Biya’s presidency and Buhari’s second coming – The Irony

Come to think about this – for all the years he has served, President Biya has never been this flirtatious with Nigeria – not so much as to pay her a State visit. But how this visit with the current Nigerian leader reminds all of us Cameroonians, the love for power that is embedded in Paul Biya!

The Cameroon Journal recalls as noted in his blog Simonateba.com, that, when General Muhammadu Buhari, then a military dictator seized power and became the Head of State of Nigeria in 1983, Paul Biya was already President of Cameroon for one year – he had been President since 1982.

By the time Buhari was overthrown by Babangida in 1985, Biya had been President for three years already.

Fast forward, thirty years later in 2015, when Buhari made a ‘second coming,’ this time as a democrat and got elected President of Nigeria, Mr. Biya was still President of Cameroon with a seven year term in 2011 that doesn’t end till 2018.

When Buhari will be seeking a second term in 2019, Mr. Biya, certainly would have gotten another mandate in 2018 to rule for another term of seven years. As Biya stood beside Buhari in front of a frenzy media and paparazzies, it is no overstatement to suggest that all Buhari was thinking in his mind was huh, ‘I left this guy in power, came back 30 years and he’s still in power”?

Biya doesn’t usually smile a lot on these state visits – if you ever observed that. But watch him with Buhari, – he used the smiles to cover up the guilt of his eternal presidency.

Biya’s visit to Nigeria had to do with security? Yes. About Boko Haram? Not as much. Biya is a very shrewd politician – he found in Buhari an ally against an emerging Biafra rebellion and a Southern Cameroons insurgency that wants to team up to fight for their collective freedoms. Biya thought, ‘this is an issue that Buhari and I see eye-to-eye. I am accosting him for a pact that should impede the development and spread of these splinter groups’.

The mission might have been accomplished – as it seems, if the elaborate reception, state dinner and the plethora of photos we see mean anything. However, The Cameroon Journal would like to remind President Biya that no matter how far he schemes to impede the freedom of the Southern Cameroons, this territory will certainly outlive him to herald its freedom.