Power alternation

 An Anglophone successor is Biya’s best option

  -Delay in forming new government feared on on-going North-South power tussle

By Bertrand Etukeni in Boston Massachusetts

While all attention is now focused on the manhunt and killing of the members of the Boko Haram Islamic group that has legitimately infiltrated and established itself in Cameroon and causing mayhem to the indigenes of Cameroon’s Extreme Nord Region, threatening national sovereignty, peace and stability including our economic life, there are a litany of other problems confronting President Biya and undermining his presidency. The Median`s  political desk editor has short-listed among others the Boko Haram  insurgency, pirate and illicit maritime activity around the Bakassi Peninsular, internal rebellion within the ruling CPDM, chronic corruption and pillaging of the state coffers,  poverty, unemployment and above all the recent Lekie Motion that almost tore the country apart with the elites of the South and those from the Grand North fighting for succession, as the issues that are combining to put the Biya regime on the line.  The South is accusing the Nord of double standards and of sponsoring and supporting Boko Haram to destabilize the Biya regime.
    In very clear terms President Biya is making every effort to hype his regime, even as he moves slowly but surely towards the end of his decades-old mandate at the helm of Cameroon. If man could live forever, the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo should have been around to watch the melodrama that may characterize power alternation from his hand-picked successor to the 3rd republic.

    However, there are many unanswered questions as to why the long awaited cabinet shake-up that has occupied both private and public discourse for a while in the Nation`s capital Yaounde until it is gradually becoming an illusion.  When President Paul Biya summoned his new government at the Etoudi Palace after his re-election in 2011, the president had as agenda to impose and increase the voltage of pressure with specific instructions and deadlines in the handling of state issues. The president decried the inertia that hampers the  conduct of state business. He observed that there was too much laxity and corruption that combine to stifle and delay investment projects.
    The 45-minutes cabinet meeting was a call to duty for quick results. Yet, nothing seems to have changed for the better. Time and events have proven that either the ministers did not understand their boss’ instructions or they understood but are unable to deliver the desired goals.         The expected cabinet reshuffle is pending and to be sure, it now seems the wait will be much longer than many had imagined. It is now evident that president Biya does not yet see the urgency in naming a new government.
    2018 is election year in Cameroon, that is Presidential, Parliamentary and Municipal elections. Biya is tired of extending parliamentary and municipal mandates. The Median Newspaper understands that he now wants to abolish National Mandate for parliamentarians and Mayors to be replaced by Imperative Mandate.
     When the Beti-Ewondo dominated Secret Service began secret consultations and quiet findings with directives from the Civil Cabinet at the presidency concerning the possible replacements in government, that is whoshould be out and who should come in, the instruction was for them to make sure that the choices should reflect the aspirations of the people and give a semblance of the president’s will to change things for the better.
    The Secret Police findings from the predominantly CPDM-dominated Centre-South-East has exposed some stunning revelations. A reliable source that opted anonymity told us that most of the political elites consulted for subsequent appointments refused to accept ministerial  positions. The reasons they advanced are yet unclear.  Even though, popular opinion among them is that  most Beti-Ewondo elites are foreseeing a not-to-distant departure of their brother and fear of a situation whereby they will be targeted after Biya leaves power. Some raised the issue of a likely chaos in Cameroon making reference to the present Nord-South feud   that is already creating so much tension within the ruling class.
    Yet others categorically stated that they prefer to remain in peace and live their lives than to be appointed and became targets of the new regime.
    Added to the existing dangers is a series of blackmailing, treasonous mutterings including serial private killings among the governing CPDM elites. Thus, even among his own people and at 81 years and counting, President Biya cannot count anymore on any body’s loyalty. What  makes the situation more complex is an inside information that filtered to us at the time of writing this report that the Director of Civil Cabinet at the Presidency was overheard murmuring privately about the fate that awaits him when Biya eventually vacates the Etoudi Palace; where will he go to and what will be his fate? It is believed that the Beti-Ewondo political elites have put their fate in the  army, which they have innundated with their tribesmen.
    However, the emergence of Boko Haram and its weaponry and sophistication has washed away that myth leaving President Biya and his acolytes with only one escape route----that of picking an Anglophone Head of State to guarantee consensus and preserve the peace. The option now is either to get an Anglophone as president and preserve peace and unity or plunge the country into chaos by trying pick a successor from either the North or the South .