Cameroon after October poll: Yang positioned for post of Vice President!.

Not even the candidatures of his longtime allies, Issa Tchiroma Bakary and Bello Bouba Maigari, have attained points on the country’s political graph to provoke Paul Biya.

The sphinx seems not to be thinking of the possibility of losing the election and handing over power to another person, after October 12, 2025.

While the other candidates are unable to form an alliance, but yet, talking tough about sweeping reforms if they are voted President, Biya and his coterie are pictured to not just be working about attaining victory. 

They are said to have gone as far as thinking about the sustainability of the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM, fraternity in charge of the country.

In the arrangements of political impulses, thoughts, suggestions and possible changes that are said to be bustling underneath within the corridors of power, Cameroon’s long-term future with the CPDM staying as decider-in-chief is being considered as a vital equation. 

Biya, 92, known for keeping most of his major political thunderbolts close to his chest, it is emerging from authoritative sources, has his mind on changing the architecture of the country’s power structure, if re-elected on October 12. 

Though such changes have been rumoured in the last three years, there is just yet another whirlwind brewing that could rejuvenate one of his longtime confidants to the front roll of leadership again.

The Guardian Post has it on good authority that the President is thinking of possibly tinkering the Constitution, after the October 12 presidential election. Biya is expected to win the poll by a wide margin. 

The old-new novelty being worked on, it is being said, is re-introducing the post of Vice President of the Republic. The potential change is said to be programmed for either the November or March 2026 session of Parliament.

Beyond thinking of introducing the position, Biya is said to be also thinking of submitting a bill that will empower the Head of State with power to appoint his vice.

Yang Phileman projected to deputise

In the long and winding twists that could lead up to the identity of who becomes the country’s Vice President, the search is said not to be out of the ordinary.

Biya is believed to be considering several profiles, among them Philemon Yunji Yang, former Prime Minister, Head of Government.

Yang is due to hand over as the President of the 79^th General Assembly of the United Nations, UNGA. This was be in the course of the 80^th UNGA, which begins on September 9, 2025. He could return home, join the campaign for Biya’s re-election and then get elevated to the country’s Vice President, through a fiat, months after.

Yang is not being mooted for the post for the first time.  He had some time ago featured among the country’s top Biya collaborators who were shortlisted in the face of calculations of a possible Biya successor and post of Vice President.

His experience, discreetness and age are said to be considered as an asset to make for a Vice President in a country where young people continue to watch from the peripheries how the State is managed. 

Reality of Anglophone factor

Within the rungs of power and especially among those who have the President’s ears, the shaping of the file of a Vice Presidency, it is said, has for long provoked several debates. 

The jigsaw has been between dealing with an increasingly assertive English-speaking minority and other top-placed French-speaking heavyweights with eyes to occupy such a position, if it ever sees the light.

The later, reports hold, is among issues that have been splitting hairs within the President’s power chamber. 

But given the close to a decade conflict in the English-speaking Regions, not unconnected to Anglophone marginalisation, many power brokers in the Biya regime are said to be coming to terms with the reality that if there is Vice Presidency, the occupant, automatically, should be an Anglophone.

Post to reduce Biya’s workload, influence peddling?

One of the issues that have come up repeatedly as Biya seeks an eight term in office, is his age.  Many of his critics, among them former ministers and even allies, have repeatedly claimed that at 92, Biya should normally have retired from politics as a Statesman.

Presidential candidate, Batonnier Akere Muna has even argued that the President is a human being like any other who should be experiencing cognitive downturns at his age. He considers that at such age, Biya should “return to the village” and give room for vibrant blood at the helm of State.

Others say some of the President’s collaborators are taking advantage of the situation to do things out of tie with Presidential directives for selfish purposes.

Analysts say introducing the post of Vice President could be President Paul Biya’s strategy to silence his critics and others, who have for long been eying the country’s top job. 

Having a Vice President, observers say, is one strategic window to guarantee stability, sure path of succession and reducing the workload of the Head of State. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3554 of Thursday September 04, 2025