New gov’t: The wait may be longer.

What made the announcement of extra interest to the public was that, Biya the sphinx, had said the government was going to be formed "in the “coming days.”

Yet, eight months on, nothing has happened. It is still the same old government that is running business in Yaounde.

In recent memory, it is also the longest time that Biya has had a government in place for seven years and still counting, without any reshuffle. 

The wait is likely to continue, based on what watchers say are clear pointers of such happening not feasible soon.

Having barely returned to the country from a 74-day “brief private stay in Europe,” that left the polity and the global media talking, Biya is yet to make any major move in any public office. 

This is September and the different camps and millions of Cameroonians who, all along have waited for a shock pick of members of government are trapped in nostalgia.

Noting in sight 

While Cameroonians anxiously look forward to having new faces in government, the man who has the power to unpack the old guards and bring in new faces is pictured to be in a frame of not changing anything, anytime soon.

Analysts are stating that with eight months into a new year, it is very unlikely that Biya will change the government, because sitting ministers have almost exhausted the budget for the current year.

The deadline for the engagement of contracts is November 30. With such a scenario, many are beginning to conclude that the current government will stay in place until 2027.

Even amid rumours of the budget having been suspended for months, the pace of things within the President’s circle, observers are noting, do not suggest anything big going to happen anytime soon.

Vice President post more pressing

Another aspect being factored into the country’s political temperature with many insisting that a new government is far from being put in place, is that of the Vice President post. 

Given the impression that such a choice would basically open a path to succession and Cameroon’s future, Biya, it is being said, considers such a file hotter than forming a new government. 

Political watchers say Cameroonians can only start dreaming of a new government when President Biya would have settled on the choice of Vice President. 

It is a file which is said to be drawing interest from several camps, including diplomatic and international business circles. 

If Biya has not appointed a Vice President, many are those who are saying, it is very unlikely that he would move forward to appointing new Ministers. 

For one thing, a Vice President, it is being said, would set the tone, contours and composition of the next government.

The Vice President post is expected to have an effect on who becomes the head of other important structures such as the President of the Economic and Social Council. The same position is also being projected to tilt a bit the office and place of the Prime Minister within the Republic. 

This is already being judged to be more delicate if the Vice Presidency is handed to a compatriot of Anglophone extraction. These political complexities are pictured in the several layers Biya needs to penetrate before picking Ministers.

In case the Vice President ends up being a younger compatriot, many say, it could mean time for the Head of State to retire the several deadwoods who have been in the corridors of power for decades and get people who could fit into the new shift he longed promised.

Conversely, if the game produces a face from within the lot of the known faces in government or around the circles of  power, pundits say, anything in the name of a new government could be the recycling of old guards.

Possibility of readjusting after twin polls

If Biya has spent eight months with the same team, after a deadly Presidential election in October 2025, with major opposition in routes, waiting for a few more months, is already also viewed to be in the President’s agenda.

Except otherwise, the expected new government, pundits are also saying, could be delayed till after the municipal and legislative elections in early 2027. 

Given the decline in support for the CPDM, based on the 53.33 percent score of its candidate, Paul Biya, in last year’s Presidential poll; the lowest since after the April 1992 Presidential election, Biya is interpreted to being more calculative. 

The President, some are saying, could decide to wait for the new political map of the country after the twin polls before engaging in a complete shift in sharing the positions in a new government. 

New administrative units in gestation

Underground works and consultations across the present 58 Divisions of the country towards creating new administrative units is also said to be something that could cause President Biya to take his time in forming a government.

For one thing, the creation of new Subdivisions, Divisions and Regions, would warrant readjustment in how the President picks who and from where to serve in the government.

New parliamentary seats are also expected to be carved out. With such yet to be fully submitted to him, pundits say the wait for a new government may be longer than expected.

Ongoing censuses 

The ongoing fourth housing, population, agriculture and livestock censuses, is also another thing being pictured as likely to delay the formation of a government. 

The exercise comes after the last one that took place in 2005. 21 years after, development experts said much has changed in terms of population dynamics, livestock and the needs of the population. 

Biya, it is being said, may decide to wait for the census to be over before making any key changes in government. 

The exercise, which was initially scheduled to run from April 24 to May 29, 2026, was postponed to July 31, then later August 31, 2026, by the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Dr Chief Joseph Dion Ngute.

Biya’s timing in last 22 years 

In the last 22 years, records show periods during which Biya has changed the government the most. 

These are the cabinet reshuffles of: December 8, 2004; September 22, 2006; June 30, 2009; December10, 2011; October 2, 2015; March 2, 2018 and January 4, 2019.

This shows that since December 2004, Biya has carried out seven cabinet reshuffles. Within this 22-year window, four of such governments have been named in the last quarter of the year. 

Two others have been within the first quarter of the year while only one was done in the middle of the year. This was the government of June 30, 2009, that brought Philemon Yunji Yang as Prime Minister.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3906 of Friday September 11, 2026