In a written response published today, the veteran journalist made clear that questioning the health of leaders is a legitimate practice, and he challenged the academic’s accusations head-on.

Here is his full statement:

TO WHOM IS MR OWONA NGUINI SPEAKING?

“Dougueli speculates on the death of President Biya.” Of all the outlandish statements made on June 26 on a television channel by Mr Owona Nguini, that one flooded my inbox. What can I say? Dear sir, “speculating” on the demise of heads of state is part of my job. For genuine journalists, nothing is sacred. Newsrooms sometimes even write obituaries for prominent figures before they pass away.

 In fact, François Mitterrand, who held journalists in low regard, called them “dogs.” Every seasoned politician endures this “pack.” President Biya is no exception. Perhaps this warning is directed at the security-obsessed zealots the speaker intends to hand me over to. Let him know that one cannot properly cover state affairs without examining the health of those who embody the state. At this point, I wonder who exactly this rant is aimed at. A brief sociological profile of the target audience for this television charlatan might be useful.

1- IS HE ADDRESSING THE “EKANG” SUPREMACISTS?

We are in the political arena where this demagogue moves, recklessly tossing around dangerously inflammatory concepts. When he endlessly repeats “I am a lord,” some see only childish megalomania. They forget the deep influence of Laburthe-Tolra on his “thinking.”

It was Owona Nguini who distorted and popularised the “Ekang” concept, drawn from Mvett mythology. According to French anthropologist Laburthe-Tolra, the Ekangs—these “Lords of the Forest”—descended from the banks of the Nile to colonise the equatorial forest.

Mr Owona Nguini, taking the French scholar’s theories literally, believes this population—which migrated to Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Congo—is destined to govern those lands. In Gabon, where the Fang make up 40% of the population and are deeply steeped in Mvett culture, particularly through the work of Tsira Ndong Ntoutoume, the danger of this supremacist singling out of the “Ekangs” has been recognised.

 During the 2009 presidential election, it manifested as TSF (Anything But the Fangs), a rejection by non-Fang citizens. The “Ekang” concept has not crossed Cameroon’s southern border. What does this have to do with Fecafoot? Answer: For Owona Nguini, as for Carl Schmitt, politics is about identifying the enemy. Yesterday it was the “Ntaalibams” of “Uncle Maurika.” Today, the designated enemy is the “reserve” supposedly made up of “Church people”—those fanatics who “will cause trouble”… How? For whom? Why? Let this market-stall Mephistopheles explain. But I know that in the times ahead, this professional intellectual-university agitator—with the subtlety and restraint of a bull in a China shop—will end up creating real problems himself.

2- HE IS ADDRESSING THE RULING CASTE AGAINST THE RABBLE

Who can believe that Samuel Eto’o’s supporters, given the unprecedented harassment he has faced since 2021, are all “brainless” or paid thugs? By rallying against the “illiterate” head of Fecafoot, his “flock,” his “uncultured fanatics,” his “cybernetic pack,” the agitator tries to mobilise the intellectuals against the threat supposedly posed by the lower classes.

 He spins a fairy tale of “brains” versus “muscle.” To write the moral, Mr Owona Nguini—and the clan he promotes—attempt to paint Eto’o as a “cancer.” He must be insulted, vilified until “death” follows. Through his symbolic “murder,” perhaps this clan—whose image has been tarnished by poor governance, endemic corruption, political crimes, and Babylonian morals—might finally be rehabilitated.

The “illiterate” people must be put in their place, even if it means stripping them of their sovereignty before the monarch’s will, through the abusive use of “high instructions” falsely placed at the top of the hierarchy of norms.

I leave it to others—constitutionalists, political scientists, psychosociologists, or psychoanalysts—to analyse Mr Owona Nguini’s remarks.