Cameroon: Another strange week for President Paul Biya as he sufferred a major leadership fatigue crisis

The 24th session of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the African Union which held in Addis Ababa and whose big issue was the fight against the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram has come, passed and gone with the Cameroonian dictator President Paul Biya not in attendance. Interestingly, not even an announcement on state radio and television indicating the participation of a member of the Cameroon government in the summit was made. You cannot be leading a people and you do not represent them where it matters.

This summit was not like any other!! It was indeed a Cameroonian summit for our chief executive to make his case as concerns Boko Haram incursion into our territory. It provided an international platform for President Biya to have told the world the sacrifices made by our men and women in uniform and above all, it was an opportunity for Biya to have demonstrated to the world that diplomacy works and to make his vision and determination to combat Boko Haram a global issue. Biya and Cameroon lost it!! It is indeed difficult to tell what manner of a leader is President Paul Biya?

For a man who has worked extra-ordinarily hard towards keeping the homeland safe, Biya successfully brought the Republic of Chad with its dubious leadership to join the war on terror. He had a very intensive and productive meeting with Nikolay Ratsiborinski the Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Cameroon with Russia promising to help our military. The African Union Summit in Addis Ababa provided the best forum for President Biya to have said a goodbye blessing and informed the world that his score sheet was not staggering as his detractors have claimed. This is not to say President Biya has been attending African Union Heads of State Summits! But his absence from this edition was one final coup-de-grace.

Cameroon Concord has gathered intelligence that Biya drives regularly from Mvomeka’a to Yaoundé these days-a journey historically made by air using an helicopter. It is abundantly clear that at 82, you are medically advised to keep away from flying. This was also true with the Holy Father Pope Benedict. Our intelligence officers in Yaoundé have also hinted that leadership fatigue and boring French politics has prompted Biya not to meet with Pierre Lellouche and Philip Baumel, the two French deputies who rushed to Yaoundé in midweek to speak of "development and profitable growth."

President Biya’s recent anti French moves is preventing him from travelling out of Yaoundé and even from the country. His insistence that only Cameroonian army Generals loyal to him: Rene Meka and Tumenta should head the coalition troops in the Far North fighting against Boko Haram and the UN forces in Central African Republic, indicates that Biya and the French are no longer an item. However, an 82 year old man who has seen and done it all should not be sleeping with his eyes open! We of this publication feel President Biya should think and rethink things and go ahead and do the right thing by handing over to the new generation. A stitch in time saves nine