YAOUNDÉ — Once again, the old playbook wins. In October’s election, Paul Biya, now ninety-two years old and in power since 1982, claimed another term as president. The official figures gave him 53.7 percent of the vote but to many Cameroonians, the outcome was written long before ballots were cast.
Fraud, Repression, and a Nation Trapped in Time
Cameroon has been here before: contested elections, protests, and repression. This time, opposition figure Issa Tchiroma Bakary once a regime insider denounced massive fraud and called his supporters to resist. In cities from Garoua to Douala, protests erupted. Security forces responded with bullets. At least forty-eight people were killed, according to United Nations sources.
Tchiroma has since fled to Nigeria. The government calls him a destabilizer; his supporters call him the voice of a stolen generation. His exile adds a new chapter to an old story: in Cameroon, those who challenge the system are either silenced, jailed, or pushed beyond its borders.
The Colonial Blueprint Still Rules
The roots of Cameroon’s crisis run deep back to the colonial period. Under French rule, elections were already instruments of control: restricted voting rights, ballot-stuffing, and the repression of nationalist movements like the UPC. France crushed dissent and imposed loyal elites to guard its interests after independence.
The legacy endures. Biya’s regime, like that of his predecessor Ahmadou Ahidjo, was built on this same foundation: one-party rule, corruption as a tool of loyalty, and France as the silent partner behind the curtain. Even today, French corporations dominate Cameroon’s key sectors, while Paris praises “stability” and turns a blind eye to repression.
A State That Never Grew Up
From his rise in 1982 to his eighth term in 2025, Biya has mastered the colonial art of divide and rule. He keeps elites in competition, rewards loyalty with corruption, and jails any ally who grows too ambitious. What remains is a regime more interested in survival than governance.
In Transparency International’s 2024 index, Cameroon ranked 140th out of 180 countries for corruption. Entire cabinets have ended up in prison yet the structure of impunity remains untouched.
France’s Shadow and Biya’s Longevity
France’s relationship with Biya has shifted from control to cautious complicity. Paris needs stability to protect its companies and influence in Central Africa. Biya needs France’s silence to preserve his rule. It’s a relationship of convenience built on oil, bribes, and mutual distrust.
When Biya faced real competition from John Fru Ndi in 1992 or Maurice Kamto in 2018 France sided with continuity. Democracy, for Paris, has always been a luxury it cannot afford in its former colonies.
Gerontocracy and a Generation Left Behind
Cameroon’s rulers have turned old age into a system of power. Biya is ninety-two. His Senate president is ninety-one. The head of police is ninety-three. The youngest leaders of the regime are well past retirement while half the population is under twenty-five. Two Cameroons now face each other: the old who rule, and the young who wait.
Meanwhile, poverty deepens. Infrastructure crumbles. The education system collapses. And from the north’s Boko Haram insurgency to the Anglophone conflict in the west, the state’s authority is shrinking by the day.
The Illusion of Choice
Every seven years, Cameroonians go to the polls to legitimize what was never up for debate. The rituals of democracy remain but the meaning is gone. Power still serves foreign interests, a small elite, and a political class raised to obey. The rest of the country survives on promises.
Sixty-five years after independence, Cameroon’s elections are not battles for ideas, but performances of continuity. The faces may change, the slogans may soften, but the system born in colonialism, sustained by corruption endures.
“In Cameroon, elections do not change power they confirm it. The ballot box has become a mirror reflecting the same face, decade after decade.”
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