Waiting for the autocrat: How Paul Biya keeps Cameroon in suspense

Every afternoon at five o'clock, citizens across Cameroon tune into the state broadcaster's main radio bulletin, waiting for a government reshuffle that never arrives. Paul Biya, the 93-year-old president who returned to Yaounde in August following a ten-week absence in Europe, appears in no hurry to manage his state. Months after promising a fresh cabinet and half a year after establishing a new presidential succession mechanism, the machinery of government remains frozen in place.

In April, politicians approved Law No. 2026/002, amending the constitution to restore the office of the vice president after more than five decades. Under this framework, the vice president assumes power on an interim basis for the remainder of the seven-year presidential term should the sitting leader die, resign, or suffer permanent incapacity. Yet Biya has simply declined to name anyone to the post. The law imposes no deadline on his decision, leaving the country suspended in an institutional vacuum while succession rivalries simmer within the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement.

The prolonged silence has fostered an atmosphere of administrative absurdity. In June, an unidentified individual delivered a sealed envelope to the state broadcaster containing what claimed to be an official decree appointing a vice president. The document bore presidential seals and a forged signature, prompting an official investigation and the arrest of the courier, while state television refused to air the contents. Such episodes underline the growing desperation for clarity in a system where all authority flows from a single, largely absent nonagenarian.

The economic consequences of this deliberate hesitation are increasingly evident. Risk analysts note that political uncertainty threatens to erode investor confidence, particularly for large, long-term infrastructure and resource projects. Decision-making has slowed across ministries, delaying reforms and public policies at a time when Cameroon can ill afford stagnation. The state continues to confront an ongoing separatist conflict in its Anglophone regions as well as an armed insurgency linked to Boko Haram near Lake Chad.

Appeals from opposition leaders like Cabral Libii of the Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation to fill the vice presidency and stabilise collective action have fallen on deaf ears. Instead, government officials defend the delay as royal prerogative. Communication Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi maintained that it is surely quite normal for him to take his time when entrusting such a high office to one of his fellow citizens. Former minister Elvis Ngolle Ngolle similarly insisted that the timing rests entirely within the constitutional rights of the president.

Biya previously promised the nation on December 31, 2025, that a new executive team would be formed in the coming days. More than nine months later, that commitment remains unfulfilled. For a regime accustomed to prioritizing sovereign control over administrative speed, keeping the public waiting by the radio appears to be a feature of power, not a flaw.

Written by Thomas Nussbaumer thomas.nussbaumer@alpineweekly.com