Biya’s Health: What Yaoundé’s recent silence means for Cameroonians ⁰

The Francophone dominated regime in Yaoundé seems to be caught in a dilemma on how to respond to the current Biya health situation in Geneva, which could be a reason why after making public so many uncoordinated press releases and even cancelled a special prayer session, has refrained from commenting on the issue in the last few days.

In recent weeks, the Biya regime has been demonstrating that an Anglophone as prime minister is just window dressing as several Francophone cabinet ministers have been ramping up the development and airing funny press releases including launching a barrage of attacks on the media and citizens for discussing President Biya’s health.

But Yaoundé has refrained from additional press releases on the 91-year-old Biya for a week now.

It was widely anticipated that the so-called Anglophone Prime Minister Chief Dr Dion Ngute would stage a government action to assure Cameroonians that all is well with the dying leader.

Other than calling for prayers and issuing commentaries and statements through its state media condemning the television channels that announced the demise of the president including banning public discussions on the president’s health, Biya’s men are now maintaining a kind of silence of the lamb.

Yaoundé seems to be caught in a dilemma and has yet to decide on what to tell the Cameroonian people in response to the poor health condition of President Paul Biya in Geneva.

Vice President Dabney Yerima of the Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia Interim Government says the regime in Yaoundé seems to be calculating what steps it should take next.

Dabney Yerima added, “Or, the fact that Yaoundé has already been told that Biya is now a thing of the past could be another reason why it’s been silent for the last week.”

This week’s silence does not mean that Yaoundé will give up its lies on Biya’s health. But the regime’s propaganda that Biya is healthy and doing well in Geneva has now been stopped, due to the fact that it is not achieving anything.

No announcement has been made about Biya’s aborted return or the reasons. But this latest development has heightened doubts about the president’s condition, after September and October saw him cancel his participation in the United Nations General Assembly, the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF) summit and the meeting on sustainable development in Hamburg, Germany.

Faced with rumours of the president’s death spread by a television channel close to the Ambazonian separatists and widely reported on social networks, Etoudi and the Star Buildings were forced to make a public statement on 8 October, explaining that the head of state was continuing his stay in Switzerland, was in perfect health and would return to Cameroon “in the very near future”.

Today is Friday 18 October 2024 and President Biya is still not in Yaounde. Cameroonians are now wondering aloud “how near is this very near future.”

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai