Biya Returns from the Dead
As Published by Today newspaper
By Ntemfac Aloysius Nkong Ofege
President Biya (71) of Cameroon returned to Yaounde yesterday basking in a tremendous display of ululation, adulation and obeisance from a motley crowd of tribesmen and militants of his ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement, CPDM, Party.
“Rendez-vous with those who wish me dead in 20 years,” a beaming Mr. Biya un-philosophically teased those who had actually jubilated at the reports of his demise. The president further told Cameroonians to forget the rumours and get ready for major events ahead, notably the commissioning of the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline scheduled for June 12 in Kribi.
Mr. Biya’s return thus puts paid to wild rumors that he may have died in Switzerland sometime between June 4 and 5th, 2004. Accompanied by wife Chantal Biya, Mr. Biya even stepped out of his limousine outside Yaounde’s imposing presidential palace and walked the distance, taking handshakes from his ministers, parliamentarians and other grandees gathered to welcome the president. Mr. Biya did not even look ailing.
From the Yaounde Nsimalen Airport to Unity palace, the government mounted a giant public display. Militants of Mr. Biya's ruling, CPDM party lined up the streets and major road junctions to welcome Mr. Biya. The government-controlled media, CRTV, deployed reporters at various points to follow Mr. Biya’s motorcade as it went from the airport to Unity palace. Over 100.000 people, some carrying banners, turned out to welcome Mr. Biya.
“Biya’s entourage must have started rumour as a campaign strategy”
La Nouvelle Expression Staff
Yaounde - The rumours about Mr. Biya’s death, actually started in Cameroon last Friday, June 4, 2004, in the evening almost 12 hours before reporter Ndzana Seme published it on his www.Africaindependent.com website.
La Nouvelle Expression Publisher, Severin Tchounkeu, told the BBC on Monday June 7th that he received the rumour on June 4th but put an embargo on it while he verified it.
Although Mr. Tchoukeu would not reveal his source, several insiders at La Nouvelle Expression said the rumour came from a foreign phone call. Other newsrooms in Douala as well as certain businesspersons and banks in Douala received the same phone call.
On Saturday June 5th, US-based Cameroonian journalist, Ndzana Seme, had carried out a series of reports suggesting that Mr. Biya was indeed dead.
"Cameroon: President Biya may have died in Switzerland", Ndzana Seme wrote on Saturday 5th June at 8.am insisting that he was still cross-checking the information. The Ndzana Seme report continued that Mr. Biya might have died between the night of June 4-5…in London and later Switzerland. The reporter, however, still underlined that he was still crosschecking the information.
Some hours later Ndzana Seme reported the following:
"I just called the Intercontinental Hotel in Switzerland (+41 229 19 3939) where Biya checked (in). I asked to speak to someone in the Biya entourage... and was immediately, without any questions transferred to an extension. I asked the person who answered the phone (with a Beti accent) if I could talk to Biya and he told me that Biya "could not come down now". I introduced my self as a reporter wanting to confirm some rumors to the person who introduced himself, simply a secretary traveling with Biya. I insisted that I have to confirm rumors about Biya's fate before running a story here in the USA. The person insisted that I call back in 2 days for an update. He would not refute nor accept that Biya was alive." J.N.
Later still on Sunday O6/06/2004 at 2:00AM GMT, Ndzana Seme reported that he now had confirmation from a source in Berne and another source in Geneva that Mr. Biya indeed died at the Geneva Intercontinental Hotel on June 4th at 12 Noon. - Ndzana Seme also reported that Cameroon's ambassador to France was seen in Geneva among other grandees of the Biya court.
"I called the Intercontinental Hotel last night at 22h37. After talking to the receptionist, I was forwarded to somebody who said he was one of Mr. Biya's close guards. On inquiring about the president's health, the guard told me that the president was doing very fine. He added that the president even did his morning sports and that he was doing fine. When I asked him why they had not put out a disclaimer about the persistent rumours that Mr. Biya was dead, he said that the Presidency could not spend its time disclaiming rumours. We take ourselves seriously," Ndzana Seme reported
Throughout Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the rumours made their rounds. Pro-regime members panicked and summoned their bankers to discuss rapid withdrawals while Mr. Biya's numerous enemies actually started celebrating. Troops were called to arms. Sources in the opposition Social Democratic Front, which was in a National Executive meeting reported that the airborne brigade was redeployed from Koutaba to take over the Yaounde and Yaounde-Nsimalen Airport. Another elite brigade, the SDF reported, was moved in from Ebolowa to take up positions around the presidency. Regime hands in the provinces were summoned to Yaounde.
Another SDF source reported that Biya son Frank Biya sold his villa in Yaounde and left the country in a tremendous hurry.
Instead, of reporting the exact state of Mr. Biya's health, the government-controlled media, CRTV, suddenly found extra work for the president. He was reported sending out condolence messages (a function reserved for the Civil Cabinet) among other items.
On Sunday June 6th, Communications Minister Jacques Fame Ndongo turned up at CRTV-radio to announce that he had found the source of the rumour. Without calling names, Mr. Fame Ndongo said the story was emanating from ' a former bank officer since transformed into a journalist. He said the fellow was on a "voluntary exile in the United States"
Ndzana Seme's reply was that Mr Jacques Fame Ndongo was one of the most pathetic (minable) journalists Cameroon had ever produced. He said the minister suddenly surface from his 'lethargy" and "confused as usual," signed a series of orders shutting down cyber points and Internet links in Cameroon.
Ndzana Seme said Cameroon's was a dictatorship anchored more on information control than actually striving to let the public know what is happening. He concluded that Fame Ndongo under his pen name, Ossibita d'Osso'Otol scribble a host of buffoonery in Le Patriote newspaper and that the minister was an "ethno fascist."
Still on Sunday June 6th, the general secretariat put out a communiqué condemning the widespread rumours about Mr.. Biya's health. The rumors concerning Mr. Biya's health are "pure fantasy and ill intentioned," the statement said. The head of state is in Europe on a private visit, and that he will be back in Cameroon soon.
Mr. Biya's party, the Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement immediately started a series of Motions of Support denouncing the enemies of the state, rumour mongers and those who fish in troubled waters.
But many Cameroonians remain unconvinced.
"Bring out the man for us to see and hear him," a civil servant declared.
Le Quotidien Mutations made the most sense about the unfolding drama. The newspaper deployed its reporter, Abdelaziz Moundé to Geneva, who brought out the first hints that Mr. Biya was still alive and even kicking. Without actually seeing or talking to Mr. Biya Mutations reported that he meet Mr. Biya's cycling companion an Italian Beppe Gozzoli who told him that Mr. Biya was alive since he had not yet been carried out. "This rumour must have come from Cameroon," Mr. Gozzoli said.
Mutations report that rather than react officially to the rumour, hands at the Hotel Intercontinental were told to filter all calls and keep an even greater secrecy. Calls from Cameroon to the Hotel inquiring about Mr. Biya's heath were turned aside or answered with the clarity that the president was alive and well.
Mutations reports that the deputy Director of State Protocol, a Mr. Bikele, was instead bewildered about the rumours. "I simply don't understand people, " Mr. Bikele said. "They are all doubting Thomases. I tell them that the president is well and they don't believe me."
Along the side presidential hand Elvis Ngolle Ngolle gave an interview to the BBC on Monday Jume 7th where he did not help matters by being shifty about the whereabouts and wherewithal of Paul Biya. Mr. Ngolle Ngolle would not say when exactly he last saw Mr. Biya.
At press time, Mr. Biya returned from the dead, as nicely as you please...to a rousing welcome from his friends in Yaounde and to the disappointment of his enemies who, without doubt, wanted the man dead. The president’s return turned out to be a well-orchestrated campaign as CRTV sent out the usual tribal journalists (Bingono, Ahanda, Ateba, Mbarga, Ndongo, Minloulou, etc) to hail the chief.
“It is my firm conviction that the Machiavellian Biya entourage must have started this rumour as a campaign strategy,” a staff of la Nouvelle Expression newspaper declared pointed on phone.
The question nobody is asking is: What exactly is the true state of Mr. Biya’s health? The coming days will tell.
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