Cameroon: The Confiscation of Power Cannot Continue
Chantal Biya and Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh are playing a dangerous game, one game too many. What is unfolding today is not merely the exhaustion of a long-standing regime, but the systematic seizure of the Cameroonian state by a clan that now governs without the people, against the people, and outside the Constitution.
When did Paul Biya publicly announce a cabinet reshuffle? In more than forty years in power, this has never been his practice. This unusual communication is not trivial; it exposes internal panic and a desperate attempt to maintain the illusion of a president still in control, while real power has clearly shifted elsewhere.
Cameroonians can no longer endure seven more years of deception, political theatre, and institutional manipulation. It was not Paul Biya who convened traditional rulers; it was Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, a mere Secretary-General of the Presidency, who has assumed political authority without any popular mandate. It was not the ballot box that decided the outcome, but a subservient Constitutional Council that proclaimed a fabricated victory under the direct influence of the presidential clan, with Chantal Biya at its center.
Cameroon’s Constitution is explicit: sovereignty belongs to the people; powers must be separated; state institutions must remain neutral. Yet, the reality that Cameroonians face today is the exact opposite: an extreme personalisation of power, a presidency hijacked by unelected actors, and a Constitutional Council reduced to a rubber-stamp institution serving clan interests.
When institutions lose their independence, when electoral outcomes no longer reflect the will of the people, when a president becomes a mere alibi while others govern from the shadows, the constitutional order is no longer merely weakened—it is broken.
Cameroon is not a family monarchy. Nor is it a private corporation to be inherited through marital or political succession. No law, no constitutional provision, grants Chantal Biya or Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh the authority to determine electoral outcomes, manage national political life, or speak on behalf of the Cameroonian people.
The Cameroonian people are exhausted. Exhausted by a mafia-style regime indifferent to daily hardship, mass youth unemployment, the collapse of public services, and widespread insecurity. Exhausted by being summoned only to serve as decorative props in carefully staged political spectacles. Exhausted by a system that no longer cares about the true results of elections, only about its own survival.
Governing through deception, fear, manipulation, and contempt for the people is no longer sustainable. History has shown that no clan, no matter how tightly it locks down power, can indefinitely confiscate a nation’s sovereignty.
Cameroon deserves better than rule by shadows. It deserves respect for its Constitution, its citizens, and its dignity.
EKN
