A head of state is only as good as the counsel he seeks and the counselors who provide it. This is true as many celebrated leaders around the globe surrounded themselves with men and women with solid personal achievements. French Cameroun dictator, Paul Biya rejected every top aide that state institutions provided for him when he took office in 1982 and systematically burned through so many top Francophone and Anglophone advisers and so much good will that he now operates with a hollowed-out tribal staff of half-baked academic and political experience.

This explains why, 4 gendarmerie officers killed by Nigerian smugglers in Agborkem German in the Manyu County was misinterpreted as a crime committed by Southern Cameroons separatists and a war was declared against the English speaking communities that has eventually laid to rest the doctrine of the United Republic of Cameroon or better still, the one and indivisible Cameroon.

Everyone deep within the consortium of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate is now exhausted by Biya’s moods, offended by his shabby treatment of them and astonishingly shocked by his ignorance and low sense of judgment. The silence currently being maintained by men like Joseph Owona, Sultan Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya, Peter Mafany Musonge and Philemon Yang is indeed a conclusion that if Biya is an institution, CPDM is no longer trustworthy.

The numerous lies regularly told by Biya and his gang of French Cameroun political elites show that his so-called “Special Status” for the people of Southern Cameroons cannot be accepted. In declaring war against the English speaking people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia, Biya embraced a French government course that his predecessor, the late Ahmadou Ahidjo rejected as too extreme in the days of Ndeh Ntumazah’s One Kamerun.

Following several incremental breaches of all accords signed in Foumban in 1961 with Southern Cameroons political leadership, Biya is now running away from the Etoudi palace in Yaoundé. Age is telling on him and his ancestors are calling!!  The average length of his numerous stay in his Mvomeka’a palace has gradually lengthened: whereas he spent only a few days each time a few years ago, he now stays there for several weeks in a row, or even more than a month.

The people of Southern Cameroons have made it crystal clear that they are no longer an item with La Republique du Cameroun.  The recent massive deployment of troops to Southern Cameroons and the upcoming February polls have escalated tensions to perilous heights between the Biya regime and Ambazonia Interim Government.

A spokesperson for the Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima was quoted lately as saying the Southern Cameroons Interim Government was responding to French Cameroun’s massive military deployments with massive resistance. There are no signs of de-escalation, Buea and Yaoundé could be heading for a divorce absolute.

Third-party mediation is not on sight which many have opined is the best mechanism for finding a solution to the crisis.

To understand why President Biya who will be 87 this February is still holding on to power, start with a simple fact. Ever since the attempted coup on April 6^th  1984, President Biya’s regime has killed too many Cameroonians both at home and abroad including his first wife Jeanne-Irène Biya that he was married for 32 years (until 1992) and embezzled and wasted too many billions of Cameroonian money, to make it plausible that he would ever voluntarily give up power.

Under the current La Republique du Cameroun constitution, President Biya can run again and again for president when his term expires in six years time. To be sure, the constitution and elections do not much matter in Cameroon. La Repubique du Cameroun is a crime syndicate and dictatorship masquerading as a democracy. You simply need French government support and some lobby firms deep within the European Union and in the USA with little or no economic growth and corruption to remain as head of state.

Biya and his gang control the state radio and television, he bars popular opposition candidates from participating in elections, his regime regularly co-opt tame French Cameroun opposition figures and arrests and intimidation are dished out to the less tame ones. He has support from Nigeria’s President Buhari who as a soldier makes little secret of his admiration for strongmen. With Southern Cameroons gone, French Cameroun only comfort is that even rulers-for-life such as the Monarchs don’t live forever.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai