The question of whether the silence and the long public absence of the Cameroonian president, Paul Biya, withdrawn for months in his village, would illustrate an alteration of his ability to govern linked to his advanced age – 92, including almost half in power -, Paul Atanga Nji will seek his great register. There spread out, page after page, his handwritten notes aligned in columns drawn by hand. Like a goalkeeper noting the entrances and outings of a building, the Minister of Territorial Administration and Permanent Secretary of the National Security Council records his exchanges, letters and reports sent to the presidency daily.
“He answers me at the latest in forty-eight hours, from the morning to the middle of the night”details the minister. Proof according to him that Paul Biya, invisible for weeks, “Is not a president for folklore”. And to recall his trips from the past few months to China, Paris, Moscow or Addis Ababa … without forgetting his essential presence in the gallery for the military parade marking the National Day of Unity, on May 20 in Yaoundé. “We have only one chief, it’s him”Tranche Grégoire Owona, Minister of Labor and Deputy Secretary General of the Democratic Rally of the Cameroonian People (DRPC), the Hegémonic Party in power.
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