It is now an offence to discuss the health status of Cameron’s long ruling President, Paul Biya, in public.
Biya, 91, has not been seen in public since early September when he attended a China-Africa forum in Beijing.
His absence in the public space, particularly his failure to attend a summit in France last weekend, has further fueled myriad speculations about his health, even death.
But now, it is a serious offence to discuss Biya’s health publicly. A letter shared by the interior ministry says the government has outlawed any discussion about the health of the 91-year-old President..
The Voice of America, VOA, reports that earlier this week, the authorities issued statements dismissing reports that Biya had fallen ill as “pure fantasy”, insisting that he was on a private visit to Geneva and in sound health.
In a letter to regional governors dated October 9, 2024, Interior Minister Paul Atanga Nji said discussing the president’s health was a matter of national security.
And henceforth, “any debate in the media about the president’s condition is therefore strictly prohibited. Offenders will face the full force of the law,” Nji said.
He ordered the governors to set up units to monitor broadcasts on private media channels, as well as social networks.
Cocoa and oil-producing Cameroon, which has had just two presidents since independence from France and Britain in the early 1960s, is likely to face a messy succession crisis if Biya became too ill to remain in office or died.
Cameroon’s media regulator, the National Communication Council, could not immediately be reached for comment, VOA further reports.
Predictably, the move has triggered vitriolic opposition by many Cameronians who see the new position by government as an act of state censorship.
“The president is elected by Cameroonians and it’s just normal that they worry about his whereabouts,” said Hycenth Chia, a Yaounde-based journalist, and talk show host on privately owned television Canal2 International.
“We see liberal discussions on the health of Joe Biden and other world leaders, but here it is a taboo,” he told Reuters.
