Cameroon: Rumors of new government refuted

The government f Cameroon recently issued a statement refuting a report in Jeune Afrique that the president plans to change the prime minister. But the herald newspaper reported that it is possible an aide of the president leaked a confidential discussion to Jeune Afrique which now embarrasses the government. However, many believe even if President Biya did not actually say it, he has in the last few months shown indicators that he does not want Inoni on the job

More so, it is not usual for the government to refute a report carried by the French weekly Jeune Afrique news magazine, a newspaper well known to be strongly editorially in favour of President Paul Biya.
But the government issued a statement denying a report carried by the paper.
The report said that President Paul Biya disclosed to French businessmen that he was intending to appoint a new government and very likely to change the prime minister.
The government statement signed by the secretary-general at the presidency admitted that the president thus in fact received people while abroad, but did not make any declaration carried in the Jeune Afrique report.
The statement did not specify what was objectionable in the report, but left the audience in no doubt that the government was embarrassed by the reference to the probable change of the prime minister.

“This newspaper contacted sources close to the presidential entourage who refused to confirm or deny that the president ever made such a declaration at a meeting with businessmen" notes the Herald. Adding,"what we were told was the president has had a difficult time identifying a mole around him that continuously leaks out information.” The question now is whether the report was not the handiwork of a mole which probably means that the president actually said that.
Besides the activities of indiscreet aides, Jeune Afrique is known to be editorially protective to President Paul Biya.
The relationship between the newspaper and the president is so close that President Paul Biya has often preferred to use them to give important hints on developments in Cameroon which he would not give to the Cameroonian press. It is, for instance, through Jeune Afrique, that it became known that during his recent two-week stay in Paris, he invited several ministers and public officials to consult with still in connection with his proposed new government. The newspaper even cited names of three of the ministers that the president received.
It is also in Jeune Afrique that Cameroonians learned of the coming organisation of an ordinary convention of the ruling CPDM.
Jeune Afrique also recently carried a personality feature on René Sadi, secretary-general of the CPDM, which must have been authorised by the president and gave Cameroonians one more reason to believe, as has been the guess, that President Paul Biya was most probably considering him as a successor in the event of his inability to seek another mandate.
No doubt it would have been most indiscreet of the president to give it away so directly that he plans to change his prime minister.
But even if he did not say it, he has already provided too many indicators that that is what he plans to do. The most significant of these is the opening of the Albatross file, the failed purchase of the presidential plane in 2004 when Ephraim Inoni was assistant secretary-general at the presidency.
It is alleged that the PM, as well as others connected to that purchase misappropriated important sums of money.

On this score, the prime minister has since been interrogated by judicial authorities on more than one occasion on the matter which is still running and might take some time.
With allegations of corruption and embezzlement hanging over the prime minister, it is everybody’s guess that President Paul Biya no longer wants him in office.