OPINION: PAUL BIYA; The ‘SICK MAN’ OF YAOUNDÉ.

By Charles Anyiam (c)

Last time I saw Paul Biya was in the fall of 2022. The occasion was the US-Africa Leadership Summit in Washington DC.

Surrounded by an army of aides and security details, I was unable to sneak in a word of inquiry as he addled his way through the hallway into the conference room where President Joe Biden was meeting with over 40 African heads of government.

In case you are wondering why I was there, I was on assignment as the editor-in-chief of The African Times-USA, and as part of the accredited press corps covering the event.

I had successfully interviewed and chatted with President Macky Sall of Senegal who was the then Chairperson of the African Union (AU).

I also interacted with other African and American dignitaries at the foyer of the conference center. Among them were the Obama’s Secretary of State, Senator John Kerry with whom I reconnected.

But not Paul Biya.

Biya’s men effectively stopped members of the press, including yours truly from getting close to him.

He looked dazed, disoriented and discombobulated. He did not look like a medically fit person.

Inside the hall, Biya became a huge embarrassment. When it was his turn to take to the podium, he was so incoherent that hardly anyone in the room made sense of his written speech.

At the end of his ramblings, many of us wondered why – in the first place – he was allowed to attend the auspicious event.

Throughout his speech, his personal assistants who literally held him up physically on both sides had a Herculean task keeping the Cameroonian president on cue.

All this melodrama was taking place in the full view of the distinguished audience.

Like so many of us, and as an African, I was completely flabbergasted by this cynosure of the absurd.

Another depiction of the absurd was the presence of Equatorial Guinea’s President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

Like his Cameroonian counterpart, Mbasogo was looking decrepit and ill.

But his coterie of officials who circled around him was not to be missed – stern-looking group of security men – who hustled him away, and into the conference room.

Due to the increasingly complex nature of the relationship between the United States and the 54 independent African countries, the Biden administration had positioned and touted the all-star event as one of the many ways through which the US hoped to turn things around.

Of equally grave concern to the Americans was the economically growing influence of China all over the continent.

A close second on the list of Washington’s worries was the encroachment of Russia into a number of African countries, notably in the Sahel subregion of West Africa.

Back to the ‘Sick Man of Yaoundé’, Paul Barthelemy Biya’a bi Mvondo, better known as Paul Biya.

He came to power on November 6, 1982 after serving for seven years as Cameroon’s Prime Minister.

And when the first president of the country, Alhaji Ahmadou Ahidjo resigned unexpectedly, the mantle of leadership constitutionally fell on Biya.

He subsequently completed Ahidjo’s tenure, followed by a full term after a contentious election in 1984.

At almost 93 years of age, Paul Biya has become the world’s oldest president and Africa’s longest serving president after Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea who has held power since 1979.

Biya’s reign in the affairs of the Central African nation of Cameroon has been characterized by a tight authoritarian control of power. Like other countries with similar political system, there has been widespread corruption, high youth unemployment and violent crises, most notably the Anglophone separatist conflict.

Depending on who you ask, his government is credited with developing infrastructure such as schools and hospitals, fostering mining and agricultural growth.

But available statistics show that about 40% of Cameroon’s youth are unemployed.

He is dubiously associated with the repression of dissenting voices including the media and traditional institutions.

In Cameroon, it is open secret that ‘the state belongs to Biya and Biya belongs to no one’.

Only last week, unverified news reports have it that he is grooming his son, Franck Emmanuel Biya to replace him as he is getting frail by the minute. The government has since denied the allegations.

Dubbed the ‘absentee president’, confirmed reports reveal that Biya governs from overseas, especially from swanky Switzerland hotels from where he signs a backlog of decrees which are executed through a small circle of advisers and family members.

Most striking is that he disappears from the country during critical national moments, including periods before elections.

This has fueled speculations and uncertainty.

Two years ago, the peripatetic president was conspicuously absent from two major events – the UN General Assembly meeting in New York and the La Francophonie Summit in France.

According to the international newsletter, Semafor, Biya’s no-show at these two significant events “have stoked speculation about the Biya’s health and whereabouts”.

Most Cameroonians believe that Mr. President fondly nicknamed the ‘Lion Man’ is sick and suffering from major health conditions. They believe he is only bidding for time.

At a point, it was widely believed throughout Cameroon that Biya was dead.

Cameroon is currently dealing with a drawn out separatist conflict in the English-speaking regions and a counterinsurgency operation against Boko Haram in the North, according to the Semafor report.

But, Biya is AWOL.

Murmurings from within the country are growing louder, and independent sources told me that France is behind the interminably long stay of Paul Biya in power.

Relationship between Biya and France’s Emmanuel Macron, though cozy at times, has experienced moments of tension as the ailing president is rumored to be exploring an exit strategy.

As far as Biya is concerned, any replacement plan must include members of his nuclear family. France on the other hand, wants a successor who would protect French interests in the region.

Rumor mills have it that Biya suffers from cancer. He knows his days are numbered but wants a continuation of his legacy. Dead or alive.

Truth is that the ‘Lion Man’ is sick. Yaoundé knows it, and is waiting with bated breath.