President Biya is too smart; you can’t trace his fortune and assets

It is no longer a secret that Paul Biya spends considerable sums to manage his image. In the early 1990s at the dawn of multi-party politics the new, and at the time powerful, opposition parties multiplied negative reports about him abroad using foreign radio and newspapers.

Matters got to a head and Augustin Kontchou Kouomegni, then communication minister and government spokesman had to lead a delegation to RFI, BBC and others to warn them to stop the image of Paul Biya and his regime. The president since learnt his lesson.

Since then Paul Biya took steps to make sure he minimizes, if not completely avoid negative press mention. And following the problem he and his late wife, Jeanne Irene, had over their hospital in Baden Baden, Germany. the president learnt to be very careful and wise about his assets.

Today you can comb all of Europe and the US you won’t hear of, let alone seeing anything belonging to President Biya. Yet it is believed that he has immeasurable assets littered all over the place. That is how smart Paul Biya is. He is as clever as a fox.

This is interesting because other African heads of state are not nearly so clever. Some of them have suffered severe public relations pounding over their unwise display of wealth. Omar Bongo Ondimba, Denis Sassou Nguesso and Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasosgo have all had bad times with the foreign press over their properties in Europe.

Sometime ago, Transparency International France filed court suits against some African leaders, accusing them of buying properties in France that could not be financed with their official earnings.

TI said for example that Bongo and his family owned 39 properties including luxury villas, 70 bank accounts and countless luxury cars in France. Sassou Nguesso and his family owned 24 apartments and 112 bank accounts; while Obiang Nguema and his family own several apartments and eight cars in France.

Obiang Nguema’s son has also faced the courts in France and South Africa over luxury properties he owns in these countries. Obiang Nguema himself had problems in 2006 over a $35 million California beach house he bought there.

Even though the cases against the African leaders were thrown out on the ground that they were beyond the competence of French courts, President Sassou Nguesso of Congo still spoilt the matter with the ill-thought out answers he gave in interviews with RFI in defence of himself and the others.

“Why are we the only ones accused when other African heads of state and world leaders also own properties in France? I consider the accusations discriminatory…….. And by the way you don’t mean that having been Head of State for so many years it is not possible for me or any of the others to be able to raise money to buy the properties?”

Commentators said Sassou’s response missed the question as to the source of the money they used to buy the properties. It was such a shameful show for a head of state.

Paul Biya being as wise as he is, he would never have accepted to give a live and unrehearsed interview on so controversial an issue.

That is why when it comes to such things you cannot catch Biya. The Cameroonian president is a fox. And like the fox you never know its hole or the entrance into it: He disguises his tracts with all his genius. You will not find any business or property in the name of Paul Biya or his son Frank.

We learnt from some of the closest men to the president that all his many businesses and shareholding in companies abroad are in the names of his bosom friends, not even in his wife’s or children’s names.

Jeanne Irene, for the nurse that she was, persuaded the president to invest in a hospital in Baden Baden. All was well until the tumultuous years of multi-partism. Biya had a bad name and the Germans didn’t want him. He and his wife gave up the hospital. Paul Biya eventually found refuge in Geneva, Switzerland where he since became an honorary citizen.

To satisfy public clamour, Paul Biya allowed it inscribed in the revised constitution of 1996 a provision for the declaration of assets by public officials. But that provision has since become a dead letter simply because Paul Biya who should lead the way has failed to do so.

Everyone can understand the president’s problem. What will he declare? He has nothing (in his name) to declare! Or if he really must declare he will easily shock the public! You could learn, for instance, that the president owns the worth of several European countries put together!

Giving evidence in court sometime ago, a former CEO of Total France said that it was in the tradition of Total to give something like 100 fcfa per barrel of oil exploited in Gabon to Omar Bongo. He said that was the practice with most heads of state of petroleum producing countries in Africa.

Cameroon presently produces over 100,000 barrels of crude daily. You can do the simple arithmetic to imagine what Paul Biya’s fortune should be if ever he also collected the bribes from Total and other oil companies. And that is only from one source alone.

So, simply put, you can’t beat Biya’s intelligence when it comes to tracing his fortune or assets. The president is a fox; he is too clever. And, by the way, the President is not answerable to any one, not even the parliament, thanks to a provision of the constitution.