By Tata Mbunwe
House Speaker Hon. Datouo Theodore ended the June session of parliament by condemning the attempt by an individual to get a fake Presidential decree read on national television, but he ignored what triggered the action: President Biya’s continued absence from the country for 30 days now.
The Speaker urged Cameroonians to defend the integrity of state institutions after the circulation of the fake presidential decrees last month.
He described the forgery of the President’s signature and the attempted broadcast on the national broadcaster as a serious affront to state institutions.
However, his address made no mention of the President’s whereabouts. Paul Biya left the country on June 7, accompanied by his wife Chantal and a small official delegation, for what the presidency described as a “brief private stay in Europe” . A month later, he has not returned.
The usually absent leader’s departure was initially presented as short. On June 18, Communication Minister René Emmanuel Sadi assured the public that the President would “return to Cameroon as soon as possible”.
But nearly three weeks after that statement, no return date has been announced.
French weekly Jeune Afrique had reported that Biya was receiving medical treatment at a private clinic in Geneva, Switzerland, and that his stay had been prolonged because of that. The government denied the report, insisting Biya had not been hospitalised.
Although this is one of Biya’s many lengthy stays abroad during his 43 years in power, the trip has raised questions about the 93-year-old leader’s capacity to continue governing.
This concern is heightened by his failure to honour a promise made on December 31 to form a new government “in the coming days”. That was during his New Year address to the nation, coming after he won a strongly disputed victory in the October 12 presidential election to secure his eighth mandate.
More than six months later, the promise to form a government remains unkept.
The fake decree incident occurred just after Biya left the country. A man walked into the state broadcaster with documents bearing official seals and the President’s signature, appointing a Vice President and new Ministers. The decrees were deemed fake after CRTV management verified them with the Civil Cabinet.
The government issued a statement more than a week later condemning the decrees as fake. Parliament’s July 8 outing, many observers note, fell short of examining what critics describe as the leadership vacuum that triggered the fake decrees in the first place.
The National Assembly, where Biya’s CPDM party holds an absolute majority out of 152/180 parliamentary seats, has never been seen holding the executive to account, despite numerous governance lapses, corruption, embezzlement, allegations of elections rigging, electricity and road crises, among others.
The body has historically validated bills sent by the President without question, including a March 2026 bill that created the position of an appointed Vice President despite being boycotted by the opposition which wanted the VP elected.
Same March, Parliament validated another bill permitting the President to indefinitely extend MPs’ mandates, which he has already extended twice and has now prolonged their mandate from five to seven years.