Biya’s travels abroad - Why the traditional airport drama?

President Paul Biya and his close collaborators have been enacting a crass comedy since 1986 when television came to Cameroon. The stage is set when the President is about to travel abroad for an official or private visit.

Amongst the dramatis personae, he is, of course, the main actor. The other actors are the Senate president (who only entered the scene with the creation of the upper house of parliament), the speaker of the National Assembly, the prime minister and the secretary-general at the Presidency of the Republic.

Shortly before the President boards the plane, he makes sure he has brief audiences with the personalities named above – in that order, due to their hierarchical importance – in front of television cameras.

Journalists reporting his departure often say he is giving them last minute instructions on how to pilot the affairs of the state in his absence.

No one denies the point that he may truly be giving directions or orders on how the state affairs should be managed while he is not there. The questions to be asked, however, are, is it at the airport, in front of TV cameras, that he must always do so? If the President was truly serious, wouldn’t he do all of that in his Etoudi office before leaving for Nsimalen?

The fact that President Biya takes the audiences to the airport smacks of an attempt by him to give the world the impression that he is a workaholic shepherd.

The somewhat exaggerated gesticulations he makes in his exchanges with these personalities sometimes betray his intentions. One has the impression that he only falls short of peeping at the cameras to be the sure that they are filming every action of his. All of which adds to the comic effects the drama produces.

The traditional airport comedy lends credence to the affirmation that the Lion Man hardly meets and discusses with his ministers. The truth is that many ministers go for months, nay years without meeting their omnipotent boss on a one-on-one basis. They don’t have the opportunity to, even when they repeatedly book for audience.

The council of ministers meeting that the President holds with cabinet members is normally supposed to be a monthly practice. But President Biya holds it only when he deems it necessary. At times, years go by without him doing so.

For this reason, most of his ministers have the opportunity to see him only on television like you and me. The closest they can go to him is during official events like the National Day march past at the Yaounde 20th May Boulevard or the New Year wishes presentation ceremony at the Unity Palace.

Apart from Territorial Administration minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi, widely believed to be his would-be handpicked successor; the director of the civil cabinet Belinga Eboutou and the Secretary General at the Presidency Ferdinand Ng’o Ngo’o, both of whom treat most of his files; the President goes for a long time without meeting those he is supposed to work with on a daily basis. Not even the prime minister/head of government can meet him when he wants.

President Biya has reached a period in his career when he will either make or mar his mandate. All eyes are on him now that he takes his ministers to task for inertia and corruption and at a time when he has given Cameroonians reason to hope that the country would emerge by 2035.

It is therefore in the President’s best interest to desist from the inertia he himself is condemning and do things more purposefully and with more seriousness.

Comic acting produces comic effects. Let the Etoudi tenant not think that the drama he and his cohorts act all the time before he leaves the country are still highly esteemed by those who watch them. Rather, it has visible consequences.

True, some comedies are meant to teach a lesson. But this one is certainly not of that category as it instead goes a long way to ridicule the actors, particularly the main actor. And when the main actor is derided, there are possibilities of him becoming a tragic hero.