Glaring evidence of fatigue: Niat, Cavaye stage New Year wishes drama!.

Unlike in previous years since the institution of the Senate in 2013, where the battle has always been who between the Senate President and the National Assembly Speaker, was supposed to take the queue, after the Head of State, crazier things have gone on record this year.

Shortly after Biya’s flamboyant New Year wishes spectacle at the Unity Palace, theatrics held sway at the Senate and the National Assembly. 

The Head of State performed the ritual at the Presidency and in person but the second and third persons in the nation’s power architecture, served Cameroonians with something never seen in decades and perhaps anywhere in the world.

In the evening hours of Thursday, January 8, shortly after Biya’s Unity Palace event, Senate President, Marcel Niat Njifenji, who was conspicuously absent, organised something akin to a New Year wishes ceremony at his private residence in Yaounde.

The Guardian Post gathered on good authority that it was just a few Senators, mostly members of the Senate Bureau, who were invited to Niat’s private residence. Niat is said to have organised the event under the guise of a medal award ceremony to some Senators. 

Yet, at the same gathering, the bureau members are said to have lined up to wish Niat the best for 2026.  Apparently not unconnected to his state of health and age, Niat, sources said, received the wishes from his seat with an imposing picture of President Biya behind him.

The spectacle at Niat’s home, which some have likened to a comedy, was yet again followed by something similar at the National Assembly. This was on Friday, January 9. 

Shockingly, long serving House Speaker, Cavaye Yéguié Djibril, who had issued a statement announcing a ceremony to receive New Year wishes, was not present.

For what critics say is a new low in the nation’s public service, Cavaye, we are told, was rather represented at the event by the Senior Vice President of the National Assembly, Hon Hilarion Etong. 

This, many say, is the first time in Cameroon’s history that someone was receiving New Year wishes on behalf of another.

Everyone attached to Cavaye’s office, including security officials, filed past before Etong to wish him the best for the New Year.

Clear evidence of fatigue?

Beyond the New Year wishes ceremony melodrama at the Senate and National Assembly, pundits say they are seeing something different.  They are affirming that what transpired over the weekend shows clear fatigue in leadership at the Senate and the National Assembly. 

Emphatically, those who hold to this view put the blame squarely at the doorsteps of Hon Niat and Hon Cavaye. 

Given their ages and time spent in serving the public, they said both personalities are normally supposed to have been spending time at home with their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Cavaye, 86 years, has been heading the National Assembly for close to 34 uninterrupted years. 

On the other hand, Niat, 91, has been the leader of the Senate since 2013, when the institution went operational. 

In the last couple of years, the Senate boss has been largely absent from public events. It is a development which many say passes across a message of fatigue, with some believing that he has increasingly been in and out of hospital. Niat is said to be most often be on medical tourism abroad.

Cavaye on his part, some are saying, has lost his agility, affecting the flow of work and the pace of other things at the National Assembly, same with Niat at the Senate. It is a situation which critics say shows Cameroon’s Parliament is on crutches.

Niat, Cavaye absent at Unity Palace New Year wishes ceremony!

Like Niat, Cavaye too was not at the Presidency to extend best wishes to the Head of State for the New Year. Cavaye was lastly seen in public on November 2025. This was when he presided the closing ceremony of the November session at the National Assembly, which was devoted to scrutinising and adopt the 2026 State budget.

At the National Assembly, it was a dual event with medal awards as part of the package. That Niat could not show up at the Senate to receive New Year wishes last Thursday, many say, leaves citizens with the impression that he is tired. 

They argue that even if it was a ceremony to award medals to some distinguished Senators, Niat was supposed to have performed the ritual at the seat of the Senate and not at his private home. 

They further substantiate that Senate business is not private business that should be conducted in Niat’s house. It is further alleged that Niat had long packed out of his official residence to his private residence in Yaounde.

Staging events at all cost to justify expenditures?

Outside the drama of absence and presence at New Year wishes ceremonies, a defining factor has come to the fore. It is reported that the ceremonies were ‘forced through’ to consume certain budget heads. 

Sources at the Senate and National Assembly confirmed to The Guardian Post that such ceremonies always cost the State hundreds of millions, reason they had to be staged, even under make-belief circumstances.

Senators grumbling in silence 

While at the National Assembly, lawmakers may have tasted their share of the ceremony’s budget, at the Senate, anger is said to be rife among its legislators. 

Most of those outside the Senate bureau are said to have qualified what happened at Niat’s residence as a simulation to exhaust certain budget heads. Many said in previous years, such events always ended with Senators signing fuel allowances and other benefits. 

With the low-key event this 2026, many are said to be grumbling that the bureau members were aware it was a ‘chopping scheme’ but opted to keep the rest of them at bay.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3671 of Monday January 12, 2026