Today Friday 18th October 2024 is day 46 of Mr Biya’s absence from his office in Yaounde.
As he is “not” ill, he has no reasons, not to say excuses, for being away from his “constitutional workplace” for this long without justification. Mr Biya is deemed to have resigned his post by abandoning it…
“In the event of a temporary impediment, the President of the Republic shall instruct the Prime Minister or, if the Prime Minister is unable to attend, another member of the Government, to carry out some of his functions, in the case of an express delegation.”
He is not ill as per the 8th October Communique from his Chief of Staff, just to be clear so the 45 day limit is applicable – at least to be considered as unreasonable for anyone to be absent from their workplace without justification.
While the same communique may have claimed he was doing his job, article 8(1) defines his work place as the presidency in Yaounde, primarily, or other justifiable locations within La République du Cameroun. He certainly could not do his routine job overseas. Non-routine parts of his job would be diplomatic aspects – and nothing like being cloistered in secret in a Swiss hotel.
Certain minsters have been quick to say that there is no actual time limit at which the vacancy would be triggered but Mr Biya’s habits would have lead him to try to make it back within the disputed limit. That eh did not suggests bigger considerations than any argument about the time limits not being defined.
What should happen now?
The Constitutional Council should notice, having been been made to notice the vacancy [called resignation, if he has abandoned his place of work and his job] by the Speaker of the Lower House, and they should act to address it as by passing the torch to his constitutional heir…
That constitutional heir would be the speaker of the senate Niat Njifenji, who, sadly is in no state to step in as he is off for treatment in Europe. His vice-speaker should step in …
Quickly, it is clear that there are just too many improvisations to be called into play if the CC were to do its job. It is exactly the sort situations where the French have been known to step in to “help” and everyone can guess their “advice”.
As it happens, if the vacancy is not noticed, Barrister Tamfu has petitioned the Speaker of the Assembly to ensure he notices the vacancy and seizes the Constitutional Council.
All of the foregoing has built-in loop holes. For one thing, all the players in the chain are appointees of Mr Biya and are very unlikely to play their parts to discard him. The speaker will wait as long as possible, giving the Constitutional Council all that time to wait, before they wait again as they “deliberate”. The upshot, Ambazonia News surmises is that this law, even in spirit, is only for the poor, like most La République du Cameroun laws.
Mr Biya’s fall will, in the end, not come directly from the law. Had he been in any position to circumvent it he would have tried to get back just in time to avoid the criticism – at least avoid his lackeys having to defend his position in front of the international community. That he has not does not bode well for his basic functional health, rendering the “debate” about 45 days and any semantice and technicalities completely moot given his is very unlikely to be able to evcen contin ue to issue “high instructions” having failed to show himself “capable”. “His” [Mr Biya’s] dubious tenure has seen him burn bridges in the diplomatic arena, for instance with Switzerland and Canada most reccently, both of whom “he” duped into fools’ errands over the Ambazonian Liberation Struggle. To recall, he lead these two partner nations down the garden path of playing at “negotiations” before publicly disowning their statements. In the case of Canada, it was Global Affairs Canada’s head, the Minster of Foreign Affairs for Canada, who was disowned summarily contracdicted, having been misled to publicly announce dealings known as Pre-Talks between La Republique and Ambazonia. If La République du Cameroun had dispatched a functionary to slap her in the face that could not have been more offensive.
In Switzerland’s case, La Republique du Cameroun allowed a peripheral “opposition” minister delegate to issue an op-ed claiming Mr Biya was a genius for dribbling the international community away from sanctions. An admission of the genocidal crimes coupled with offending international partners – quite apart from the establishment of a reputation as unreliable.
These two are only the overt players in the scene and, as is the way of international partners, there will be others whose bridges were torched less publicly in the same, or related episodes.
Ambazonia News brings these examples to show that “dirty launders” of the vacancy could not have come at a worse time – the lowest ebb of “trust”. The secondary losses will fall on France who will have to further break cover when the try to crown their preferred “dauphin”, if their shenanigans in other French colonies is to be engaged again. Their standing in region is already tenuous and with the capital they have deployed in supporting La République du Cameroun’s genocidal war against Ambazonia they will need to have a lot of credit to burn, or a colossal amount to gain, to risk the attempt of a coronation in La République du Cameroun. If they do not line up their ducks, they will come unstuck especially in a theatre already primed and ready for exploitation by any disgruntled frenemies.
As Ambazonia News conjectured on the eve of expiry of the 45-day “understanding”, it does not matter much whether Mr Biya returns or not and there is hardly any credit to be had for dying in service, given that he has never been in service and would likely have died showing his disdain for the country he was claiming to serve – frequenting a foreign health facility for his own failure ro cause the creation of one within “his” country, which fellow citizens could benefit from as part of his legacy. Instead, he would be shown to have chosen to lavish resources on himself and his cronies while leaving abject poverty, incompetence, ineptitude and anarchy as his legacy.
His name would be “mud” so the French would have their work cut out to sustain a dynastic transition.
It will be intriguing to see how it unfolds in the next few days and weeks and months.
Ambazonia News Briefs 