Yaounde, Cameroon – A dispute over roadworks in Yaounde in March, ahead of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Cameroon the following month, highlighted tensions between central government and municipal authorities. The disagreement involved Housing and Urban Development Minister Celestine Ketcha Courtes and Yaounde City Mayor Luc Messi Atangana over the rehabilitation of a road along the papal visit route, according to local media reports. The episode raised a broader question about competing centres of authority in Cameroon: Who exercises power when President Paul Biya is absent?
Biya, 93, has governed Cameroon since 1982. His prolonged absences from public view have intensified scrutiny on how decisions are made, who has access to him and how much authority is exercised by those around him. Biya returned to Yaounde on August 20 after more than 10 weeks abroad, following a stay in Europe that began on June 7 .
His return did little to dispel questions about the management of power. The issue is not simply whether the state continues to function. It is whether the institutions and informal networks built around one president can manage power coherently when he is not visibly directing government.
Cameroon’s constitution gives the president extensive executive authority. He defines national policy, appoints the prime minister and, based on the latter’s proposal, other members of government. He is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
The prime minister heads the government and directs its activities within the framework of the president’s policy. Under Section 10 of the constitution, the president may delegate some of his powers to the prime minister, other members of government and senior administrative officials, within the scope of their respective responsibilities. Where the president is temporarily unable to perform his duties, he must expressly delegate some of his functions to the prime minister or, if the prime minister is also unavailable, another member of government.
An absence abroad does not, in itself, establish that the president is temporarily unable to perform his duties or automatically transfer his constitutional powers to the prime minister. The government has not provided a detailed public account of whether a clear delegation of presidential functions is in effect during Biya’s prolonged absences. Research by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) found that Biya spent at least four and a half years abroad on private visits over a period of more than three decades.
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