Post of Vice President: US for Anglophone, France lobbying for Francophone!.

Unlike when such was still at the level of projections, since the Congress of Parliament amended the Constitution in April this year, reintroducing the position of Vice President, some of the country’s most influential international partners have refused to go to sleep.

Albeit what is believed to be President Paul Biya’s usual out-of-the-ordinary wisdom in fashioning out certain appointments, that of Vice President, which continues to animate public debate, is reported to be being monitored beyond Yaounde.

Biya, the master of multilateralism, sources have said, is facing several proposals and conjectures to influence the extraction of Vice President, given the country’s linguistic heritage and duality. 

The two most pressing diplomatic partners of the country, whose cables have remained alive and alert in the last few months, are said to be France and the United States of America.

Both countries that had before this year been in behind-the-scene push for Yaounde to have a Vice President as a stop-gap measure to guarantee continuity at the helm of State, are now reportedly said to be playing their cards at higher levels.

Akin to the debate already heating the polity with some insisting on the need for an Anglophone to be Vice President, given that President Biya is of Francophone extraction, usually trusted sources have hinted that both Washington and Paris are holding diverse positions on the same issue.

The Guardian Post has it on good authority that Paris has activated its engagements with Yaounde, pressing to get another Francophone appointed as Vice President. 

France, we gathered, is said to be viewing its interest as going to be best guaranteed, should the post of Vice President go to a Francophone. 

That wish, we are told, aligns with what has been on in the last over six decades in the strategic Central African country that Cameroon is.

Washington, on the other hand, is reported to be insistent that Biya should go for an Anglophone as Vice President. The Americans are said to be picturing having an Anglophone as Vice President and potential successor of Biya, as the best option to negotiate Cameroon’s stability in particular and that of the Central Africa Subregion in general, going into the future.

The US, diplomatic sources are hinting, has updated the Head of State that American investments in Cameroon can only continue to grow if he gives an Anglophone the chance to be Vice President.

This, they are said to have told Yaounde, is given the already strained sociopolitical state of the country in the last decade. 

In the analyses of Washington, which dependable sources say continues to be updated regularly, the armed conflict in the North West and South West Regions, already paints a picture of other undesired outbursts if appointments and changes at the helm of State are not properly thought out.

With Cameroon resiliently standing amid the Anglophone question that has refused to disappear from how power is shared for decades, coupled with the Boko Haram incursions in the Far North Region and handling of rebel threats in the East Region, the US is said to be holding the unshaken position that it is time to let an Anglophone become second in command in Cameroon; at least to cold flaring tempers in the two Anglophone regions.

The stress the October 12, 2025 presidential election brought to the country, with major political shifts, especially across the Grand North that had until recently been a quiet political support basket for Biya, Washington is said to be factoring, makes appointing an Anglophone as Vice President the best and only visible option at Biya’s disposal. 

Grounds shifting continually

The current reported race between Washington and Paris on the identity and origin of Vice President, analysts are saying, depict the clear case of political grounds constantly shifting. 

Across 2024 and 2025, America and France were said to be casting their backing on two prominent Anglophones to assist President Biya in managing the country.

Both nations are mooted to have failed to settle on the two names that had been screened mature and experienced enough to serve at the level. At that time, the post of Vice President was still being conjectured.

How things have swiftly changed with France now shifting grounds to reportedly insisting on Biya picking another Francophone as Vice President, pundits say, shows the complex dynamics of politics, diplomacy and power, especially in Africa.

Vice President dilemma & Cameroon’s future

The heightened interest around power at the highest levels in Cameroon, especially its Vice Presidency recently reanimated after it was suppressed, is not unconnected to President Biya’s age. 

Within and beyond the country, many, including especially investors, have for long been pressing home the need to strengthen succession patterns to ensure stability in case of a vacancy.

Diplomatically, most countries and blocs continue to see Cameroon as the gatekeeper of peace and stability across Central Africa. They are said to see the country’s stability as a major pillar, necessary to handle some already existing security threats and other contemporary challenges linked to the wellbeing of the world.

The consistent heightened interest in the country’s politics and power dynamics is said to be regularly informed by the consciousness that if Yaounde stumbles, several things may go wrong for several major nations, businesses and global undertakings.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3813 of Wednesday June 10, 2026