Biya, the life president?

New African, Apr 2004 by Musa, Tansa

CAMEROON

As the October elections approach, the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) is split down the middle on the issue of whether or not to limit the presidential term. Tansa Musa reports from Yaounde.

For sometime now, top conservative and reformist members of the ruling party have been haggling over the issue of whether the 1996 constitutional amendment which limited the presidential term to two seven-year stints was the right thing to do.

Until the amendment, which followed the introduction of multi-partism in 1991, the country's president was elected for unlimited five year terms and was eligible for as many times as he wanted to run.

But recently, amid criticism, some senior members of the ruling CPDM are increasingly questioning the wisdom of limiting the presidential mandate and want President Paul Biya to stay longer.

"The president is elected by the people of Cameroon. I don't see why he should not be allowed to run as many times as he wants and as long as the people love him and vote for him. Let the people decide," argues Francoise Foning, a member of the CPDM central committee.

Her views are backed by the CPDM's deputy secretary general, Gregoire Owona, who urges Cameroonians to stand up and defend their interests and rights by pressing for a constitutional reform that placed no limitations on the presidential term.

At a recent rally, Owona called on party members to vote massively for Biya in the October elections.

When the constitution was amended in 1996, extending the term of office to two seven-year terms, Biya had already served for 14 years. But since the change was not retroactive, he won his first seven-year term in 1977. At 72, (22 of them in power), Biya is one of the longest serving leaders in Africa, after Togo's Gnassingbe Eyadema, Seychelles Albert Rene (who has just announced his retirement) and Omar Bongo of Gabon.

Some sections of the local media are livid about the calls for more terms for Biya: "Another seven years to do what?", retorted the French language independent, Le Messager.

But some CPDM reformers oppose the calls for constitutional change. Chief Mila Assoute, a member of the party's central committee, told New African that party officials like Foning and Owona (considered die-hard CPDM conservatives) just want to make Biya life president.

"As far as I know, we have a working constitution that was modified very recently and there are no reasons whatsoever now for it to undergo another reform," Chief Assoute said, adding "I am not surprised that the call came from persons who were opposed to reforms within the party."

Foning, who is also one of Cameroon's successful business women, is famed for her adulation of President Biya and his youthful wife, and glorifies them as the Father and Mother of the Nation - a practice popular and reminiscent of the cultism of the one-party days. Recovering from a near fatal car crash recently, Foning unabashedly told reporters that she owed her survival to the president!

Last year, the progressive wing of the CPDM published a white paper in which they admitted that the party had failed to meet the aspirations and expectations of the people of Cameroon for a better life. This was because the party had departed from the goals it had set itself at its creation in 1985.

The paper blamed the failure on mismanagement of the party by its top executive. It said there was a problem of transfer of power from one generation to another, citing some people who were ministers in 1958 still controlling the levers of power today, while the youth who constitute about 65% of the population were excluded from decision-making.

The paper was the first serious and open attack on the party.

"Cameroon is not the property of anybody," Chief Assoute said, referring to the controversial contents of the paper. "The country cannot be the property of any political party or any individual. We [the progressives] will not allow an oligarchy to develop in this country.

"The CPDM was created as a democratic party for all Cameroonians. It was not created for one man or a grotip of people to use it to hijack the country and its wealth for their personal interests. We will fight to prevent this from happening."

He said the time for change within the party had come, warning that his progressive front, which he claimed was growing in leaps and bounds, was ready to go to any length for their voices to be heard.

"We want the party to be reformed so that it can survive after its founder [Biya] had retired," Assoute declared, adding "despite the harsh criticisms of the system, the reformists remain loyal to the president."

But Owona dismissed the reformists as "a group of disgruntled persons have nothing new to offer because the party has already embarked on a modernisation process".

With the reformists' new-found liberty, fireworks are expected at the impending CPDM national convention which is expected to officially endorse Biya's candidacy for the October elections.

Although the president has not yet declared his hand, it is largely a forgone conclusion that he will run again. Since 1996, he has always declared himself as the CPDMs "natural candidate".