Politics

France: Macron denies being main target of campaign financing probe

25, November 2022

France: Macron denies being main target of campaign financing probe 0

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday denied being the main target of a judicial investigation into the government’s use of management consultants and their role in recent election campaigns.

The French financial crime prosecutor’s office revealed late Thursday that it had opened a probe which was thought to be focused on Macron and his 2017 and 2022 presidential campaigns.

“I’m not scared of anything,” the 44-year-old head of state told reporters during a trip to the town of Dijon.

“I believe that your servant is not at the heart of the investigation,” he added, referring to himself.

“It’s normal that the justice system does its work. It does it freely and will shine a light on this issue.”

The prosecutor’s statement did not name Macron or his election campaign, but said investigators were looking into allegations of favouritism and hidden campaign financing in relation to management consultancies.

The probe began after complaints following the publication of a Senate report in March which showed government spending on consultants had more than doubled during Macron’s first term from 2017-22.

The favouritism allegation could relate to US-based consultancy firm McKinsey, which was the biggest beneficiary of these contracts and reportedly provided staff to Macron’s 2017 campaign team for free.

KcKinseygate?

“I tell you, no,” Macron replied when asked about the allegation, adding that he had explained himself “hundreds of times” already.

The Senate’s revelations about spending on consultants — which reached a billion euros ($1.1 billion) last year — were seized on by Macron’s opponents during his campaign for a second term this April.

The scandal, dubbed “McKinseygate” by the French media, became a debating point, with many French people shocked by the use of expensive and foreign firms which specialise in strategic advice and IT services.

Macron has repeatedly defended the recourse to consultants.

“When you want to go very quickly and very strongly with a policy, you need to make use of outside contractors occasionally,” he told reporters in late March.

The investigation is significant because it could be the first that risks personally implicating the president.

Several of his allies, including his current chief of staff, face legal investigations over a range of charges.

‘Slow poison’

The most damaging incident involved his former bodyguard who was filmed beating up protesters in 2018 and was later convicted of assault.

“For the moment, this issue is going completely over the head of French people who are obsessed with economic, energy and social considerations,” Frederic Dabi, the director of polling group Ifop, told AFP.

“It remains to be seen if it will become a slow poison for Macron’s camp if there are a series of judicial developments,” he added.

France has strict rules on the financing of election campaigns and political parties, which have led to many convictions in recent decades.

Right-wing ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy received a one-year prison sentence in September 2021 for illegal financing of his 2012 re-election bid.

Judges concluded that Sarkozy spent nearly twice the legal limit on his doomed quest for a second term.

He has appealed.

“Let’s stop imagining that because an investigation has been opened that there’s something outrageous,” MP Sylvain Maillard, interim leader of Macron’s party in parliament, told Europe 1 on Friday.

Source: AFP

UK Supreme Court rejects Scottish referendum bid

23, November 2022

UK Supreme Court rejects Scottish referendum bid 0

Britain’s highest court on Wednesday rejected a bid by the devolved Scottish government in Edinburgh to hold a new referendum on independence without London’s consent.

The unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court torpedoed the Scottish nationalist government’s push to hold a second plebiscite next year.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) had said that in that event, it would turn the next general election into a de-facto vote on splitting from the rest of the United Kingdom, threatening constitutional chaos.

First Minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said she respected the ruling but was “disappointed”.

If Scotland cannot “choose our own future without Westminster consent”, the idea of the UK as a voluntary partnership was exposed as a “myth”, she tweeted.

The Supreme Court’s Scottish president, Robert Reed, said the power to call a referendum was “reserved” to the UK parliament under Scotland’s devolution settlement.

Therefore “the Scottish parliament does not have the power to legislate for a referendum on Scottish independence”, Reed said.

Sturgeon’s SNP-led government in Edinburgh wanted to hold a vote in October next year on the question: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”

The UK government, which oversees constitutional affairs for the whole country, has repeatedly refused to give Edinburgh the power to hold a referendum.

It considers that the last one — in 2014, when 55 percent of Scots rejected independence — settled the question for a generation.

But Sturgeon and her party say there is now an “indisputable mandate” for another independence referendum, particularly in light of the UK’s departure from the European Union.

Most voters in Scotland opposed Brexit.

Source: France 24

Francophone countries meet for summit in Tunisia

19, November 2022

Francophone countries meet for summit in Tunisia 0

The world’s club of French-speaking countries will meet in Tunisia from Saturday for talks focused on economic cooperation, more than a year after President Kais Saied began an internationally criticised power grab.

Around 30 heads of state and government, including French President Emmanuel Macron, his Senegalese counterpart Macky Sall and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, are set to attend the summit of the International Organisation of Francophonie (OIF) on the southern Tunisian resort island of Djerba.

While the two-day summit and an associated economic forum will officially focus on digital technology’s role in development, it will also be an opportunity for Western and African leaders to discuss issues like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Many African countries have decried what they see as a lack of international solidarity in the face of crises on their continent, in sharp contrast with European nations’ swift support of Kyiv.

The summit coincides with the final stage of UN climate talks in Egypt, and comes just days after G20 leaders met in Indonesia for a meeting dominated by the war in Ukraine, which is an OIF observer state.

Source: AFP

Third World Politics: Donald Trump announces his run for presidency in 2024

16, November 2022

Third World Politics: Donald Trump announces his run for presidency in 2024 0

Donald Trump, who has mounted relentless attacks on the integrity of US voting since his 2020 election defeat, on Tuesday launched a bid to regain the presidency in 2024, aiming to pre-empt potential Republican rivals.

Seeking a potential rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden, Trump made his announcement at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida a week after midterm elections in which Republicans failed to win as many seats in Congress as they had hoped.

In a speech lasting a little more than an hour and broadcast live on US television, Trump spoke to hundreds of supporters in a ballroom decorated with several chandeliers and lined with dozens of American flags.

“In order to make America great again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,” Trump said to a cheering, phone-waving crowd, which included family members, donors and former staffers.

Earlier in the day, aides filed paperwork with the US Federal Election Commission setting up a committee called “Donald J. Trump for President 2024.”

Trump steered clear of the name-calling that has marked other public appearances, opting instead for a critique of Biden’s presidency and a review of what Trump said were the policy achievements of his own time in office.

“Two years ago we were a great nation and soon we will be a great nation again,” he said.

Trump laid out familiar dark themes from his playbook, denouncing migrants – “We’re being poisoned” – and portraying American cities as in the grip of a crime wave that has left them “cesspools of blood.”

He said he would push for the death penalty for drug dealers and term limits for lawmakers and rehire members of the military who had been dismissed for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Although he assailed the US election process, he did not use his speech to relive his false claims of massive voter fraud in 2020 and did not mention the Jan. 6, 2021 attack by his supporters on the US Capitol.

Trump predicted his campaign will be opposed by left-wing groups, the Washington establishment and the news media. “But we will not be intimidated. We will persevere. We will march forward into the torrent.”

Long road

There is a long road ahead before the Republican nominee is formally selected in the summer of 2024, with the first state-level contests more than a year away.

Trump’s announcement comes earlier than usual even in a country known for protracted presidential campaigns and signals his interest in discouraging other possible contenders such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis or his own former vice president, Mike Pence, from making a bid for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination.

DeSantis handily won re-election as governor during the midterms. Pence, while promoting his new book, has sought to distance himself from Trump.

Other potential Republican presidential hopefuls include Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Trump played an active role in the midterms, recruiting and promoting candidates who echoed his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud.

But many of his candidates in key battleground states lost, prompting some prominent Republicans to openly blame him for promoting weak candidates who derailed the party’s hopes of taking control of the Senate.

Control of the House of Representatives remains up in the air, but Republicans are on track to win a razor-thin majority.

Trump will seek his party’s nomination even as he faces trouble on several fronts, including a criminal investigation into his possession of government documents taken when he left office as well as a congressional subpoena related to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault.

Trump has called the various investigations he faces politically motivated and has denied wrongdoing.

Trump, 76, is seeking to become only the second US president in history to serve non-consecutive terms, after Grover Cleveland, whose second stint ended in 1897. Biden, 79, said last week he intends to run for re-election and will likely make a final decision by early next year.

In an Edison Research exit poll, seven out of 10 midterm voters expressed the view that Biden, who remains deeply unpopular, should not run again. In the same poll, six of 10 respondents said they had an unfavorable opinion of Trump.

Trump’s presidency

During his turbulent 2017-2021 presidency, Trump defied democratic norms and promoted “America First” nationalism while presenting himself as a right-wing populist. He became the first US president to be impeached twice, though congressional Democrats failed in their attempts to remove him from office.

At a rally that preceded the Capitol attack, Trump urged supporters to “fight like hell” and march on Congress to “stop the steal,” but the mob that subsequently stormed the Capitol failed to prevent Congress from formally certifying Biden’s election victory.

Even though court and state election officials rejected Trump’s false election claims, about two-thirds of Republican voters believe Biden’s victory was illegitimate, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling.

Trump has elicited passionate support from many Americans, especially white men, Christian conservatives, rural residents and people without a college education. Critics accuse Trump of pursuing policies built around “white grievance” in a nation with a growing non-white population.

The political landscape has changed dramatically since he won the presidency in 2016 and some in his party, including major donors, are exhausted by the drama surrounding him.

His single term as president stands as one of the most contentious in US history.

He secured sweeping tax cuts, imposed curbs on immigration and orchestrated a rightward shift of the federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court.

He alienated US allies abroad, abandoned international agreements on trade and climate change, and praised authoritarian leaders abroad, including Putin.

The Democratic-led House impeached him in 2019 on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after he pressed Ukraine’s leader to investigate Biden and his son on unsubstantiated corruption accusations. The Senate acquitted him, thanks to Republican support.

The House impeached Trump again a week before he left office, this time for incitement of insurrection. He was acquitted by the Senate after he left office, again thanks to Republican senators.

Source: REUTERS

Biden tries to ‘manage differences’ with Xi in first face-to-face meeting as president

14, November 2022

Biden tries to ‘manage differences’ with Xi in first face-to-face meeting as president 0

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden met on Monday for long-awaited talks that come as relations between their countries are at their lowest in decades, marred by disagreements over a host of issues from Taiwan to trade.

The two, holding their first in-person talks since Biden became president, met on the Indonesian island of Bali ahead of a Group of 20 (G20) summit on Tuesday that is set to be fraught with tension over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

They smiled as they shook hands warmly in front of a row of Chinese and U.S. flags in a ballroom at the luxury hotel Mulia on Bali’s Nusa Dua bay.

“It’s just great to see you,” Biden told Xi as he put an arm around him, adding in remarks delivered in front of reporters that he was committed to keeping lines of communication open on a personal and government level.

“As the leaders of our two nations, we share responsibility, in my view, to show that China and the United States can manage our differences, prevent competition from … turning into conflict, and to find ways to work together on urgent global issues that require our mutual cooperation.”

He mentioned climate change and food insecurity as problems the world expected their two countries to address.

Responding to Biden, Xi said the relationship between their two countries was not meeting global expectations.

“So we need to chart the right course for the China-U.S. relationship. We need to find the right direction for the bilateral relationship going forward and elevate the relationship,” Xi said.

“The world expects that China and the United States will properly handle the relationship,” he said, adding he looked forward to working with Biden to bring the relationship back on the right track.

Neither leader wore a mask to ward off COVID though members of their delegations did.

Their main topics of discussion are expected to be Taiwan, Ukraine and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, issues that will also loom over the G20 that is being held without Russian President Vladimir Putin in attendance.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will represent Putin at the G20 summit – the first since Russia invaded Ukraine in February – after the Kremlin said Putin was too busy to attend.

Russia’s foreign ministry said a report that Lavrov was taken to hospital after arriving in Bali was fake news.

On Sunday, Biden told Asian leaders in Cambodia that U.S. communication lines with China would stay open to prevent conflict, with tough talks almost certain in the days ahead.

Relations have been roiled in recent years by growing tensions over issues ranging from Hong Kong and Taiwan to the South China Sea, trade practices and U.S. restrictions on Chinese technology.

But U.S. officials said there have been quiet efforts by both Beijing and Washington over the past two months to repair ties.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told reporters in Bali earlier that the meeting was “intended to stabilise the relationship between the United States and China, and to create a more certain atmosphere for U.S. businesses”.

She said that Biden had been clear with China about national security concerns regarding restrictions on sensitive U.S. technologies and had raised concern about the reliability of Chine supply chains for commodities like minerals.

Nuclear ‘irresponsibility’

Biden and Xi, who have held five phone or video calls since Biden became president in January 2021, last met in person during the Obama administration when Biden was vice president.

Monday’s meeting was unlikely to produce a joint statement, the White House has said.

G20 summit host President Joko Widodo of Indonesia said he hoped the gathering on Tuesday could “deliver concrete partnerships that can help the world in its economic recovery”.

However, one of the main topics at the G20 will be Russia’s war in Ukraine and Biden will be “unapologetic” in his defence of the European nation, U.S. officials said last week.

Xi and Putin have grown increasingly close in recent years, bound by their shared distrust of the West, and reaffirmed their partnership just days before Russia invaded Ukraine. But China has been careful not to provide any direct material support that could trigger Western sanctions against it.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang emphasised the “irresponsibility” of nuclear threats during the summit in Cambodia, suggesting China was uncomfortable with strategic partner Russia’s nuclear rhetoric, the Biden administration official said.

The West has accused Russia of making irresponsible statements on the possible use of nuclear weapons since its February invasion of Ukraine. Russia has in turn accused the West of “provocative” nuclear rhetoric.

Russia’s Lavrov said on Sunday the West was “militarising” Southeast Asia in a bid to contain Russian and Chinese interests.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he would address the G20 by videolink on Tuesday.

Source: REUTERS

US urges Ukraine to consider peace talks with Russia

14, November 2022

US urges Ukraine to consider peace talks with Russia 0

Senior US officials have reportedly begun prodding Kiev to consider peace talks with Moscow, fearing winter may stall its momentum after scoring a key victory in retaking Kherson in the persisting Ukraine war.

Despite continued pledges of support for Ukraine from the US and its allies, “top officials in Washington are beginning to wonder aloud how much more territory can be won by either side and at what cost,” major US daily The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, noting that some European officials remain “more bullish” on Ukraine’s chances.

Pointing to the looming winter season as well as fears of inflation – impelled by surging energy and food costs, billions of dollars of weaponry already pumped into Ukraine, and the tens of thousands of casualties on both sides – the daily emphasized that top US officials are now talking about “a potential inflection point in the war.”

“There has to be a mutual recognition that military victory, in the true sense of the word, maybe not achievable through military means, therefore you need to turn to other means,” said the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley in an address before the Economic Club of New York on Wednesday as quoted in the report. “There’s also an opportunity here, a window of opportunity, for negotiation.”

The US and some of its allies are concerned that their stockpiles of weaponry, including some ammunition, are being depleted at an unsustainable rate, it added, pointing out that US military aid for Ukraine stands at nearly $19 billion so far this year, far outstripping European assistance.

“We are seeing real, practical problems of making military progress, we are seeing shortages of munitions,” said another Western official as quoted in the report.

The prospect that Ukraine won’t make major battlefield gains in the weeks ahead has led the US and some European officials to wonder when public pressure would emerge to demand a settlement, according to the daily.

“We are saying to the Ukrainians that it is up to them to decide when to do it,” said a Western European official, referring to the potential for talks. “But it might be a good idea to do it sooner.”

Source: Presstv

Trumpty Dumpty: Rupert Murdoch’s powerful conservative media dumps Donald Trump

11, November 2022

Trumpty Dumpty: Rupert Murdoch’s powerful conservative media dumps Donald Trump 0

The powerful media empire of conservative billionaire Rupert Murdoch appeared to turn its back Thursday on Donald Trump, labeling the former US president a “loser” who shows “increasingly poor judgement” after the midterm elections.

Just days before he is expected to announce his 2024 White House candidacy, the Wall Street Journal, the flagship of Murdoch’s News Corp, declared in an editorial that “Trump Is the Republican Party’s Biggest Loser,” pointing to the party’s disappointing performance in Tuesday’s midterms.

Trump later Friday hit back at Murdoch, appearing to relish a scuffle, accusing News Corp media of falling in line to back a potential Republican rival of Trump for the 2024 presidential nomination, a choice he said News Corp would rue.

The cover of News Corp’s tabloid New York Post depicted Trump on a precarious wall as “Trumpty Dumpty” who “had a great fall” in the vote, blaming him for the failure of Republicans to sweep past Democratic rivals in the battle for control of Congress and governors’ mansions.

And at the hugely influential Fox News television network, praise was thick for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, seen as Trump’s top rival for the party’s 2024 nomination.

“The biggest winner of the midterm elections was without a doubt Governor Ron DeSantis, whose landslide victory in the state of Florida was breathtaking,” wrote Fox columnist Liz Peek.

“The biggest loser? Donald Trump,” she said.

After supporting him through his 2017-2021 presidency, Fox, a Murdoch arm separate from News Corp, did not completely abandon Trump, still the most powerful figure in the Republican Party.

But even the network’s biggest star, talk-show host Tucker Carlson, assailed the Republican establishment for Tuesday’s ballot box failures and at least partly blamed the ex-president.

“Many others are saying that Donald Trump is the reason Republicans didn’t do as well as they thought they would. That’s a more complicated question,” he said late Wednesday.

“The truth is, Trump has always been a mixed blessing politically.”

The Murdoch outlets are some of the most influential sources of information for US conservatives, unabashedly backing Republicans and attacking Democrats.

So blaming Trump for election disappointments while lavishing praise on DeSantis could shape public views ahead of 2024.

Trump is expected to announce his candidacy next week, whereas DeSantis, who first had to win reelection to the Florida governorship, has only hinted that he might battle for the White House.

In fact Republicans scored significant gains Tuesday in the House of Representatives and are expected to wrest control of the chamber from Democrats when the outstanding races are settled.

But the party had expected to more powerfully trounce President Joe Biden’s Democrats and easily seize both the House and the Senate — still undecided — as well as some key governorships.

Instead, a number of candidates closely aligned with and endorsed by Trump failed to win in key races.

“Trumpy Republican candidates failed at the ballot box in states that were clearly winnable,” the Wall Street Journal wrote.

DeSantis meanwhile did not tap Trump for support in his race Tuesday, and he swept to a massive reelection victory.

On the cover of its first edition after the election, the New York Post celebrated DeSantis as “DeFUTURE.”

Meanwhile it told Trump: “The fate of your candidates Tuesday looks terrible for your increasingly poor judgment, which grows parallel to your desperation.”

Trump appeared to confirm the divorce from the Murdoch empire Thursday.

“Despite having picked so many winners, I have to put up with the Fake News. For me, Fox News was always gone,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

He issued a rambling four-paragraph statement later decrying DeSantis – whom he ridiculed as DeSanctimonious – for “playing games” about whether he will run for president in 2024.

In 2016, “Fox News fought me to the end,” Trump said, until he won, “then they couldn’t have been nicer.”

The Wall Street Journal “loved Low Energy Jeb Bush, and a succession of other people” but Trump said he “easily knocked them out, one by one,” and the Murdoch properties fell into line.

“We’re in exactly the same position now,” Trump asserted.

Source: AFP

Biya’s 40th Anniversary: Meeting in Bamenda to celebrate incompetence and corruption

6, November 2022

Biya’s 40th Anniversary: Meeting in Bamenda to celebrate incompetence and corruption 0

CPDM stalwarts were in Bamenda today to celebrate Biya’s 40 years of incompetence, corruption and arrogance.

Led by the CPDM Secretary-general, Jean Kuete, speakers at the event highlighted what they thought were Mr. Biya’s achievements – indeed his appalling failure – over the last four decades.

But Cameroonians cannot be fooled. The results are there for all to see. The country has been caught up in a downward spiral with corruption becoming the regime’s hallmark.

Since coming to power in 1982, Mr. Biya has legalized corruption. He and his followers hold that nothing can be achieved without corruption. They use money to buy loyalty, corrupt those who criticize the government and imprison those who refuse their bribes.

Cameroon’s jails are full of Mr. Biya’s former collaborators who have embezzled state funds and he and his wife have been involved in many financial scandals which have helped to erode the people’s confidence in the moribund government.

Regarding the economy, Mr. Biya’s government has disappointed millions of Cameroonians. Many had seen him as a savior when he came to power in 1982, but his incompetence has taken the country down the wrong path.

The country’s economy has been in a free fall in decades, spreading pain and death among desperate and hungry Cameroonians.

Millions of Cameroonian youth are without jobs and even those employed are simply eking a living. The country’s civil service is bloated with civil servants finding it hard to make ends meet.

This financial challenge has transformed many civil service workers into   con artists whose main objective of joining the civil service is to line their pockets.

The regime’s failure to create jobs for millions of young Cameroonians has transformed the country into a net exporter of human capital as young Cameroonians look outwards for greener pastures.

Regarding infrastructure development, Cameroon lags behind most African countries in this regard. For forty years, instead of investing in infrastructure which could drive development and create jobs, Mr. Biya and his collaborators have transformed the country’s treasury into their personal ATM.

The country is bereft of roads, hospitals and educational facilities. Mr. Biya has created many primary and secondary schools, but these institutions only exist on paper as there is no modern infrastructure.

For tertiary institutions, there are many of them in Cameroon today, but the quality of training leaves much to be desired.

The country’s state universities have been transformed into brothels where lecturers with very high libido satisfy their sex needs. Young girls are being dehumanized and robbed of their self-esteem by unscrupulous lecturers just because there are no checks in government-run universities.

Some lecturers even demand bribes from their students, especially those seeking to defend their thesis. This unfortunate situation in the country’s state universities truly reflects what is happening in a nation where young girls are asked to have sex with company heads before they can be given jobs.

Today, even young men are required to sleep with unscrupulous employers for them to get hired. Mr. Biya and his bunch of godless, hell-bound and depraved collaborators have made of Cameroon a fertile ground for homosexuality.

CPDM criminals

Morals have simply taken French leave of the country and there are no signs that they will return even after Biya and his gangsters leave power.

Today’s meeting in Bamenda, the place where the demon-possessed CPDM was created, is indeed a celebration of evil in human form.

Incompetence, corruption and demonic powers have been firmly rooted in the country under Biya and there is no doubt that the CPDM is very pleased with its leader’s abysmal and appalling failure.

By Rita Akana and Fon Lawrence in Bamenda

40 years in power: What is Mr. Biya’s legacy? 

5, November 2022

40 years in power: What is Mr. Biya’s legacy?  0

Cameroon’s eternal president, Paul Biya, has been in power for 40 years and his supporters will be celebrating a milestone they claim is important in the lives of many Cameroonians. The Cameroon Concord News Group has been monitoring things and has decided to focus on the failings and achievements of a man who many hold has not brought much to Cameroon, though he has been a major beneficiary of what Cameroon has to offer. 

Education 

Cameroon is noted for the quality of its education. Cameroonians are all over the world and they have proven their academic worth wherever they have been. Since coming to office forty years ago, Mr. Biya has created many primary and secondary schools albeit on paper and this has given many young Cameroonians access to education. Under him, many universities have also been created and this has endowed the country with a large pool of educated people.  

Mr. Biya can take credit for this although many of the graduates are either unemployed or have left the country, enabling the country to have a huge Diaspora whose remittances are helping to change things in the country. 

Politics 

Politically, Mr. Biya’s supporters claim that he has reformed the country politically and thanks to him, multiparty politics is a reality in Cameroon. Mr. Biya inherited a single party state from his predecessor and due to intense political pressure in the early 1990s, he had to bow to the will of the people by opening up the political scene to other political parties. But before opening up the political arena, Mr. Biya had to kill thousands of Cameroonians and send many to jail for demonstrating against his brutal dictatorship.  

 Multiparty politics was finally granted in 1992 only when Mr. Biya and his dishonest politicians had found a way of rigging elections to perpetuate their stay in power and they have, indeed, been in power for forty years by rigging and stealing every single election in Cameroon.  

Every constitutional amendment only comes to consolidate Mr. Biya’s grip on the nation. He appoints every single official in Cameroon, including night-watch men to ensure that everybody in Cameroon is loyal. The military is his toy, and his ministers are just a bunch of slaves he uses to achieve his personal goals and if any of them nurses any high political ambitions which he does not like, he simply sends him to the Yaounde Maximum Security Prison which is holding many of his former ministers who have either robbed the country or displayed the forbidden ambition of succeeding him.   

For the political opposition, Mr. Biya and his ruling CPDM have worked hard to destroy all efforts which might threaten Mr. Biya’s power. Political opponents are permanently being jailed, especially after every election because the results which always favor Mr. Biya usually get manufactured even before the real election.  

Mr. Fru Ndi, the leader of the Social Democratic Front was held in his home for three months in 1992 in a presidential election in which Mr. Biya lost woefully but ended up being proclaimed the winner.  

The entire Northwest region was under a state of emergency in 1992 because Mr. Biya had stolen an election and the population was determined to stop him from taking what was not his. But the crooked CPDM did not yield, and Mr. Biya has been in power ever since.  

In 2018, it was the turn of Professor Maurice Kamto, the winner of the 2018 presidential election, to taste Mr. Biya’s wrath. He was locked up for eight months when he refused to acknowledge that Mr. Biya had won the election.  

Mr. Kamto had clearly beaten Mr. Biya, but the old and ailing Biya is not someone who throws in the towel. He has never won an election and he was not ready to accept that someone else would be the country’s president while he was alive.  

That is the multiparty democracy Mr. Biya has brought to Cameroon and that will be one reason why his supporters will be celebrating on November 6. They have institutionalized and legalized electoral fraud in Cameroon, a great achievement which needs to be celebrated by his supporters.  

Economy 

For forty years, Cameroon’s economy has been struggling despite support from multilateral development banks and other global financial institutions. Corruption has become the country’s hallmark and all government institutions have been struggling as Mr. Biya’s one-man rule has destroyed the very foundation of those institutions. Parastatals are all suffering, as corruption has reduced them to empty shells. Recently, SONARA and SNH have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.  

The Glencore scandal has demonstrated how the Biya regime is corrupt and how officials of government-owned institutions use their power to enrich themselves. In a British court, trading giant Glencore admitted recently that it transported money via a private jet to bribe senior officials in Cameroon, using a Nigerian agent.  

The Nigerian agent transported money by private jet to Cameroon where a Glencore trader used it to bribe officials of the state oil and gas company and the state refinery. Cameroonians are now waiting to see what will happen in the days ahead. However, many informed Cameroonians know that not much will happen as corruption is the CPDM’s life blood. This is how the CPDM government operates, and 40 years of corruption is something very important to be celebrated.  

Unemployment 

Youth unemployment has become a massive issue in recent times. The government’s job-creation policies have failed the country’s youths, leaving many university graduates unemployed. The civil service has become a place where people never retire, especially if they are loyal to the ruling party.  

The deep-rooted corruption, nepotism and tribalism are bleeding the civil service. People of Ewondo, Bulu and Eton descent have become the lords of the Biya kingdom, and their languages have become national and official languages in Cameroon and those who do not speak the languages get excluded from many opportunities.  

The Betis – Mr. Biya’s ethnic group – who account for less than 7% of the country’s population, account for 80% of senior positions in the civil service and they are doing a good job of embezzling state funds. A look at those who are currently being held in state prisons for embezzlement will clearly reveal that the Betis are adept at stealing.  

Many of them have multiple civil service numbers, thus earning multiple civil service salaries. Some senior government officials have included their family members and girlfriends in the civil service even when they have no business being there.   

Despite multiple operations and investigations to rid the civil service of those ghost workers, many Cameroonians, some living abroad, continue to earn salaries they do not deserve. Mr. Biya’s brand of corruption runs very deep and it is hard to be uprooted.  This is a massive achievement for Mr. Biya. This is the Cameroon he has engineered and will bequeath to future generations.  

Unemployment remains a huge problem and it has caused many young Cameroonians to look outward, causing the country to become a net exporter of human capital. Today’s youths do not suffer fools gladly and they are taking their destinies into their own hands. Many are leaving the country, using whatever means that are available to them.  

Thousands of Cameroonians fleeing economic hardship at home have ended up in the Sahara Desert and on the high seas, but this has not caused the corrupt regime to change the way it runs the affairs of the state. Will Mr. Biya’s supporters really celebrate the economic hardship they have brought onto Cameroonians? 

Infrastructure Development 

In terms of infrastructure, Cameroon is among the least developed countries on the continent. Its roads are death traps and its hospitals have become consultation clinics. In forty years, Mr. Biya has not built a single dual carriage highway in Cameroon.  

Thousands of Cameroonians die every day on the death traps which pass off as highways in Cameroon, but the number of deaths has not triggered any transportation policy change in the country. If Mr. Biya had been building a highway every five years, the country would have had about eight major highways. The roads which had been built before he took over are today eyesores.  

Regarding railways, those built under the country’s first president, Amadou Ahidjo, have been left to rot due to a lack of resources and a maintenance culture. Today, the country’s towns and cities are like landfills. Lack of planning over the last forty years has reduced the towns and cities to slums. Yaoundé, the nation’s capital, is an Augean Stable begging for a thorough cleansing. 

Political Stability 

For decades, Cameroon was considered as an oasis of peace in a desert of chaos, but over the last 20 years, much has gone wrong in the country and the peace many people knew the country for has simply evaporated. Mr. Biya’s corrupt and incompetent rulership has transformed the country into a tinder box. Nepotism and overt injustice have resulted in the alienation of people from other regions of the country.  

Over the last six years, the country’s English-speaking minority has been threatening to walk away from the lopsided union with French Cameroon which has only brought death, poverty and destruction to many English-speaking Cameroonians, although other French-speaking Cameroonians are also feeling the heat of Mr. Biya’s failed economic and political stewardship.  

After fifty years of marginalization, the country’s English-speaking minority in 2016 complained about its unfortunate fate. Instead of listening to the people, the Biya government threatened to kill those who ever thought of complaining. Since the Biya government only believes in military violence, it promptly dispatched its forces to the country’s two English-speaking regions to teach the population a bitter lesson.  

Little did the ailing and dying Biya know that his own troops would be caught up in a quagmire as the English-speaking minority would not take the threats lying down. When the troops started massacring the people, the English-speaking Diasporans, most of whom are based in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, South Africa and Nigeria, immediately mobilized resources and acquired weapons for those who were on the ground and were willing to fight the ‘army of occupation’ which was spreading death and destruction in the two English-speaking regions of the country. 

A war Mr. Biya and his generals thought would end in weeks has gone on for six years and there is no end in sight. More than ten thousand Cameroonians have lost their lives as a result of the war including some four thousand soldiers and many are still struggling with physical and mental scars due to the war.  

A conflict, which started with a demonstration by teachers and lawyers, has finally become a war of secession. The Biya government is not willing to negotiate, and the separatists are in no mood to down their weapons despite repeated calls by the government for the separatist fighters to abandon their positions and return to the fold. 

 Even calls by the international community for a negotiated peace settlement have fallen on deaf ears, as the government is stuck to its position, especially as Mr. Biya also known as the ‘Monarch’ had declared that the form of the state was non-negotiable.  

However, it is not only the English-speaking minority that wants to walk away. Northerners are also prepared to walk away if power does not return to the North. They have a bunch of grievances, and they are ready to revenge on the Betis who killed many northerners after the 1984 coup d’état. 

Cameroon is today more fragmented than it has ever been. It is indeed a ticking time bomb which if not diffused in time, could destabilize the entire sub-region when it goes off. Tribalism and nepotism have replaced patriotism. Most Cameroonians now hold that Cameroon is not a country worth dying for.  

As the country’s ruling party prepares to celebrate Mr. Biya’s achievements, it should be asking itself many questions. One of those questions should be: What are we celebrating? The party has been in power for forty years just like Mr. Biya, but there is nothing to show for the long stay in power. Does the ruling CPDM and its leader, Paul Biya, really think they can convince Cameroonians that they have got a good deal in life?  

 By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai 

Etoudi: Succession is taboo as Biya set for 40 years at helm

5, November 2022

Etoudi: Succession is taboo as Biya set for 40 years at helm 0

Cameroon’s 89-year-old president, Paul Biya, on Sunday marks the 40th anniversary of his rise to power amid splashy ceremonies where the word on everyone’s mind — succession — will almost certainly be absent.

The Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (RDPC), which Biya founded in 1985, says it will hold “a big party” up and down the country to mark the anniversary.

The festivities will celebrate “political stability and peace — the biggest successes of these last four decades in Cameroon,” said Herve Emmanuel Nkom, a member of the party’s central committee.

At the RDPC’s headquarters in Messa district, a couple of dozen party members were busy selling caps, scarves, shirts and multi-coloured garments emblazoned with Biya’s face.

“Lots of people come by and look — we get a lot of orders,” said Sylvie Beyala, 42, a party member for 20 years, next to a photo of a beaming Biya and the slogan “Unity, Progress, Democracy.”

The crowning event on Sunday will be a “regional mega-rally” in front of city hall in Yaounde, the capital, but no word has emerged as to whether Biya himself will attend.

The anniversary bash aims to divert attention away from “the crucial question,” said Stephane Akoa, a professor and researcher in political science.

“It’s not whether Cameroon is doing well or could be doing better, but how the president is,” he said.

Biya rose to the top job on November 6 1982 after seven years as prime minister.

He is only the second president in Cameroon’s history since the central African nation gained independence from France. He is also the continent’s longest-serving leader after Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who seized power in 1979.

– Wily leader –

Commentators ascribe Biya’s extraordinary political longevity to a mixture of astuteness and ruthlessness — he has a constellation of loyalists in key positions and crushes or sidelines opponents and rivals.

But his public outings, except for a few choreographed TV appearances, have become rarer and rarer in recent years, stoking speculation about his health.

Any official talk of succession is taboo, and none of the most visible figures around Biya has publicly uttered a word about entertaining any wish to succeed him.

“Ministers have fallen into disgrace just for thinking about a theoretical departure of the president,” said Aimee Raoul Sumo Tayo, a defence and security specialist on Cameroon.

“Mr. Biya has put the saying ‘divide and rule’ into practice… forces which could have challenged him for power have been unable to get organised and, even less so, unify,” said Akoa.

Even so, conversations about a successor are rife.

Those most commonly named are Biya’s son, Franck Biya, and Finance Minister Louis-Paul Motaze. The younger Biya already has a discreet following among supporters called “Franckists.”

Another name in the mix is that of Biya’s right-hand man, the presidency’s chief of staff, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh.

Reputed to have the backing of Biya’s influential wife, Chantal Biya, Ngoh Ngoh has been the longest-serving chief of staff in the presidency’s tenure.

He wields extensive de-facto authority through executive powers that have been delegated by Biya and, like his boss, also has his supporters in senior jobs, said Akoa.

– All-eclipsing debate –

“No (potential) candidate enjoys unanimity,” said Akoa, adding that the succession debate “eclipses all other concerns, such as strategies for health, education and infrastructure.”

The jockeying for power has been intensified by Cameroon’s weak mechanisms for handing on presidential power in an emergency, said Sumo Tayo.

If the president becomes unable to continue in office, presidential authority is handed down in the interim to the speaker of the Senate — currently 88-year-old Marcel Nial Njifenji, whose health is at least as much a concern as that of Biya.

The scenario stokes “the probability that certain parts of the army may intervene,” said Sumo Tayo.

Military leaders appointed by Biya may fear their privileges will be at threat once he exits the scene, which increases the risk of turbulence, he suggested.

Culled from AFP

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