Well-known men and women from the Cameroonian opposition are asking the Constitutional Council to declare a vacancy in the presidency of the Republic due to a prolonged absence of the Head of State. The communication secretary of the ruling party rejects the vacancy thesis and sends everyone back to work.
44 days after President Paul Biya, accompanied by his wife Chantal Biya, left for a “short private stay” in Europe, the debate on the vacancy at the head of the state is intensifying. It pits political figures belonging to opposition parties against those of the establishment. The former, given the time the Head of State spends outside the country, believe there is reason to declare a vacancy in the presidency. “The Constitutional Council must declare the vacancy at the top of the state,” recently stated MP Jean-Michel Nintcheu, without, however, giving the reasons for his position at the same time.
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This same week, an op-ed by Professor Jean Calvin Aba’a Oyono, a university professor and opponent of the regime, reignited the debate on the issue. His analysis goes further than merely noting the vacancy. It also addresses the ambiguity of the Constitution regarding this vacancy and the role of the Constitutional Council. Clear on matters of death and resignation, the fundamental law is silent on the duration of the Head of State’s stay abroad to trigger the vacancy process. A situation that paralyzes the top of the state, blocks urgent decrees, and the appointment of a vice-president. The jurist calls for reflection on the role of the Constitutional Council in the face of the prolonged absence of the President of the Republic.
Following these series of statements, the communication secretary of the Cameroon People’s Democratic Rally (CPDM), the ruling party, broke his silence on Tuesday. He is categorical. “There is no vacancy at the top of the state.” The Minister of State reminds that “no legal or regulatory provision sets the maximum duration of the presidential stay outside Cameroon.” Also, regarding the inertia at the top of the state, Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo affirms that “the head of the executive is at work wherever he is.”
Therefore, “stop the fabrications and big lies,” he insists. For him, vacancy in the presidency of the Republic, paralysis in governance, there is nothing to see. There is nothing to hear either. You must move on. “Let everyone resolutely get to work in their area of competence,” invites the Minister of Higher Education.
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His statement on July 21 is not enough to silence the opposition. Once published, it provoked a reaction from the first vice-president of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement. Mamadou Mota denounces the summoning of philosophers to “camouflage a glaring institutional void.” According to the opponent, claiming that no legal provision sets the maximum duration of a presidential stay abroad to dismiss the debate “is pure sophistry.”
44 days abroad for the president is no longer a stay, but “a de facto exile” according to him. And the work of the President of the Republic can only be carried out in the “heart of the nation” and not by “clandestine teleworking.” For the second personality of the MRC, the Head of State cannot ensure the regular functioning of public powers by signing from Geneva for it to be marked in Yaoundé.
The debate continues as long as President Paul Biya is abroad. Even after his return, the grey areas surrounding the regulation of the president’s time abroad require clarification. In an era of institutional reforms, the legislator would do well to address this to definitively end the debate.