The editorial director of Jeune Afrique explains the issue in his diary this week, on Chantal Biya.
What motivated the issue of Jeune Afrique this week on the first lady of Cameroon?
It is an idea of investigation that has progressively imposed itself as the influence of the First Lady increases and becomes more visible, which has long been wrongly underestimated. The last cabinet reshuffle in January gave us the opportunity to make it happen.
There is nothing more than that, let alone a pseudo masked sponsor
- fabrications to which we are accustomed. What commentary suggests the reaction of power through, inter alia, the press with public and even some private media?Conspiracy theories flourish in some Cameroonian media, which does not send a good signal about the state of health of our profession.I do not know if the reactions you are talking about emanate from power or not, but they obviously have no meaning, and we are not going to devote our time to denying them, especially since they self-destruct by their very extreme.
Personally, I am sorry to see that the director of the publication of Cameroon Tribune, Marie-Claire Nnana, who comes from the same school of journalism that I, who like me was trained by Hervé Bourges and whose talent is undeniable, goes so far as to write that JA seeks to provoke a military coup. I prefer to imagine that she does not believe it.
Does Young Africa maintain an ambition for the
supreme power or when it would nourish an ambition for supreme power?
Georges Dougueli, who signed this survey and knows his country, never hold (or not) what we did not say. As everyone knows, Cameroon is not a matrimonial monarchy.
How far do you think the first lady encroaches on the President's space?
We do not have a mole in the presidential cabinet. We analyze
facts known to all observers and bring this analysis to the appreciation of our readers.It is indeed interesting to circumscribe the area of influence of Chantal Biya, like that of the other First Ladies.
How many articles have been written about Mrs. Macron, her power and influence over her husband in the French press?
I do not count them anymore. For the rest, it belongs to the Cameroonians themselves to debate.
Is the battle between the Bulu camps, the ethnicity of the head of state and Nanga real or sublimated?
There is nothing new to see interest groups, formed on an identity or other basis, engaging in competition for access to responsibilities. This is apparently the case here. Ethnicizing these inevitable conflicts is not the prism by which JA deals with Cameroon. It is the Cameroonians themselves who, in recent months, have a clear tendency to analyze political life through ethnicity. Just browse social networks and some media to realize it.
Some talk about a household crisis between JA and Etoudi. Is there a pact with the power of Yaoundé, to the point where as soon as it is violated, there is an outcry from one side or the other?
It's been twenty years since I read and I hear this kind of baseless innuendo.Twenty years of communication ministers, zealous propagandists and sponsored journalists are engaging in Pavlovian "JA bashing" and peddling it. It is not by repeating stupidity that it becomes a truth. One thing is certain: with such courtiers, President Biya does not need opponents. He deserves better than that.
Source: Mutations