Cameroonian President Paul Biya and his wife Chantal Biya participate in the May 20th Parade celebrating the 52nd Unity Day in Yaounde on May 20, 2024 (Photo Credit: -/AFP, Getty Images)
When rumors broke last week that Malawi's President Lazarus Chakwera had suffered a stroke and died, the 69-year-old quickly dispelled them with a light jog through the streets of Blantyre.
At one point, he stopped and did 11 push-ups in rapid succession, drawing applause from party supporters and onlookers.
The president's health is a sensitive issue in Malawi. It was only after Bingu wa Mutharika's aides spent several days pretending that the dead president's corpse was actually alive, trying unsuccessfully to hijack the “Bernie Weekend” plot to stop the constitutional transition. That was over ten years ago.
In Cameroon, the president's health is a similarly sensitive issue.
Rumors are swirling that 91-year-old Paul Biya may have died.
Despite official denials, he has not gone jogging and has not appeared in public at all. This is despite authorities announcing on October 8 that he would return to Cameroon “within the next few days.”
Biya's last public appearance anywhere in the world was after attending the China-Africa Cooperation Forum in Beijing on September 8.
He was conspicuously absent from the United Nations General Assembly in the United States in a few weeks and the Francophone summit in Paris this month.
Biya Prime Minister Samuel Mbondo Ayoro insisted the president was in “excellent health” during a “short private stay” in Geneva.
Social media is full of rumors, speculation and jokes, and not many people believe him.
Mr. Biya's presidency, which began 41 years ago, has always been opaque and not an enthusiastic public speaker.
Leaving the country and public life for long periods of time is nothing new.
But recent speculation is driven by something else. It's the weakness he shows when he appears in public.
In recent years, the president seems to be barely able to carry his frail body on his own.
After being called to speak at the U.S.-Africa Summit in Washington two years ago, on stage Mr. Biya turned to the protocol officer and asked him where he was and if there were any important guests in the room. , apparently not realizing that he was using a lapel microphone. I kept my clothes on.
Government spokesman René Emmanuel Sadie said rumors of Biya's death were “pure fantasy and fantasy” by detractors seeking to destabilize the country.
The interior minister classified the president's health as a matter of national security and banned media discussion of it. Home Affairs Minister Paul Atanga Nzi said: “Offenders will face the full force of the law.”
He has given local governors the power to establish surveillance units and crackdown on dissent.
Angela Quintal, director of the Africa program at the Committee to Protect Journalists, says there are easier ways to stop speculation than threatening journalists. “It would have been easier to arrange for President Biya to make a public appearance wherever he was.”
Go around the sick beer
Cameroon has experience dealing with a deceased president once, but it didn't go smoothly.
The country's other former head of state, Ahmadu Ahidjo, died in 1989. There is no rest for him. After being usurped by Mr. Biya, Mr. Ahidjo fled to Senegal in 1983. Six years later, he suffered a heart attack and was buried. In Dakar.
It was an ignominious end for a man who was a symbol of Cameroon's independence and was revered as a national hero.
However, Biya's government never repatriated his remains despite much public pressure, angering his family, people in northern Cameroon, civil society organizations, and opposition parties, including the Social Democratic Front. Very inviting.
These groups continue to campaign for the return of Ahidjo's body, seeing it as a way to honor him and reconcile some of Cameroon's bitter internal divisions.
There are no official regulations regarding what happens to the body of a current president when he dies. Also, the country does not know what will happen in his absence.
To maintain a firm grip on power, Biya has created a network of patronages that make any transition from him difficult.
To alarm allies, he has not announced a clear succession plan. That means Cameroon's next leader may have to compete against a crowded chessboard of other candidates.
There are many people aiming for the throne. Mr. Biya's close aides include his son Frank Biya, general secretary Ferdinand Goh, cabinet secretary Mbondo Ayolo, finance minister Louis-Paul Motaze, justice minister Laurent Esso, and government spokesperson Emmanuel Saidi. The Minister of Communications was named.
People may want politicians like Akere Muna and Christopher Fomunyo to challenge them. And opposition figures who see an opportunity include Cabral Libby, Maurice Camuto, Joshua Osi and Serge Espoir Matomba, who has significant support from Russia.
Anyone who ends up in Yaounde's Unity Palace or Biya's infamous corner suite at the InterContinental Hotel in Geneva will have their work cut out for them.
Munja Vitalis Faga, a political scientist at the University of Buea, said: “We were focused on developing strong talent, so we're going to have to start building all kinds of organizations.”
The author's identity is being kept anonymous given Cameroon's ban on discussing President Paul Biya's health status.
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