political structure is anchored on a personality, as Biya has so meticulously ensured, it is difficult to envision a future as its architect.

Though there have been hypocritical calls for the president to run again, underneath those "motions of support", there have equally been vicious succession battles reported in the media to ignite a whirlwind of conspiracies, betrayals, and political maneuverings.

In such a divisive and antagonising situation, Prof Eric Essono Tsimi, Assistant Professor of Francophone Cultural Studies at the City University of New York, asserts that the country "seems to be caught in the throes of a political Darwinian drama, where the mighty prey on the weak, a spectacle gruesomely showcased in the downfall of seemingly feeble [opposition] presidential hopefuls".

In the tenuous jostling for power, President Biya remains unruffled, abreast with the intrigues and unpredictable as usual. 

In the words of jailed former Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic from 2002 to 2006, Marafa Hamidou Yaya: “He knows how to organise himself to preserve his power. He takes particular care to always be well informed; in this, I believe that he applies this lesson from Mazarin well".

Cardinal Mazarin was an Italian Catholic prelate, diplomat and politician who served as the Chief Minister to the Kings of France Louis XIII and Louis XIV from 1642 to March 9, 1661. 

In one of his writings from prison, Marafa claiming Biya may be like the strategy of Maarin, wrote that the president is well "informed about everyone, do not entrust his secrets to anyone, but put all his perseverance into discovering those of others. I am not claiming that he “spies” on his collaborators; but I can assure you that he is aware of many things...".

Reiterating that the president is very discreet, Marafa recalled that when he was being informed of his impending appointment as Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic, the Head of State, said: 'You don’t talk to anyone about it. Not even to your wife. Do you understand me correctly?'  I stammered a “Yes, Mr. President”.

Perhaps in that secrecy, the president is silently watching the pretenders gunning to replace him and grooming his successor, given his advanced age. 

But until he opens up, since nobody is indispensable and subject to mortality, The Guardian Post is of the conviction that the ruling party politicians should address issues like high cost of living, especially as the price of a bag of rice spiked from 18,000 FCFA last December to 35,000 FCFA in many parts of the country.

Other more pressing challenges are the thousands of Cameroonian refugees suffering in camps in Nigeria, the internally displaced, Monday ghost towns in the South West and North West Regions that paralyse socio-economic and educational activities.

Electricity and water supply remain insufficient so is a sick health delivery system that the rich and top government officials abandon to be evacuated regularly for treatment abroad.

Those challenges have not had a tangible solution in the Biya era despite all the exhausted efforts. 

Shouldn't his party officials not be debating about a successor to come up with creative and innovative ideas rather than propping up a status quo of over four decades?

Where will those in their hypocritical "the people's call" keep their heads should the president in his magnanimity and statesmanship differ with them as he did in the early nineties when the same party acolytes marched in Yaounde to protect a one-party system? 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3204 Tuesday August 20, 2024