Longevity in Office:

Philemon Yang Creates Record of Stay as PM

PM Philemon Yang

Philemon Yang has clocked nine straight years at the Star Building as PM. The son of Jikijem Oku has thus broken the record that until now was kept by Peter Mafany Musonge (September 1996 to December 2004). Yang made the difference on 30 June 2018. He was appointed PM on 30 June 2009. His boss President Paul Biya served as PM for seven years (1975 to 1982) before taking over from Ahidjo as President of the Republic.

            It is however still a mystery how Philemon Yang has survived at the star building for this long. His detractors are of the opinion that giving his career shortcomings and especially his inability to handle the Anglophone uprising, apart from his other failures, Yang was supposed to have been dropped as PM. Only his Boss, Paul Biya, knows why he is still keeping him there.

            The exceedingly discrete and taciturn magistrate-cum-diplomat, civil administrator and politician, is evidently at a loss of solutions to the ongoing Anglophone problem in Cameroon. It is believed that Yang is part of the problem, if at all he did not help to create it.

Philemon Yang’s several trips to his native NW region to commune with his aggrieved brothers and urge them to come back to their normal humour have born little or no fruit.

            And the cold shoulders shown him during these trips could be expected. Anglophone lawyers and teachers question why Yang was coming to talk with them only when the situation had degenerated into a crisis. They recalled that their PM-brother did not acknowledge any of the several memos they addressed to him several years before the situation assumed crisis proportions. They noted that had Yang looked into the problem at that time maybe “we would not be where we are today.”

            Yang has also been criticized for inertia and red tape of his government. President Biya complained about the “slowness and inertia” of Yang’s government, in one of his messages to the nation.

            Philemon Yang’s career shortcomings notwithstanding, he is credited with a level head, poise, workaholic disposition, punctuality and avoidance of controversy and interpersonal vendetta. Also, he avoids waging a war against stubborn Ministers that dare his authority, preferring to let his boss, President Biya, to deal with them.

            At slightly over 70, Philemon Yang still looks rather strong and spritely. Observers say this is an indication he could stay even longer in office, that is, if President Biya so wishes.

            But PM Yang is criticized by his Anglophone brethren for being too thrifty with public money and for not doing enough in terms of recruitments into the public service and placements in positions of power. It should be recalled that it was under Yang as PM that 25000 Cameroonians were recruited into the public service with not up to 1000 Anglophones recruited. The recent scandalous recruitments into the national Police Force, where-in Anglophones are said to be heavily marginalized, if not completely left out, is taking place under Yang’s watchful eyes.

            Be it as it may, political bookmakers have predicted that only a miracle will maintain Yang as PM after the next Presidential election, even though his boss and mentor, Biya, has all the chances of winning.