Cameroon: Who Holds Power When Biya Is Absent?

In March, a quarrel over a stretch of road in Yaounde exposed a fault line in Cameroon's government. The road lay along the route Pope Leo XIV was due to travel the following month, and local media reported that Housing and Urban Development Minister Celestine Ketcha Courtes and Yaounde Mayor Luc Messi Atangana were at odds over its rehabilitation. The dispute was small, but it pointed to a larger question: who exercises authority in Cameroon when President Paul Biya is not visibly in charge?

Biya is 93 and has governed since 1982. He left for Europe on June 7 and returned to Yaounde on August 20, after more than 10 weeks away. His return did not settle the questions about how power is managed. Research by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, which examined records of his travels from 1982 onward, found he had spent at least four and a half years abroad on private visits across more than three decades.

The constitution gives him sweeping powers. He sets national policy, appoints the prime minister and, on the prime minister's proposal, the rest of the government, and he commands the armed forces. Under Section 10 he may delegate some powers to the prime minister, ministers and senior officials. If he is temporarily unable to perform his duties, he must expressly delegate some functions to the prime minister, or to another member of government if the prime minister is also unavailable. But an absence abroad does not by itself count as inability, and it does not automatically pass his powers to the prime minister. The government has not publicly explained whether a clear delegation is in effect during his long absences.

One figure at the center of the debate is Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, secretary-general at the presidency. His official biography, published by the Prime Minister's Office, lists his duties as relaying the president's instructions, monitoring how presidential decisions are carried out and coordinating the administrations attached to the presidency. On February 5, 2019, Biya signed Decree No. 2019/043, giving him a permanent delegation of signature, which lets him sign certain official documents for the president. That is not a transfer of presidential powers, and Ngoh Ngoh is not the constitutional successor. His formal role is also distinct from the informal influence often attributed to him.

The same caution applies to First Lady Chantal Biya and the president's son, Franck Biya, who are frequently mentioned in discussions of the presidency. Neither holds constitutional executive office, and claims about their influence or about rival networks are hard to verify independently. Security analyst Ryan Cummings has argued that people close to the president may be playing increasingly tangible roles. That points to the importance of the inner circle, but it does not show who decides what, or on whose authority.

Succession has grown more pressing since a constitutional amendment approved on April 14 revived the office of vice president, to be appointed and dismissed by the president. Under the revised Article 6, the vice president would take over if the presidency fell vacant through death, resignation or permanent incapacity established by the Constitutional Council, and would serve out the term. If there is no vice president, or the vice president cannot serve, the Senate president becomes interim president, followed by the Senate vice president if needed, and a presidential election must be held between 20 and 120 days after the vacancy. As of November 10, no vice president had been publicly named, so the mechanism is untested. Accounts of factions jockeying to succeed Biya are assessments, not evidence of an agreed plan.

Military appointments have added to the scrutiny. On August 4, Reuters reported three presidential decrees reshuffling senior military leadership: commanders replaced in four of the five joint military regions, the head of the Presidential Guard promoted from colonel to brigadier general, and a new commander named for the Rapid Intervention Brigade. The decrees give no reasons. Robert Besseling, CEO of the intelligence advisory firm Pangea-Risk, reads the changes partly as an effort to secure loyalty and manage threats to the presidency, though the political meaning cannot be independently established.

The stakes reach beyond the palace. Cameroon faces a separatist conflict in its English-speaking regions and attacks by Boko Haram-linked groups in the Far North. Joshua Osih, leader of the Social Democratic Front, criticised the amendment during the April parliamentary debate, arguing it weakened democratic legitimacy and centralised power further. Government spokesman Rene Emmanuel Sadi told RFI in August that Biya is entitled to decide when to form a new government. The presidency did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment. Yaounde-based analyst Paul Anchang argues institutions keep functioning, while Besseling says the political scene suffers from "distinct institutional paralysis."

What to watch: whether Biya names a vice president, whether further military reshuffles follow, and whether the government ever spells out any formal delegation of presidential functions.