At 91, Cameroonian President Paul Biya still maintains uncertainty about his political future, but informed observers know that he will not give up power so easily. These days, information circulating on social networks reports the announcement of his candidacy for an 8th term in the presidential election of October 2025. According to informed sources, it is an old candidacy poster from 2018 that has been displayed again on the web.
This “fake news” does not in any way affect the ambitions of the Cameroonian head of state who, in all likelihood, should once again be a candidate for his own succession. There is no doubt about that, unless there is a turnaround. Moreover, calls for Paul Biya to run for the next presidential election have multiplied for over a year. The ardent wish of his entourage is to see him remain in power, he who is considered the guide of the Cameroonian nation. Why will he disappoint his followers by deciding otherwise?
Some of Paul Biya’s close associates are campaigning ahead of time for him, not hesitating to boast about his record of more than four decades across the country. Everything seems to indicate that the Cameroonian head of state is not going to retire anytime soon, unless there is a case of force majeure. For this incumbent leader, the oldest in the world, at 91 years old and the second in terms of longevity in power (41 years) after his Equatorial Guinean counterpart, Theodoro Obiang Nguema Obiang Mbasogo (45 years old), many Cameroonians have only known him. He has held the helm since the death of the first President, Ahmadou Ahidjo, who also remained at the helm of the country from its independence in 1960 to his death in 1982, i.e. 22 years of governance.
In Cameroon, long reigns appear to be a tradition that Biya is perpetuating. But what can he really bring to his compatriots that he has not been able to do? Progress has been made in the economy and other sectors, to the point of making Cameroon a heavyweight in the Economic Community of Central African States (CEMAC), but this is not enough to applaud Biya’s actions throughout all these decades. The country is dragging along defects that, according to human rights defenders, do not honor the Cameroonian head of state, much less his regime.
Among others, corruption, favoritism, cronyism, nepotism are gangrenous to political governance. Biya has made his contribution with the objective limits that this entails and history will remember him. He should now work to hand over the reins, especially since long reigns do not always end well. The health problems of the Cameroonian president, which they are trying to hide, are obvious, because he is literally crumbling under the weight of age. Does he still have the physique for the job?
The answer is obviously no. But that is how power is managed in Africa, where many leaders prefer to stay in power forever, sometimes tampering with constitutions, at the risk of jeopardizing the future of their country. A paradigm shift is therefore needed on the continent where alternation, supposed to be part of the normal order
the devolution of power under democratic rules is the subject of fierce struggles.
Kader Patrick ĀKĪTAO