Paul Biya has not officially declared his candidacy yet. But his heavy silences, carefully staged appearances, and the placating declarations of his entourage leave behind a stench of déjà vu already seen, already heard, already suffered.
What if it’s true? What if, at 91, the man who has ruled Cameroon since 1982 dares to run again for the highest office? That would not merely be a show of contempt for the people it would be an unqualified act of political predation. A slap in the face of collective memory. A life sentence imposed on an entire generation.
Paul Biya: President or Prisoner of the System?
Let’s be honest: Paul Biya hasn’t truly governed Cameroon for years. He has become the symbol of proxy power, where rival factions fight not to lead, but to feed from the trough. Every signature, decree, and appointment is the outcome of a system that has turned opacity into a governing principle.
At his age, the president is nothing but a mask. Behind that mask, faceless hands manipulate the state. And behind those hands lies a deep, visceral fear: fear of losing access to stolen billions, rigged contracts, and unchecked privileges.
One thing is clear: his former collaborators do not fear Biya’s fall for ideological reasons. No. They fear audits. The truth. The courtroom. The reckoning.
Looting in Peace: The Real Goal
Keeping Paul Biya in power is not a national project it is a cover-up plan. As long as he remains weak, distant, and largely absent, anything goes: inflated contracts, massive embezzlement, plundering of public markets, land grabs, systemic impunity.
Billions poured into the construction of stadiums, scandals involving Camtel, electricity failures, broken telecom networks, ghost hospitals all of this takes place under the vacant gaze of a government more concerned with its own survival than that of the people.
Cameroon has become a company in liquidation, managed by unworthy heirs who refuse to leave for fear of being caught by the law or by popular revolt.
And What About the People?
The Cameroonian people watch, observe, endure. They endure water shortages, unjustified bills, broken roads, inaccessible healthcare, decaying education, corrupt police, and youth unemployment. And still, they vote. Sometimes they hope. Often, they resign themselves.
But for how much longer?
One Mandate Too Many… or the Catalyst for Rebirth?
If Paul Biya announces his candidacy for 2025, it must mark a breaking point. Because this would be a candidacy rooted in absolute disdain, clinical detachment, and final provocation. It would no longer be Biya versus the opposition it would be Biya versus History. Biya versus his own people. Biya versus common sense.
The question is no longer whether he can still govern. He cannot.
The real question is: How much longer will we allow this farce to continue?
