Jacques Fame Ndongo, Cameroon’s Minister of State, dismissed claims of an unconstitutional power vacuum, labeling them ‘legal barbarism’ and ‘political illogic’. He emphasized that no legal framework in Cameroon stipulates a maximum duration for a president’s absence from national territory.

Attempting to apply a non-existent constitutional clause to President Paul Biya would be akin to ‘navigating shifting sands through sheer imaginative prowess’, Ndongo asserted. The veteran leader, in power since 1982, remains actively engaged, he claimed, meticulously overseeing national affairs—whether in person or via secure digital channels accessible to his team.

‘This isn’t a vacation—it’s virtual exile’

The Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon (MRC), led by opposition figure Maurice Kamto, swiftly countered. Vice-president Mamadou Mota questioned the legitimacy of presidential duties conducted from abroad: ‘How many weeks of physical absence render the supreme magistracy a mere illusion?’ He argued that 45 days outside Cameroon’s borders ‘constitutes not a stay, but de facto exile’.

The MRC mocked the notion of a ‘Cameroon governed in secretive remote work’, suggesting President Biya’s overseas oversight of state affairs amounted to clandestine telecommuting.