Is Switzerland, Biya’s first home, also tired of him?
A political cartoon mocking President Paul Biya’s decades-long grip on power has been displayed at an international press freedom exhibition in Geneva, Switzerland.
The cartoon, seen on an outdoor panel along Quai Wilson on the shores of Lake Geneva, shows a man standing beside a hospital bed marked “Paul Biya” and telling the elderly-looking figure: “Sir, I have good news… You’ve just won another election.” The figure in bed responds: “Which election?”
The drawing is by Ugandan cartoonist Jimmy “Spire” Ssentongo, one of the 2026 laureates of the Kofi Annan Courage in Cartooning Award. Spire shared the award with Palestinian cartoonist Safaa Odah.
The award, presented by the Freedom Cartoonists Foundation and the City of Geneva, honours cartoonists who use their work to defend human rights, freedom of expression and accountability, often under difficult circumstances.
The exhibition, titled “Drawings for Freedom,” was held in Geneva as part of activities linked to World Press Freedom Day. It featured editorial cartoons from around the world, including works addressing political repression, war, corruption, and abuse of power.
Spire’s cartoon on Paul Biya has drawn particular attention among Cameroonians because of the president’s long stay in power. Biya, who has ruled Cameroon since 1982, remains one of the world’s longest-serving and oldest leaders.
The cartoon comes at a time when political debate in Cameroon continues to focus on succession, electoral credibility and whether Biya, now in his 90s, fraudulently declared the winner in the October 2025 elections and has not been able to govern ever since
Since he manipulated himself back to the helm of office, he promised to form a new government in the days ahead; it is now getting to a year, and there is no new government. There has been news about him appointing a Vice President of the country, and yet there hasn’t been any such appointment, even though rumour and social media are pregnant with him appointing his son, Franck Biya, who eventually becomes his successor.
44 years since Ahidjo handed power to Biya, there hasn’t been anything like an election in Cameroon; as a matter of fact, they are called elections in Cameroon because there is no appropriate synonym to be used. What obtains in Cameroon has been and remains the presentation to the general public of preconceived results, whether one voted or not, and with the use of intimidation, the docile population sits quiet after taking their beer, bread, sardines and promises of eventual appointments.
It happened that in 1992, when Ni John Fru Ndi won the presidential election, Supreme Court Judge Alexis Dipanda Mouille, overwhelmed with Fru Ndi’s landslide victory, declared that his hands were tied and, to save his life, declared Biya the winner. Fru Ndi was put under house arrest, Bamenda under curfew and heavily militarized.
In 2025, the winner was Issa Tchiroma Bakary, currently on the run
Geneva, Switzerland, happens to be Biya’s first home because, for 44 years, he has spent more than three-quarters of these years at the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva. For 44 years, apart from Douala, Maroua, Garoua, Buea, Bamenda, and Ebolowa.
Even in Bamenda, which Paul Biya said in April 1983 was his second home, he only came back there for the Agric Show and again to metamorphose the CNU to the CPDM, which has finally ruined the country through corruption.
The Ring Road that Paul Biya promised in 1983 he was going to personally supervise had long been forgotten.
Is Switzerland, Biya’s first home, also tired of him?
