Are we going to witness a new battle between the Cameroonian presidency and the French magazine Jeune Afrique? This is the question many have been asking since yesterday's publication of the magazine's investigation of first lady Chantal Biya.
Several sources well entrusted to the editorial staff of CameroonWeb that the publication whose title was quite evocative ("Madam President") did not fail to stir a stir in the presidential palace where many see a new provocation of the magazine Jeune Afrique .
Read the entire survey published by Jeune Afrique on Chantal Biya:
It does not occupy any official position and its name does not appear in the very detailed organizational chart of the presidency. But in the corridors of the palace of Etoudi, it is a long time that one does not mock more openly the flamboyant style of Chanta Biya, 48 years old. We know what it costs to underestimate it.
It is also known that the second wife of the Cameroonian head of state can be an important ally. At the beginning of January, it was Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh who experienced it. Nobody gave much of the skin of the secretary general of the presidency who had piloted the building sites of the 2019 African Cup of Nations - works that showed a delay such that, at the end of November 2018, Cameroon was withdrawn. organization of the competition.
In Yaoundé, many were speculating on the impending disgrace of this man deemed close to Chantal Biya. But not only did he escape the presidential cleaver at the end of the reshuffle announced on January 4, but he was also raised to the rank of Minister of State .. A promotion that he must officially to Paul Biya but behind which all have seen the mark of the first lady.
Same for Pierre Ismael Bidoung Mkpatt, who was kept in government while it was also said promised to the scaffold (he went from sports to culture). Proof if it were necessary that the proteges of the first lady are untouchable. To those who still misunderstood his influence, the message was clear: there is no schoolboy in Etoudi. It must be said that she has little to do with the 24-year-old woman presented to Cameroon on a national holiday night, in 1994, after a surprise wedding.
Born in Dimako, a lost village in central-eastern Cameroon, a stay-at-home mother and a French expatriate father who later recognized her, Chantal Pulchérie Vigouroux had moved to Etoudi as part of a fairy tale. His incredible fate was likely to be smashed on the walls of the ruthless world of the presidency. And that is to say that it was spied on by the dominant social categories, who believe in determinism and meritocracy.
At the beginning, his obligations were essentially formal, limited in public to the role of accompanist of the Head of State."Chantou" was especially noticeable for its colorful outfits and taste for luxury leather goods. But the young woman learned the codes of politics and was able to find a place despite the pitfalls.
In Etoudi, the courtiers now give him "Madam President". More than a beginning of emancipation, it is the revelation of a real pole of power.
Entire character
The eruption of the "fashionista" of Etoudi disconcerts the political class.
Chantal is an UFO who advances under radars. When looming in the shadow of a battle for a coveted position or in the larger war, which are indulged in and out for the succession of the president, better retreat. How to fight against this woman who has the ear of her husband, who hesitates himself to the annoyance? "It is undeniable that its influence is growing, says a political scientist who prefers to remain anonymous, as the subject is delicate.
But to the detriment of whom? That the first lady occupies a vacuum following the political or judicial elimination of some member the first circle is a lesser evil, the fact that it encroaches the space of the president seems to me much more worrying ". End of 2016 another scholar at a symposium organized in Yaoundé II suggested that his role be regulated by law. But the proposal triggered criticism in opposition media, worried that his authority would be strengthened. It prevents. Her influence on her 86-year-old husband gives rise to all sorts of speculation.
It is imagined that it governs Cameroon like Edith Wilson President of the United States in the shadow of her weakened husband, Thomas Woodrow Wilson. Unhappy and feverish, the Bulu clan from the president's native region in southern Cameroon is trying to stop the erosion of its power as the rival clan, close to the first lady and ambitious, nationals of the central and eastern regions of the country.
She advances her pawns with an assurance that has erased the hesitations of the beginnings. Grabs parcels of power without departing from that laugh that punctuates each of his conversations. Be careful, when she is upset, her whole character always asserts herself in all circumstances. Paul Biya himself has experienced it himself.
In Yaoundé, many remember the funeral of Benoit Assam Mvondo, the eldest brother of the head of state celebrated in 2012. Although the mass was broadcast on television, Chantal Biya ostensibly refused to shake hands with her husband at the time of the peace of Christ. On October 7, 2018, the day of the presidential election, still under the watchful eye of the cameras, she snapped Samuel Mvondo Ayolo, the new chief of staff of Paul Biya, while he had just slipped his ballot into the urn. Just named, he tasted the grip with which the mistress of the place governs a palace, where she imposed her own rules (including a draconian dress code, which forbids women to accede to the presidency. trousers).
And Chantal does not like her being violated: in January 2018, she was angry when she learned that someone had used a mobile phone during a vow ceremony, even though it had been explicitly prohibited. Results: an investigation was opened, several people were auditioned to the presidential security department, the wife of a minister confessed ... Chance or coincidence, the latter was disembarked from the government two months later.
The unfortunate is certainly not the only one to have suffered the lightning of "Chantou". One of his first victims was Martin Belinga Eboutou, director of the civil cabinet of Paul Biya from 1996 to 1997. The first lady fought long months against this man whose jealousy she jealousy with her husband until he He resolves to exile his loyal collaborator at the UN in New York. His successor, Edgar Mebe Ngoh, a young prefect whose president appreciated the ardor and the grip, will also be in awe ...
And Paul Biya resign himself to exfiltrate the palace to entrust the head of the National Police and then, later, the Defense. Supported by the family of origin of the president, who was not slow to ask in counter-power against the first lady, Belinga will end up being recalled to the civil cabinet, in 2009- position that he will keep in spite of a stormy climate until his departure in March 2018.
Paul Biya replaced him by Samuel Mvondo Ayolo, bulu like him, whose main focus is to be supported by the first lady ... Since then, a precarious calm reigns in Etoudi.
Gray eminences
In fact, year after year Chantal Biya ended up having a say on the choice of collaborators of her husband. The first to lay his cards at the palace was Joseph Le;an editorialist from national television.Like the overwhelming majority of his obligated, he is native to the East.Appointed in 2006 as a technical adviser in the civil cabinet, he was appointed deputy director of this cabinet the following year.In March 2018, he was appointed Minister of the Public Service and is a childhood friend of ka First Lady, Oswald Baboke, who succeeds him in the civil cabinet - Chantal considers him as his brother.
The network also counts among its eminent members the Minister of Culture, whose wife Habissou Bidoung Mkpatt, has been promoted to the civil cabinet. The latter is known to be one of the gray eminences of the system built around the first lady. And it is still a man from the East, Dieudonné Samba (he was mayor of Bertoua), who posts as special advisor to the president. Many have also seen the imprint of "Madam President" in the arrival of Bertrand Pierre Soumbou Angoula as DG of ENAM where are educated the two children of the presidential couple, Paul Junior Biya and Anastesia Brenda Biya.
If this appointment made a lot of noise, it's because this thirty-something, of the Yezoum ethnic group like her, was propelled at the head of the factory of the elite when he had only two years of seniority. in the magistracy. Finally, there is no Chantal Biya system without the Circle of Friends of Cameroon (CERAC).The founding of the first lady is the showcase of her social work, just as her NGO Synergies Africaines contributes to her influence abroad. But it is the cerac which is the true crucible of its power.Wives of ministers, presidents of institutions and ambassadors have been living there since 1995.
The waiting list is long and there are few elected representatives. They are most often found at the headquarters of CERAC, located near the Supreme Court in Yaoundé. They sip champagne while talking about the poor or talking about the good fortune of their husbands, while being careful not to overshadow their president. Wife of Finance Minister Louis Paul Motaze, Aissa Motaze is the Secretary General. Chantal Biya also finds Nathalie Engamba Adan the spouse of Adolphe Moudiki, the powerful discreet boss of the National Hydrocarbons Company (SNH) and of course his faithful friend Habissou Bidoung Mkaptt.
From this interstate of power, almost infallible barometer of graces and disgraces at the top of the state, one is rarely hunted. We understand quickly, however, when we are no longer wanted.Aline Atangana Kouna, the elegant wife of the former Minister of Water and Energy jailed since March 2018 in kondengui prison, knows that his presence is no longer desired.
Just as Brigitte Atangana Mebara had understood it at the fall of her husband, former secretary-general of the presidency and then Minister of External Relations (he was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2016). In the capital, the eyes now go to Bernadette Mebe Ngo'o, whose husband, Minister of Defense until 2015, is in the viewfinder of the TCS.
Will she still be welcome among the faithful of Chantal Biya? The decision, for her as for her husband, should no doubt sooner.
Source: camerounweb.com