The recent declarations by some Roman Catholic Bishops in Cameroon calling on 92-year-old President Paul Biya not to seek reelection at the October 2025 presidential election has continued attracting reaction from acolytes of the veteran leader.
While public debate on the outing of the church leaders seemed waning, some Biya regime barons have reignited it again with calls on the hierarchy of the catholic church to call the priests to order.
Such is the case of the Speaker of the National Assembly, the Rt Honorable Cavaye Yeguie Djibril who in a recent outing in his native Far North Region expressed his discontent with the catholic Bishops.
In a video clip that has been widely circulated, the Speaker, a member of the politburo of president Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) said no one has ever seen the devil, “except that particular Bishop”.
The 85-year-old politician who has been Speaker of the National Assembly since 1992 was apparently referring to Bishop Barthélemy Yaouda Hourgo of the Diocese of Yagoua in the Far North region who invoked the ‘devil’ to succeed Biya.
Fed up with the status quo, the prelate said he would rather entrust the affairs Cameroon into the hands of the devil than leave them in the hands of the current leaders.
“Enough is enough! Why do we always expect the head of state to be a candidate? ” Bishop Barthélemy questioned. “It would even be better if the devil takes over the management of affairs in Cameroon,” the prelate added.
But Cavaye thinks this is hard and the hierarchy of the catholic church should summon the Bishop over such utterances else they confirm compliance with their prelate.
“The boss [Pope] of the Catholic church should invite the bishop to Rome to show him the devil. Otherwise all the Catholics are saying the same thing,” Cavaye said.
It is understood the use of the devil by the Bishop of the Diocese of Yagoua was a metaphor for unconditional change when Cameroonians head to the pools come October.
However, since the statement and others by the Bishops peers including the Archbishop Samuel Kleda of Douala and Bishop Emmanuel Abbo of the Diocese of Ngaoundere, supporters of Biya have been ill at ease.
President Biya has not yet publicly announced his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election, but as national president of the ruling CPDM party, he is the party’s natural candidate for any presidential election until a convention of the party meets and decides otherwise.
