Paul Biya, The Man Who Drives Cameroon to Collapse
Like Gabonese Omar Bongo, but more discreetly during the first 20 years of his long career at the top of the Cameroonian state, he knew all the presidents of the Vth French Republic - until Emmanuel Macron, unlike to Omar Bongo.
Propelled missionary in the presidency of the tyrannical Ahmadou Ahidjo in 1962, during the Franco-Cameroonian war against the separatists then led by Ernest Ouandié, he rose to the top of the state, with the help of his French allies.
Secretary General of the presidency in early 1968, Prime Minister in 1975, he ensures from November 1982 the interim of Ahidjo, when it is pushed to resignation by the French. All that remains for Biya is to be "elected", which he does without adversaries in 1984 and 1988, and then, in the multiparty era, in 1992, 1997, 2004 and 2011 - never on a regular basis.
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| Paul Biya, The Man Who Drives Cameroon to Collapse |
Blagounette with Holland
From 2014, rumors circulate opportunely about the wish that the French would see him leave power, making him implicitly the new herald of the fight against the interference of Paris, in the eyes of a population that does not has legitimately not supported the French game in Ivory Coast. An old dictator then in power for 32 years is certainly an embarrassing ally for Francois Hollande, who prefers to appear with his Senegalese or Nigerian counterparts, become the democratic guarantees of his African policy. But the kidnappings of several Frenchmen in the north of the country (whose emissaries from Biya are negotiating liberation with millions) and the preservation of the many French economic interests (Bolloré, Orange, Total, Société Générale, Rougier, Compagnie Fruitière, Vinci, Razel, etc. ) make the Cameroonian stage unavoidable during the 2015 African tour of François Hollande [1]. During the press conference, Paul Biya mischievously responds to the French journalist who asks him about his longevity in power that "does not last in power who wants, but lasts who can", recycling an expression of the Cameroonian street to to send diplomatically back to the ropes his counterpart, then to the lowest in opinion polls in the Hexagon. The supporters of Biya exult, while the French diplomacy discreetly ensures that the Cameroonian authorities will reconsider their decision to remove Bolloré from the concession of the deep-water port of Kribi, under construction in the south of the country. Everything can go on, business as usual.
During the press conference, Paul Biya mischievously responds to the French journalist who asks him about his longevity in power that "does not last in power who wants, but lasts who can," recycling an expression of the Cameroonian street to to send diplomatically back to the ropes his counterpart, then to the lowest in opinion polls in the Hexagon. The supporters of Biya exult, while the French diplomacy discreetly ensures that the Cameroonian authorities will reconsider their decision to remove Bolloré from the concession of the deep-water port of Kribi, under construction in the south of the country. Everything can go on, business as usual. During the press conference, Paul Biya mischievously responds to the French journalist who asks him about his longevity in power that "does not last in power who wants, but lasts who can," recycling an expression of the Cameroonian street to to send diplomatically back to the ropes his counterpart, then to the lowest in opinion polls in the Hexagon. The supporters of Biya exult, while the French diplomacy discreetly ensures that the Cameroonian authorities will reconsider their decision to remove Bolloré from the concession of the deep-water port of Kribi, under construction in the south of the country. Everything can go on, business as usual. but hard that can, "recycling an expression of the Cameroonian street to send diplomatically back to the ropes his counterpart, then to the lowest in opinion polls in the Hexagon.
The supporters of Biya exult, while the French diplomacy discreetly ensures that the Cameroonian authorities will reconsider their decision to remove Bolloré from the concession of the deep-water port of Kribi, under construction in the south of the country. Everything can go on, business as usual. but hard that can, "recycling an expression of the Cameroonian street to send diplomatically back to the ropes his counterpart, then to the lowest in opinion polls in the Hexagon. The supporters of Biya exult, while the French diplomacy discreetly ensures that the Cameroonian authorities will reconsider their decision to remove Bolloré from the concession of the deep-water port of Kribi, under construction in the south of the country. Everything can go on, business as usual. while French diplomacy discreetly ensures that the Cameroonian authorities will reconsider their decision to remove Bolloré from the concession of the deep-water port of Kribi, under construction in the south of the country. Everything can go on, business as usual. while French diplomacy discreetly ensures that the Cameroonian authorities will reconsider their decision to remove Bolloré from the concession of the deep-water port of Kribi, under construction in the south of the country. Everything can go on, business as usual.
Economic sinking
But the political immobility of a country run from the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva, where Biya spends most of his time, can only lead to collapse. The domestic economy is bogged down every day a little more, in favor of the extraction of the wealth of the country, exported to China or Europe. In order not to lose preferential access to the European Union (EU) market, which is actually benefiting mainly from exports of its banana agro-industry (the Marseille group Compagnie Fruitière in the lead), Cameroon ratifies in 2014 its Interim Economic Partnership (EPA), which since August 2016 entails the gradual elimination of taxes on the importation of European products. End of June 2017, the Cameroonian customs welcomed the fact that they had lost "only" 600 million CFA francs (91,000 euros) in 10 months, while the projections put on 15 billion CFA francs in one year (23 million euros). Like banana exports, the dismantling of customs duties will continue, reducing the tax revenues of a ruined and over-indebted 35-year-old state of Biya-ism, while the population struggles on a daily basis to survive.
Political burst
Since 2016, Anglophones have been defending their rights: beyond the language issue, it is a history, a legal system and a political culture that are at stake. The government has systematically repressed demonstrations against what the inhabitants of the two big Anglophone regions call their "marginalization", leading to the escalation and radicalization of the movement - to which the government responds since September 2017 by a real war against part of its population, which continues by sporadic attacks against the forces of the order, who regularly take revenge on the population. Tens of thousands of English-speaking Cameroonians have fled to neighboring Nigeria, as a Nigerian civil servant told RFI (25/01): "We counted nearly 33,000 Cameroonian migrants. A large number arrived by road. But some people cross the forest, others the river. So it's very difficult to record them on our databases. " Among these refugees, 47 English-speaking leaders were arrested and extradited to Cameroon in January, resulting in a conviction by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who declared on 1 February that "their forced return is in violation of the principle of non-refoulement. which is the cornerstone of international refugee law ". Probably not enough to shock Emmanuel Macron, who shines with the inhumanity of his own asylum policy, and who has already appeared twice, at the EU-Africa summit in Abidjan at the end of November and the One Planet Summit organized in Paris on December 12, with the old despot. But some people cross the forest, others the river. So it's very difficult to record them on our databases. " Among these refugees, 47 English-speaking leaders were arrested and extradited to Cameroon in January, resulting in a conviction by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which declared on 1 February that "their forced return is in violation of the principle of non-refoulement. which is the cornerstone of international refugee law ". Probably not enough to shock Emmanuel Macron, who shines with the inhumanity of his own asylum policy, and who has already appeared twice, at the EU-Africa summit in Abidjan at the end of November and the One Planet Summit organized in Paris on December 12, with the old despot. But some people cross the forest, others the river. So it's very difficult to record them on our databases. " Among these refugees, 47 English-speaking leaders were arrested and extradited to Cameroon in January, resulting in a conviction by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which declared on 1 February that "their forced return is in violation of the principle of non-refoulement. which is the cornerstone of international refugee law ". Probably not enough to shock Emmanuel Macron, who shines with the inhumanity of his own asylum policy, and who has already appeared twice, at the EU-Africa summit in Abidjan at the end of November and the One Planet Summit organized in Paris on December 12, with the old despot. So it's very difficult to record them on our databases. " Among these refugees, 47 English-speaking leaders were arrested and extradited to Cameroon in January, resulting in a conviction by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who declared on 1 February that "their forced return is in violation of the principle of non-refoulement. which is the cornerstone of international refugee law ". Probably not enough to shock Emmanuel Macron, who shines with the inhumanity of his own asylum policy, and who has already appeared twice, at the EU-Africa summit in Abidjan at the end of November and the One Planet Summit organized in Paris on December 12, with the old despot. So it's very difficult to record them on our databases. " Among these refugees, 47 English-speaking leaders were arrested and extradited to Cameroon in January, resulting in a conviction by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who declared on 1 February that "their forced return is in violation of the principle of non-refoulement. which is the cornerstone of international refugee law ". Probably not enough to shock Emmanuel Macron, who shines with the inhumanity of his own asylum policy, and who has already appeared twice, at the EU-Africa summit in Abidjan at the end of November and the One Planet Summit organized in Paris on December 12, with the old despot. leading to a conviction by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which declared on 1 February that "their forced return is in violation of the principle of non-refoulement, which is the cornerstone of international refugee law". Probably not enough to shock Emmanuel Macron, who shines with the inhumanity of his own asylum policy, and who has already appeared twice, at the EU-Africa summit in Abidjan at the end of November and the One Planet Summit organized in Paris on December 12, with the old despot. leading to a conviction by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which declared on 1 February that "their forced return is in violation of the principle of non-refoulement, which is the cornerstone of international refugee law". Probably not enough to shock Emmanuel Macron, who shines with the inhumanity of his own asylum policy, and who has already appeared twice, at the EU-Africa summit in Abidjan at the end of November and the One Planet Summit organized in Paris on December 12, with the old despot.
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