By Franck Essi, 14 July 2025

On 13 July 2025, Paul Biya, aged at least 92, announced his candidacy for the presidency of the Republic of Cameroon for a new seven-year term. He did so, in an almost surreal manner, on social media, the day after the electorate was called to the polls. What was predictable has now become official: the man who embodies one of the longest presidential reigns in the world intends to cling on until the end — or until the break.

This announcement is not simply absurd: it is tragic. Tragic for a people trapped in a regime that, having worn everything out, is now wearing itself out. Tragic for a country prevented from breathing, renewing itself and hoping.

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I. A long institutional career without real change

No one disputes that Paul Biya is a major player in Cameroon’s political and administrative history. He entered the senior civil service in the 1960s and rose through the ranks of power: special advisor to the president (1962-1965), chief of staff and secretary general at the Ministry of National Education, civil chief of staff, minister secretary general of the presidency (1968-1975), Prime Minister (1975-1982), then President of the Republic since 6 November 1982.

Forty-two years at the head of the state. Fifty years of uninterrupted presence at the top of the state apparatus. But this longevity, far from being synonymous with solidity or stability, has turned its back on progress.

The energy expended on lasting is often energy that is no longer expended on getting things done. On carrying out long-awaited reforms. On driving necessary change. On building solid, inclusive and adaptable institutions. In forty-two years of Biya’s presidency, Cameroon has not changed its approach. It has merely changed its façade.

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II. Longevity without vision: stagnation, crises and decay

This longevity has turned into a straitjacket. It has become synonymous with the confiscation of power. The state has been captured by an oligarchy whose sole concern is to stay in power at any cost.

It has produced neither shared prosperity nor structural transformation. The Cameroonian economy remains extroverted and dependent on exports of raw materials. Industrialisation has never been undertaken. Small-scale farming is neglected. Youth unemployment is at an all-time high. Social inequalities are widening.

This longevity has also given rise to major crises, some of which remain unresolved to this day:

• The war against Boko Haram in the Far North, which was poorly anticipated and mismanaged.
• The Anglophone crisis, which turned into armed conflict due to the refusal to engage in sincere dialogue.
• The disintegration of local institutions, riddled with corruption and inertia.

These crises have caused thousands of deaths, hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons and immense economic and social damage. They are symptoms of a system that cannot reform because it is no longer capable of doing so.

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III. The reign of an absent president: dysfunction and opacity

As the president ages, his public presence becomes increasingly rare. He has become invisible, inaudible and inaccessible. He no longer visits the country. He does not console bereaved families. He does not visit crisis areas. He does not pay national tribute to fallen soldiers. He no longer participates in major international events.

This physical and symbolic absence is an affront to the presidential office. It is also a waste of his institutional and diplomatic weight.

Worse still, it encourages the excessive delegation of power to unelected actors who are not accountable to the people.

For years, Cameroon has been operating under an opaque system of ‘high instructions’. It is a system of remote government, where opacity reigns, decisions contradict each other, clans clash and government cohesion is non-existent.

The President no longer governs but prevents others from governing.

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IV. A locked system: war on innovation, stagnation of the elites

Paul Biya’s longevity in power has been accompanied by a systematic rejection of innovation. Any new initiative is seen as a threat. Any new face is suspect. Any reform is feared. Fear of change has become state doctrine.

The system refuses to renew itself. It recycles the same profiles, perpetuates the same methods and repeats the same logic. Cabinet meetings are hardly ever held. The High Council of the Judiciary does not meet at the legally required frequency. The Higher Education Council has not been convened since the 1980s!

Thought, too, is frozen. The regime is working to kill all forms of political imagination. It stifles countervailing powers. It criminalises criticism. It depoliticises young people. It infantilises society.

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V. Longevity encouraged by a minority, endured by the majority

Why then this stubborn persistence? Because a tiny minority benefits from it. This longevity is not the result of a national consensus, but of a conspiracy of interests. It is maintained by those who fear justice, reject change, and prepare their own rise to power through undemocratic means.

Those who still support Paul Biya do so neither out of conviction nor hope, but out of self-interest, fear or cynicism. Behind the scenes, they are preparing a seamless succession, a change within continuity, a transfer of power without debate.

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VI. A useful comparison: lessons from Algeria

Cameroon is no exception. It shares with other African countries the symptoms of a blocked end of reign: a rigid oligarchy, an elderly and disconnected president, and a locked system. Bouteflika’s Algeria had the same characteristics. It was the Hirak, a massive popular mobilisation, that brought about the break.

But the Algerian lesson is clear: without organised, structured, peaceful but persistent popular pressure, no real transition can take place. The oligarchy will organise its own succession, without reform, without democracy, without justice.

In Cameroon, the challenge is immense but unavoidable: to bring about the emergence of a citizen force capable of influencing history.

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VII. What is to be done? Rebuild, reconstruct, put the people back at the centre

Paul Biya’s longevity in power, as it stands, is a dead end. It is incompatible with efficiency, democracy and social justice. It has become a source of national humiliation. It is time to end this vicious cycle.

What Cameroon needs is a democratic overhaul. An overhaul that:

• Strengthens popular sovereignty and restores meaning to universal suffrage.
• Rehabilitates institutions and places them under the control of citizens.
• Ensures regular rotation of elites through genuine elections.

Restores hope to young people by valuing competence, integrity and boldness.

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VIII. The role of young people: enlighten, engage, act

Cameroonian youth are the great forgotten ones of the Biya regime. Yet they constitute the demographic majority of the country. They must become the political majority. They must organise, educate themselves and rise up.

It is no longer a question of suffering. It is a question of changing the script and becoming the authors of the history to come. Whether you are a student, a shopkeeper, a farmer, an artist, a civil servant or an activist, everyone can take part in this work of rebuilding. Change will not come from above. It will come from below, if it is overwhelmingly desired, embraced and supported.

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Our duty: to rekindle the national flame and turn the page on the Biya regime

Paul Biya’s reign is coming to an end, both biologically and politically. But it will not end on its own. It is up to the Cameroonian people to bring it to an end peacefully, lucidly and resolutely. To reopen the horizon. To rebuild the Republic. To unleash energies.

Let us reflect. Let us commit ourselves. Let us harness our collective power.

When the people rise up, things change!

Franck Essi

14 July 2025

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