Biya consults with PM Yang over cabinet reshuffle
Reports say the president of the republic has received the
sitting PM in audience at least two times within the past week in view of
forming a new government
By Tanyi Kenneth Musa in Yaounde
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| President Biya |
If press reports are anything to go by, then President Paul
Biya will be announcing a new government in the days ahead. President Biya has
received his Prime Minister, Philemon Yunji Yang, on at least two occasions in
the last few weeks to discuss the configuration of the new government that he
intends to to form anytime sooner than later, according to reports in both the
local as well as the foreign press.
Though
Paul Biya told the Prime Minister during the audience that he may no longer
keep him in his post, the president at once asked Yang to propose some names of
persons he would want in the new government.
Biya
also thanked the PM for his unalloyed loyalty, and for the good job he has so
far done as the head of government business. He reaffirmed his confidence and
trust in Yang but said he would assign him this time to other duties.
Though
it is not immediately known where Biya will assign Yang after dropping him as
PM, speculations are that he would make him either the Grand Chancellor of
National Orders in replacement of MafanyMusonge or make him the pioneer
president of the constitutional council that is yet to be constituted.
For his
part, Philemon Yang also thanked Biya for the high confidence and trust he
placed on him by keeping him as PM for nearly a decade. He pledged his
continued and total loyalty to the President even after he would have left the
star building.
But
Yang also suggested to his boss and mentor that giving the present agitations
by Anglophones it would make sense if the President could consider also handing
some sovereign ministerial portfolios to Anglophones.
It
should be noted that since reunification in 1961 an Anglophone has never headed
ministeries such as Communication, Finance, Gendarmerie, Police, Defence,
External Relations, Territorial Administration, Education, Employment and
Professional training, Public service etc. Also, though the sole oil refinery
in the country is found in Limbe in Anglophone Cameroon, an Anglophone has
never been privileged to be the GM there, not to mention other big parastatals
in the country like SNH, Camtel, SCDP, Douala Autonomous Ports etc etc.
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| PM Yang |
Giving
the impression he had taken seriously Philemon Yang’s suggestion, President
Biya is reported to have asked the PM to propose some big ministries he wants
Anglophones to occupy and the names of persons he thinks can possibly man these
portfolios.
PM Yang
is said to have readily suggested the names and portfolios to Biya. But the
reports did not give the names he mentioned.
It
should be mentioned that speculations about an imminent cabinet reshuffle have
been making the rounds in the media, at street corners and on the corridors of
ministries for quite some time now. Some local newspapers have even published
what they claim to be Biya’s yet to be announced new governments. The papers
always claim the governments were leaked by inside sources at the President’s
Cabinet. But more often than not some of these ‘leaked governments’ present too
many lapses as to be trusted.
Yet,
against the speculations about an imminent cabinet shake up, some political
bookmakers argue that it is inopportune for the president to form a new government
before the elections in 2018. They suggest that with the current tension in the
country, it is likely the president will organize presidential elections and
secure his reeelection before he proceeds to forming a new government.
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