Nation in decay!.

When regime songbirds put Cameroon on paper in perspective, a stranger, pundits say, will feel Cameroonians are living in the biblical land flowing with milk and honey.

The Cameroon on paper, analysts are saying, is one where the Head of State is glorified for doing what he is Constitutionally supposed to do to the citizenry. 

In the Cameroon on paper, even a poorly dug village road with hard earned money from indigenes and other social amenity schemes, are twisted to fit in the political and imaginary paradise that Cameroon is.

With the regime in place, critics say allies have eternalised power, leadership and appropriated to themselves the right of being the only reasonable citizens, while others are vagabonds and enemies of sorts.

In the Cameroon on paper, we are living in a country of continuous merriment over the launch of projects which, development trackers say, rarely see the light of day. 

The Cameroon on paper, those reviewing the country’s sorry state are saying, is one where those chopping from the system rarely speak the truth and see nothing wrong in the more than four-decade long Biya regime.

Board members of State corporations hail poor management, while ministers are glorified when they appear before Parliament for no work done. 

This, they are saying, continues to happen while President Biya stays consistent in churning out visions which foot soldiers have repeatedly been fingered for failing to realise.

The real Cameroon

Aside the grandiloquence that often characterise several government schemes, critics say Cameroon, even if it were developing, is doing so at a less-than-a-snail’s pace. 

From sloganeering such as ‘health for all by the year 2000,’ to the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper, GESP, whose second phase is now the much-trumpeted National Development Strategy, 2020-2030, SND30, many citizens are lamenting that nothing suggests development that matches what Biya regime songbirds often mount soapboxes to boast about.

With four years for the completion of SND30 and nine years to the much-touted 2035 emergence vision, the millions of citizens living the country’s reality, say they disagree with any chorus that paints the Biya regime in attractive colours.

For most of those who have followed decades of enticing political speeches and promises, in today’s Cameroon, the chips are fully down for everyone to see.

Those rubbishing the steps of progress, especially for the last 44 years, say four decades plus is more than enough for even the blind to know whether Cameroon is flourishing or decaying.

Those fronting this narrative are vehement in their thought that Cameroon’s level of decay has compressed global records. 

When it comes to what is working within the country, critics say Cameroonians should bury their heads in shame.

Some citizens say it is an endless list of the most basic things not working; in terms of national projects that have turned out to be the highest corruption stories ever recorded on earth. 

Those disagreeing with the powers that be, say if roads are increasingly becoming broken with yawning crater lakes; blackouts a mainstay to billions borrowed for major water projects and citizens still dying of thirst, it is needless to visit other sectors of national life that wreak decay.

Giants abroad, Lilliputians at home

One dichotomy that has left especially visitors shocked about Cameroon, development experts are noting, is the sharp contrast between its immense global and national human resources and how the system is failing to work.

From diplomacy that has harvested big for the nation, given it an image worth the salt to international organisations and business ventures that continue to credit their best eons to Cameroonian intellect, the applause of the international scene is absent at home.

Howbeit it that Biya’s Cameroon boasts of the best brains that have changed stories of several countries and organisations, yet has failed to hit even the barest minimum level of success at home. Critics have noted that it is an unexplainable conundrum.

When board rooms echo on the international scene, Cameroonian brilliance is revered and documented for posterity. 

Those analysing this contradiction say it is painful that even when the same brains flourishing elsewhere return home, the system those not nourish the environment for them to thrive.

Such brains, political historians have said, often end up being smeared with the filth, decay, failure and underperformance that have made major projects centres of national shame.

Now the chips are down

To distinguish between hate, envy, opposition and what is happening in Cameroon, analysts have indexed the powers that be on basic signals that are screaming failure, lack of innovation or absence of leadership. 

That 65 years and still counting after independence, a country cannot manage household waste, pundits say, tells of the lowest levels of ineptitude that can be traced only to the Cameroon on paper. 

In the real Cameroon, not the one often mentioned in speeches; heaps of abandoned household waste is now a national symbol across major stretches, which observers say don’t even deserve being called major roads.

The worst case is the capital city, Yaounde wherein the last three years and still counting have a record of household waste competing with the rainy and dry seasons. 

While the two seasons go and come, in Cameroon, poor household waste disposal is not only constant but endemic and insulting.

Gov’t gives up on waste management disgrace?

Those vexed by the situation say there is no time citizens can stroll across Yaounde, and Douala without coming across imposing garbage heaps. Surprisingly, even those in authority drive past the abandoned heaps of stinging heaps in expensive cars daily, yet, do not seem to bother about bettering the situation!

It is a situation that even emergency government meetings have failed to resolve. Instead of improving, citizens say Cameroon is rather decaying further as towns such as Bamenda, Buea, Kumba and Limbe; that used to be credited with some level of hygiene, are toady threatening to outpace Yaounde in poor waste disposal.

Even if these other towns where to witness improvement, observers say the stinking gutters and broken pipes with sewage overflowing streets put Yaounde in a perpetual dishonourable ranking.

Even the pockets of haphazard embellishments done during the visit of the Pope in April this year, development experts are saying, have not changed the decaying face of Yaounde, surprisingly the nation’s capital.

Haphazard urbanisation, dev’t projections ending on paper

Urban planners say if development were to be just an international competition wherein people present prototypes and speeches, Cameroon is sure to outclass the world’s best. 

They are lampooning the government for talking big and being almost nonexistent in planning towns and cities.

They say the level of decay is deep seated to the extent where, instead of government institutions planning the outlook of cities, citizens do whatever they like. The government, they say, only always comes from behind, sounding and posturing serious when a tragedy happens.

In today’s Cameroon, those who are underrating the government say if there is no road accident, hardly will there be any sustained road safety campaigns. 

They added that, without any landslide, councils and the Department of Civil Protection will rarely be heard asking people out of risky zones.

Many who say the government and its citizens joke over serious issues say it is the same script in the health, education, electricity, water sectors and more. 

When a landslide hit Mbankolo in Yaounde in 2023, claiming several lives, authorities talked tough, yet, till date, more houses are rather emerging on rocks and hilly terrains in the same neighbourhood.

With such happening before the nose of ministers and the Head of State in Yaounde, many are averring that municipal authorities sleeping over such impending doom in Douala, Limbe, Kumba, Dschang, Buea and elsewhere is a foregone conclusion. 

They are many who are insisting that if Cameroon were not in a state of retrograding, a city like Limbe, that has known consistent rainy season mishaps for several years, should have long been under the scanner of authorities and experts with rains already on.

Fighting corruption on paper, inconclusive investigations aplenty

In line with its absurdities, many are beginning to liken Cameroon to a country wherein, the more there is talk to crackdown on corruption, the more the vice eats deep. 

President Biya promised in 2023, 2024 and 2025 during his new year speeches, to renew a merciless war against corruption, yet, till date, not even one of his several aides accused of corruption, has been summoned for investigation.

Rather, citizens continue to ask what has become of investigations into how billions borrowed from the International Monetary Fund, IMF; donations from partner organisations alongside countries to fight COVID-19 have ended?

The file provoked a national outcry, with many having waited and given up for Biya to sanction those who pilfered the money. 

It is the same story of borrowing, mired in corruption, embezzlement and misappropriation, when the country laboured for years to host the 2021 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON, in 2022. It was first scheduled for 2019, then pushed forward because Cameroon was not ready.

Several years after, some projects for the tourney, worth billions of FCFA, are still uncompleted. Investigations into how the money borrowed was used remain out of public knowledge. 

The script ties to that of major development projects in the electricity and water sectors, which authorities had said were going to change the country’s trajectory.

Yet, this is 2026 and nothing has changed. Akin to its excellence on paper, the government continues to budget billions for urban and communal roads and other local empowerment schemes that, pundits say are always launched and executed in Yaounde through  fraudulent companies, while locals continue to live in abject poverty.

Most Cameroonians are now stating that whenever they hear authorities have ordered investigations into something, they rather conclude that the matter is dead and buried.

When retirees perpetuate decay

In the Cameroon on paper, where everything is perfect, youths have become the ‘leaders of tomorrow’ for four decades and still counting, those measuring the state of things are saying. 

In the same utopian Cameroon, observers say women have also been used for politicking, with little or nothing to show for.

The state of decay, it is now being recounted, has gone beyond graduates dying without opportunities, because retirees who have had their time are perpetuating themselves. 

They are citing the case of graduates of the National School of Administration and Magistracy, ENAM, as a perfect answer to the reality of Cameroon’s decay. 

With all Governors on bonus time for several years, a majority of the nation’s 58 Senior Divisional Officers, SDOs, have also been allowed to stay on despite exhausting their bonus time. There are also Divisional Officers, DOs, in this category.

What has remained the national talk for five years is the magistracy corps, where five successive batches of magistrates are yet to be officially absorbed into the public service. 

Retired magistrates remain in place while even complaints of alleged wrong doing against them have not been attended to.

The Higher Judicial Council, which is charged with performing such ritual, at the behest of the Head of State, has not met since 2019. 

Even the recent appointment of members of the body, which gave hope of a new beginning, is not forthcoming.

Aside these, observers say the rottenness of the system is seen in most State institutions, wherein retirees are re-hired to work after serving elsewhere and sent home on retirement. 

The practice, which some said is entrenched, tells of the numbness and redundancy that characterises most public institutions.

Appointed to die in office even without results 

The icing on the cake is for people who have gone on retirement, yet, find themselves somehow calling the shots at the helm of public establishments and State institutions. 

The Head of State, Paul Biya, whom supporters hail as a legalist, is now being criticised for failing to ensure the respect of laws relating the mandates of Board Chairpersons.

Renowned varsity scholar, Prof Viviane Ondoa Biwole, who long left after her mandate expired as Deputy Director General of the Higher Institute of Public Management, has been on the matter.

She has repeatedly cried out over people who have gone beyond the three years renewable once, for Board Chairpersons of State corporations and public establishments.

The same worry, she has severally made public, on the non-respect of the three years renewable twice, for General Managers, GMs, and Directors General, DGs. 

But those who have been hailing Prof Biwole for such research in holding authority to account, say Biya has entrenched a system of appointing people to die in office. 

They substantiate this claim with GMs and DGs who have clocked over 34 years in office.

The list is beyond 100 heads of institutions and over 80 Board Chairpersons. This is happening, contrary to a 2017 law governing public establishments and State corporations.

Even with a promise to address such after the October 12, 2025 poll, it is eight months and still counting, with no changes yet. Opposition critics have termed it a “garbage in, garbage out” situation.

Borrowing without reserve, yet nothing to show for

Cameroon is a good student of borrowing, but those who continue to express fear at the results of such moves, say it is worrisome, especially given the results of such a path.

The Autonomous Sinking Fund, CAA, which monitors the country’s debt, stated in the first quarter of 2026, that as at March 31, 2026, Cameroon’s debt was at 15.146 billion FCFA.

The amount then, it had said, represented 46 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP. It is just short of the 50 percent to GDP national debt ceiling. 

While the government continues to boast handing on the 70 percent to GDP debt ceiling within the Central Africa Economic and Monetary Community, CEMAC, critics say the signs are telling of danger. 

As at then, CAA had said 93.6 percent of the money was owed by the central government. Close to four months since CAA published the statistics, Biya has signed several decrees, authorising the borrowing of not less than 400 billion FCFA put together for several projects.

Gov’t of ancestors, last days & vacancies…

In the analysis of decay, which some are painting Cameroon, observers have gone further to tint the situation of the current government as an archetype of stagnation.

It is now on record that for 44 years and still counting, Biya’s longest serving government without changes, is that appointed on January 4, 2019.

The government, with a number of aging ministers, which faultfinders qualify as deadwoods, are people who have been turning around the same ministry since 2004.

Those distancing themselves from some persons in the corridors of power such as ministers and others ranking as such, say beyond decay, Cameroon is on the precipice.

What is pricking the bile of many now is the many vacancies that are in the government.  They say even with dead having snatched some ministers and others resigning, the vacancies currently existing with several interim leaders, make coherence and any form of renewable unachievable.

Even with a mandate painted as ‘Septenate of Great Hope’, the critics of the system in place, say hope is far away from what is transpiring in Cameroon.

Among the vacant positions are those of; Secretary of State in the Ministry of Public Health in charge of Epidemics and Pandemics. The position has been vacant since its last occupant, Halim Garga Hayatou, died on April 5, 2021.

There is the vacant post of the Minister Delegate to the Minister of External Relations in charge of Relations with the Islamic World. The person who last served in the position, Adoum Gargoum, died in March 2021.

Another vacant post in government, due to death, is that of the Minister Delegate to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in charge of Rural Development. It has also been empty since 2022, when Clementine Ananga Messina, bowed out of planet earth.

There is also the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Technological Development, that has been without a minister, since its last occupant, Gabriel Dodo Ndoke, died on January 21, 2023. The ministry has since then been in the hands of an interim minister.

The number of empty positions increased by two in 2025. This was through the resignations of the Minister of Employment and Vocational Training, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, and the Minister of Tourism and Leisure, Bello Bouba Maigari.

Agriculture minister, Gabriel Mbairobe was through a stop gap measure handed a cumulative function at the ministry of tourism, while his counterpart of Youth and Civic Education, Mounouna Foutsou, assumed interim of the vocational training ministry. 

The vacancies in government tells of the dwindling fortunes of a nation that has achieved much on paper and little or nothing in reality, compared to political promises.

Like projects, Vice President too ends on paper?

Amid the push for a change at the helm of State and promises to ensure continuity and stability, President Biya gave to understanding that the time had come for the first clear succession signal to be seen.

While being sworn in on November 6, 2025, Biya promised to introduce new texts in Parliament, for reforms that address the country’s realities.

By April 6 this year, the Congress of Parliament tinkered the Constitution at the President’s request. It reintroduced the post of Vice President of the Republic.

Many had seen this as a sure and urgent step to cover gaps but Biya 93, is yet to act on the Constitutional provision. The Vice President continues to exist on paper, with no one having enjoyed the President’s confidence to be appointed to serve in such capacity.

It is now being said within some circles that Biya may have done it to the gallery. They say his posture since the amendment rather points to a king who is not willing to share power albeit having promised to do so.

The absence of such a personality, whom many say can easily run the show while taking instructions from the President of the Republic, fits into the composition of decay, which some have been saying about Cameroon.

When “coming days” turn to ‘going days’

For those who had speculated that the heat of  last year’s presidential election was going to change much about the country, irrespective of who wins, disappointment is an understatement to pronounce how they feel.

With Biya having heightened such expectations with a formal declaration of going to form a governing in the “coming days”, Biya is nowhere with the promise, made to the nation on December 31, 2025.

The coming days have now been labelled by some as the President rather having been talking of his interest to travel abroad.

Within the decay equation, Biya, the President, political Maradona and sphinx, some are noting, has left even those in office trapped between fear of being sacked or reassigned, putting the country in cessation.

Galloping unemployment

Still on the plotting of Cameroon on the decay graph, its high literacy rates, which for some is a credit to the government, has laced with a scandalous unemployment rate.

While official statistics put unemployment in the country at below four percent, the millions of youngsters who survived through motorcycle bike riding, alone, statisticians have been declaring, tell of a dysfunctional system.

Thousands who graduate yearly, rarely find employment and are forced to do menial jobs, sometimes subjected to inhumane conditions in the process.

Champion of drug addiction, immorality, alcoholism…

Cameroon, some are asserting, may have failed on good things, but holds a strong portfolio when it comes to vices such as immortality, drug addiction, alcohol consumption among others.

In the last couple of months, scores of people have flooded the streets of communities, lamenting that drugs have stolen the souls and future of their children.

It is a trend which many say, adds to the daily release of nude videos and other immoral content involving people charged with high public offices and youngsters drowned in quest for materialism and wrong social media narratives.

The by-products of these, it is being said, are incidents such as murder, rape and other strange killings that continue to shock families, villages and the country.

Sociologist say the situation is worsened by little or no control in alcohol consumption and abuse that puts Cameroon at the rock bottom on the graph of countries with a rotten social fabric.

Country decaying, President ‘holidaying’ in Geneva

In the mix of the several wrong things choking Cameroon, its long serving leader, President Biya, has been away for two months and still counting.

Today marks the 65th day since he left Cameroon, with the Minister, Director of the Civil Cabinet, Samuel Mvondo Ayolo, stating that it was “a brief private stay in Europe”.  This was on June 7, 2026.

Sixty-five (65) days on, Biya, the man whom lackeys say has a mastery of Cameroon more than any other citizen, continues to holiday in Geneva, Switzerland. 

Emmanuel Rene Sadi, Government’s Spokesman, who doubles as Minister of Communication, later unveiled his location, amid criticisms over his prolong absence and exact whereabouts.

On the primes of Biya’s supporters describing him as the most informed Cameroonian, analysts say the state of things necessitating urgent overhaul rubbishes that rhetoric. 

The nation, they say, continues to drown in unending problems, necessitating the questions; where is Biya?  Is he aware Cameroon is decaying not developing?

Femicide, abuse of minors uncontrollable 

Cameroon has recorded heartbreaking instances of femicide this year, with the number of incidents in the first quarter of 2026, pointing to disorder within the social fabric

In April this year, the Minister of Women’s Empowerment and the Family, Prof Marie Therese Abena Ondoa, updated lawmakers that at least 50 cases of violence against women were recorded.

The number, she told Members of Parliament, MPs, equaled 50 cases, recorded throughout 2023, and showed an unprecedented spike. Then, she noted that in 2024, 67 cases of such happenstances were recorded, compared to 77 in 2025. 

The country has also recorded painful cases of sexual violation of kids as young as two.  Such happenstances have only been met with occasional general outcries. 

But the painful incidents continue to happen, giving many the impression that the protection of women and children is still weak in Cameroon. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3875 of Tuesday August 11, 2026