Cameroon's gerontocracy: Can country survive another seven year under same system?.

President Paul Biya, now 93, has held power for 43 years. His continued rule, despite increasing physical and cognitive decline, has paralysed the nation. 

Yet, he is once again presented as the sole candidate to govern a country whose median age is under 20.

This political absurdity has inflicted lasting damage. Biya’s continued presence at the helm of State has triggered public discontent, institutional decay, and the wholesale loss of legitimacy for both the Presidency and the ruling party.

In democratic terms, legitimacy is derived from the people’s consent. That consent no longer exists in Cameroon. The Presidency and its institutions have outlived their democratic mandate. Their grip on power is no longer governance but occupation. Cameroonians must now confront a grim reality: the country is held hostage by a geriatric cult that confuses longevity with legitimacy.

Our leaders are visible yet absent. Institutions are hollow. The constitution is routinely violated, and the nation’s future is held in suspension. Cameroon cannot endure another seven years of this fossilised and suffocating status quo.

The regime is long past its expiry date. It has detached from the aspirations of a vibrant and youthful population. What we are witnessing is not leadership but a desperate attempt to preserve power. What else explains the decision to front a visibly declining 93-year-old as the candidate to lead one of Africa’s youngest nations? This is intergenerational treason.

It is a betrayal, not only of the country but of Biya himself, who should be resting quietly in Mvomeka’a, not propped up by cynical loyalists clinging to privilege.

To understand how Cameroon descended into this absurdity, we must revisit 2008. That year, after 26 years in power, Biya abolished presidential term limits- an effective constitutional coup. This extinguished the last illusion of democratic succession and triggered a long, deliberate freeze of the nation’s political process.

What followed was a deepening of hyper-presidentialism: a centralised autocracy where every arm of the State- from governors and magistrates to village chiefs and university chancellors- which functions at the whim of the Presidency. Cameroon became a private estate, its key offices rotated among sycophants in an endless carousel of reappointments.

At the centre of this geriatric oligarchy stands Paul Biya, 93. He has outlasted twelve U.S. Presidents, five French Heads of State, and four Popes. His presidency is effectively political permafrost: static, opaque, and impervious to change.

Frequently absent and often abroad for medical treatment, Biya rarely addresses the nation. When he does, he appears not too strong-merely reaffirming that his grip on power has defied all logic.

Should Biya exit- biologically or politically, his constitutional successor