By Andrew Nsoseka
For more than four decades, President Paul Biya has occupied the highest office in Cameroon, making him one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders. During that time, his handpicked successive governments have spoken of rigour and moralisation, emergence, modernisation and development. Yet one enduring question continues to shadow his legacy: after more than 43 years in power, why does the President still appear to seek comfort, leisure and specialised medical care outside the country he has governed for nearly half a century?
It is a question that extends beyond personal travel preferences. For many Cameroonians, it has become a symbolic measure of confidence in the state the President leaves behind after decades at the helm.
Around the world, many short and long-serving leaders cultivate places within their own countries where they retire for holidays or periods of rest. A visit to one of the numerous towns or cities may bolster the citizens as they see their leader confident and bold enough to also use or prefer what he has spearheaded or stewarded as the number one statesman. Whether presidential retreats, coastal resorts or mountain estates, such locations often showcase national development, reflecting confidence in local infrastructure, security, healthcare and hospitality.
Cameroon possesses no shortage of natural attractions. From the beaches of Kribi and Limbe to the highlands of the Northwest and Southwest, the forests of the East and the wildlife reserves of the North, the country boasts landscapes capable of supporting world-class tourism that if well developed, can be one of the best in the world.
Yet despite these assets, President Biya has consistently chosen foreign destinations, particularly in Europe for extended periods of rest. His prolonged stays abroad have become a familiar feature of his presidency, sometimes lasting several weeks and even months and occasionally prompting public concern about the absence of the Head of State during periods of domestic political or economic tension.
The same pattern has emerged regarding healthcare.
Whenever reports surface of the President requiring specialised medical attention, the destination has almost invariably been overseas. No Cameroonian hospital has emerged as the preferred venue for treating the country’s most powerful citizen. Many African leaders are guilty of this. They fail to bolster their citizens’ trust in the system, by using the very facilities they trumpet in speeches and ask other to applaud them for.
While successive governments have invested in health infrastructure, Cameroon has yet to develop a medical facility widely perceived as capable of providing the level of specialised care sought by its own President. Critics argue that this reality speaks volumes about the state of the national healthcare system after more than four decades under the same leadership.
The issue is not whether a president has the right to travel or receive treatment wherever he chooses. Many world leaders seek specialist care abroad. Rather, the question is what such choices reveal after 43 years of uninterrupted rule.
If the country’s hospitals are not considered adequate for the President himself, and even most if not all high-ranking officials who keep taking medical ambulance flights to other countries where leaders there have developed such facilities, what message does that send to millions of ordinary Cameroonians who have no alternative but to rely on them?
Likewise, if none of Cameroon’s cities, resorts or towns provides a setting in which the Head of State and even his ministers prefers to spend his holidays, what does that suggest about the country’s tourism infrastructure, public services and overall quality of life?
Critics contend that a leader’s confidence in his own country is often demonstrated not through speeches but through personal choices. Where leaders choose to live, recover from illness and spend private time can become an unspoken assessment of the institutions they have built.
President Biya’s lengthy overseas stays have frequently attracted demonstrations by Cameroonian diaspora groups outside the hotels where he has reportedly been staying. Protesters have questioned why the country’s leader spends prolonged periods abroad while many citizens grapple with unemployment, rising living costs, insecurity and inadequate public services at home.
Supporters reject the criticism, arguing that international travel is commonplace for heads of state and that medical decisions are personal matters. They also point to roads, dams, ports, universities and other projects completed during President Biya’s tenure as evidence of development.
Even so, critics maintain that after more than four decades in office, the ultimate report card lies not only in infrastructure statistics whether real or just hyped and glamourised in reports and speeches, but also in whether the nation’s leader can confidently holiday, receive medical treatment and rest within the country he governs.
Cameroon possesses extraordinary natural beauty and considerable potential. Yet many of its tourism destinations continue to struggle with poor road networks, inconsistent public services and inadequate investment, while confidence in the country’s healthcare system remains fragile among many citizens.
That reality has fuelled an uncomfortable national conversation.
After 43 years in power, is President Biya’s continued reliance on foreign destinations for holidays and medical care merely a matter of personal preference? Or does it unintentionally reflect a deeper verdict on the level of development achieved under his administration?
Can Cameroonians get up one day and hear that their President is leaving for a short or long private trip or holiday to Limbe, Kribi, Baffoussam, Nkambe, Kousseri, Bertua or any of the several towns Cameroonians are blessed or condemned to stay in?