Trending 
Social justice advocate and veteran Cameroonian journalist Kathleen Ndongmo has issued a scathing critique of Cameroon’s decades-long political stagnation under President Paul Biya, warning that the country is on the brink of collapse as its 92-year-old leader reportedly prepares to seek another term.
Speaking on News Central TV’s Jasiri programme, Ndongmo questioned the legitimacy of Biya’s purported candidacy in the upcoming October 2025 presidential election.
“A friend of mine was saying a ghost is running for president in Cameroon because nobody actually knows if President Paul Biya actually, you know, lucidly said, ‘I want to run.’ So the question has been, did he even say it?” she said.
Ndongmo drew comparisons across the continent, highlighting a regional crisis of leadership. “In Togo, a dictator is making young people run around the streets. In Kenya, there is someone who was elected on the promises of democracy and everyone is being tear-gassed and people are being buried… In Tanzania, we have a woman who no one knows whether she’s leading or not.”
Referring to Biya’s four decades in power, she lamented the complete erosion of progress in Cameroon. “This is the 43rd year. It will be 50 years if Biya does seven more years. Question, how many Africans live to the age of 50?”
Ndongmo, who has been active in civil society since the age of 13, criticised the political elite as unaccountable and out of touch.
“Cameroonians are yearning for a systemic change. It’s not just political transition anymore… We need all of the gerontocrats. All of them are above 80. We need all of you to just go. Disappear. We need a new country.”
Reflecting on Cameroon’s steep decline, she added: “In 1982, we had a university that gave allowances monthly to students. That has disappeared. That has completely disappeared.”
She pointed to mass emigration as a symptom of widespread despair. “In Cameroon today, a statistic came out that 12,000 Cameroonians have emigrated to Canada in less than six months. That is how bad a country of 30 million people is.”
The ongoing Anglophone crisis, Boko Haram insurgency, decaying infrastructure, and poor governance were also central to her concerns.
“There is excessive petty crime in the country right now. In four decades, we’ve had fewer functional airports…The two airports we currently have are in a state of complete decay.”
Ndongmo suggested that Biya, now visibly aged, may no longer be in control. “The advanced age of the president means that right now he probably is not even the one making decisions for anybody.”
The implications, she warned, are continental. “There are over 100,000 Cameroonian refugees in the south-south of Nigeria… They will come here to find succour, to find dividends, to find health, to find food… and it’s going to happen like that across Africa.”
Summing up her frustration, she warned of the potential for unrest. “When people stay in power for this long in so-called democracies and have zero dividend of the same, best believe that one day the people are going to pick up arms and attack their oppressors.”
