Open letter to President Biya on legality.

It is within that tried-and-tested template of objectivity and rule of law on which any “democratic ethic” swirls, that we take the liberty to join other compatriots who have a patriotic psyche, to draw your attention to some national issues bordering on illegality, which your aides might not have pointed them out to you for obvious reasons.

We begin with the open letter, addressed to your supreme office by Vincent Sosthène Fouda, politician and academic, which is currently circulating on the social media. 

In it, he respectfully said he did so: “Because certain truths, when left unspoken, become wounds inflicted upon the State.” Mr President, Since the October 12, 2025 Presidential election, two members of your government- Mounouna Foutsou and Gabriel Mbaïrobé, have been holding dual roles in government in complete illegality.”

He argues that each of them “heads two ministries without a decree, without a formal appointment, and without the signature, which carries the force of law in our Republic.” 

He does not, Mr President, doubt the competence of Ministers Mounouna Foutsou and Gabriel Mbaïrobe. They serve. They work. They carry out the missions you entrusted to them. But the Republic itself cannot be governed by officials in prolonged acting roles.

Mr President, as an architect of Rigour and Moralisation, he drew your attention to the work of Gabriel Nlep, who, in his studies on State normality, found out that "legality is not an option, but a condition for the State to breathe."     

Another scholar, Magloire Ondoa, in his analyses of public governance, writes that "the exception cannot become the rule without the Republic losing its soul." 

Henri Ntap, in his lectures in Bertoua, constantly repeats that "an interim role is a bridge, never a destination," Fouda wrote in his open letter to you.

The Guardian Post, Your Excellency, shares those scholarly articulations grounded on research and the rule of law.

As we have always had the opportunity to point out to your summit office before now, in 2017, you signed a crucial decree limiting the term of office of General Managers of government enterprises to three years renewable twice, to take the ceiling to nine years and those of Board Chairpersons to the same period renewable once. 

It was acclaimed because it regulated renewal procedures that enforce an oversight mechanism of accountability and invigoration.

Ironically, a report, published recently by Prof Viviane Ondoua Biwole, an expert in public governance, highlighted that a whopping 77 Board Chairs and 36 General Managers and Deputy General Managers of government companies, are serving above those term limits, with some on the job for over three decades!

Mr President, is that not illegality with impunity? Why have their supervising authorities not drawn your attention for a replacement? Is the cost not too heavy for the tax payers and the economy?

A law that is not enforced is a dead letter at variance with the rule of law. Mr President and guardian of the Constitution, Prof Ondoua Biwole’s investigation highlighted more of a crucial legal vacuum as a lack of will to enforce existing rules.

As a legalist, Mr President, you know too well that a Board Chairperson or General Manager with an expired mandate can have a signed contract legally challenged and the State held liable in the event of litigation.

Such a scenario, which we pray should not happen, is a massive legal risk, which your government should avoid. We are aware the fault is not mainly yours, but that of the supervisory ministers. 

They do not expect you to be omnipresent when you have appointed over 60 ministers, ministers delegate and secretaries of State to facilitate the machinery of governance.

They are duty bound to brief your Excellency about the General Managers and Board Chairs whose mandates have expired, in the same vein as they should with all Governors who have served beyond the maximum retirement age of 60 years.

That, in our understanding of your 1995 posting on “democratic ethics,” and our civic responsibility, is to ensure government ministers serve the governed in accordance with the rule of law on which “respect of Republican institutions” sits with comfort. We remain your sincere patriotic corporate citizen, The Guardian Post. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3910 of Tuesday September 15, 2026