Biya, Le Monde, France, Boko Haram

Four signs there is no smoke without fire
Within hours of President Paul Biya returning to Cameroon on 27 March, there were a handful of indicators to support a guess that the rumours and press reports of the past weeks were not totally unfounded. Some analysts had held on to the reasoning that “there is no smoke without fire”.
    Biya “hurriedly” signed strategic military decisions in favour of France; he unusually turned down an airport interview; his airport audiences are visibly fast tracked and… did you see convincing springs in his steps as he walked down the plane?

    FRENCH MILITARY: Minutes after the president’s arrival, the government announced a series of decisions authorizing the stationing of the French military near Cameroon’s warfront with Boko Haram in the Far North. The statement also said Cameroonian officers will integrate the joint military command against Boko Haram stationed in Chad. Other coalition members, especially Chad and Nigeria, were more significantly represented.
    Coming so soon – had he even unpacked his luggage? Had he kicked out his shoes?  – nearly in a hurry after the president’s return to the country, made the decisions look like an emergency, designed to arrest a potentially explosive situation. Which? That’s yet to be fully understood.
    The president’s four-week stay abroad with his wife had been rocked by a report in French daily, Le Monde, raising concerns over his health. The report was seen by the government to be a ploy to cast doubts over the capacity of the president, 82, to lead a country at war.
    Some government apologists said it was meant to steer trouble within the military, especially after a photo-montage on the website of the Presidency suggested that the president was at a ceremony on 6 March to honour soldiers killed in the war against Boko Haram. The president had left the country on 1 March and the government claimed the faked photo was the work of a hacker. Commentators suggested its fomenters wished to push the military into a mutiny.

    Not reported nor said officially anywhere, but equally discussed in salons in the capital Yaounde and on radio and TV talk shows, were suggestions that Paris, anxious for an important role in the war, was arm-twisting to Yaounde to cave in. The suggestion was that, though President Hollande sounded like France would hesitate until Yaounde called for help, it was desperate for a role in the war theatre, a thing the Cameroonian government was hesitant to do, until that Biya’s 27 March decisions. Political scientist and CPDM member Professor Ngolle Ngolle thus established a link between the French government antics and Le Monde’s as “psychological warfare”. He was speaking on a CRTV talk show.

WALKING STRONG: Reporting on the president’s return at the Nsimalen airport, CRTV’s presidential correspondent, George Ewane, drew attention to the president’s strides as he descended from the plane and walked to the airport lounge, to show he was smart on his feet. Not with much success, though, as there was no extra spring – perhaps even subtle hesitation, upon keen observation – in Biya’s steps to show he was smarter than his 82 years can afford.

FAST TRACKED AUDIENCES:  Though Biya is considered impressively fit at his age and can stay on his feet for hours, there was a little curiosity in his traditional airport audiences – the unusual criss-crossing of his close collaborators within the audience lounge. One had hardly parted ways with the president than another was hurried in by protocol, brushing past the other. Did it suggest the president could not be kept standing for too long this time around?
    At previous airport audiences, when the president traditionally receives speakers of the two houses of parliament, the prime minister and the secretary general at the presidency, TV pictures have often shown the officials walking in one after the other, at reasonable intervals.

INTERVIEW: Though President Biya is noted for his lukewarm attitude towards the local media, he has not avoided questions on-camera, on-mic, the way he did, dramatically, on his arrival at the airport. Charles Ndongo, CRTV’s news director who served for many years as chief presidential correspondent, made a futile attempt to repeat his 2004 feat to have an airport interview with the president after similar foul health/life rumours. As the president left the lounge and walked to his limousine, Ndongo who had waylaid him with a TV crew outside, tried to lure him into an interview. Ndongo: “Mr. President, we’re very, very happy to see you again.” Biya: “So am I.” Ndongo: “You’re visibly hale and hearty.” Biya: (inaudible), walks away, though Charles Ndongo tries to keep pace. Was the president avoiding to prolong speculation over his health? Was he unsure of what to say?