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Cameroon’s President Paul Biya’s prolonged absence has exposed what opposition politician Asong Khumbah described as a long-standing “culture of silence” and a governance system increasingly detached from the public.
Speaking to News Central after Biya returned to Yaoundé on Thursday following 74 days abroad, Khumbah accused the 93-year-old president of running the country from a distance and said his prolonged absence showed the weakness of Cameroon’s system of governance.
“Well, what I would like to let you know is that President Biya has not been doing this. This is not the first time he has done it,” Khumbah said.
Biya left Cameroon on June 7 for what his office described as a “brief private stay in Europe.”
He spent more than 10 weeks in Geneva before returning to Yaoundé on August 20, making the trip his longest recorded absence from the country since taking power in 1982.
The unusually long absence fuelled speculation about the president’s health and generated questions over who was effectively running the country.
The government maintained that Biya remained in office and continued to carry out his duties while abroad.
Khumbah said the episode was consistent with what he described as Biya’s governing style.
“President Biya has had a style of governance, which is actually, I would call it the culture of silence, where he does not communicate with the people, where he is very distant from the people, and he has made himself a god,” he said.
“You are going to realise that the basic principles that govern governance, such as transparency and accountability, were undermined by the prolonged absence, he added.
Khumbah said the lack of clear communication from government officials during Biya’s absence further demonstrated the problem.
“And that is the reason why being out of the country for 74 days, his ministers were not able to give an appropriate explanation on what is going on with him,” he said.
According to Khumbah, Biya’s return did little to address the concerns raised during his absence.
“These are the things that we, the opposition, have been condemning, saying that a president cannot be so distant from his people.”
‘The state is being run on autopilot’
Khumbah also accused the government of letting the country run without effective presidential leadership.
“The state is being run by other individuals, private individuals, and at the end of the day, we see every sector of development being affected.”
“Nothing is going well in Cameroon. We are going down the drain, and unless we kick Biya out, we won’t see the day,” Khumbah added.
His comments follow renewed debate over presidential succession after Cameroon’s parliament approved a constitutional amendment restoring the office of vice president.
The amendment gives the president the power to appoint and dismiss the vice president.
It also provides that, if the presidency becomes vacant because of death, resignation or permanent incapacity, the vice president would complete the president’s seven-year term.
No vice president had been appointed by the time Biya returned from Geneva, leaving the new succession mechanism untested during his prolonged absence.
Khumbah criticised the constitutional change, arguing that allowing an appointed vice president to succeed an elected president raises questions about democratic legitimacy.
“The vice president will have as role to replace the president of the republic if the presidency is vacant,” he said.
“Now, that will mean that Cameroonians will be having a president that was appointed and not voted, violating article 2 of constitution that provides that sovereignty belongs to the people.”
He also challenged the amendment’s legality, arguing that it conflicts with Article 64 of the Constitution.
Biya’s return has ended the immediate uncertainty surrounding his whereabouts, but his 74-day absence has intensified a broader debate over presidential accountability, succession and the concentration of political power in Cameroon.
“Nothing is going well in Cameroon. We are going down the drain, and unless we kick Biya out, we won’t see the day.”
Asong Khumbah says Cameroon appeared to be running on “autopilot” during President Paul Biya’s extended absence, accusing his administration of failing to clearly… pic.twitter.com/fWwyXaFtuy
— News Central TV (@NewsCentralTV) August 21, 2026
