YAOUNDÉ, CAMEROON – October 7, 2025: In an unprecedented electoral spectacle that exposes the decline of democratic governance in Africa, Cameroon’s 92-year-old President Paul Biya is seeking an eighth term through what can only be described as a phantom campaign. As the October 12 election approaches, Biya remains largely absent from his own country, conducting his re-election bid through AI-generated videos, framed photographs carried by supporters, and social media posts managed by his campaign team.
This is not democracy—it is political theater where the lead actor has become too frail to even appear on stage, leaving only the illusion of leadership for a population that has known no other ruler for over four decades.
The absurdity reached new heights when Biya’s campaign team deployed AI-generated content on social media platforms while the president himself remained in his customary extended stay in Geneva, Switzerland. Opposition candidates traverse the country holding rallies and engaging voters, while the incumbent’s supporters wave giant portraits through city streets, treating a photograph as if it possesses the legitimacy to govern a nation of 30 million people.
Authoritarian Theater Exposed
This phantom campaign reveals the decay of Africa’s most enduring gerontocracy. Since 1982, Biya has ruled Cameroon for 43 years, making him the world’s second-longest serving non-royal leader after Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang. The AI videos and portrait rallies are merely the latest props in a decades-long performance designed to maintain power while avoiding genuine democratic engagement.
Even more concerning is the regime’s response to questions about Biya’s fitness to govern. In October 2024, Interior Minister Paul Atanga Nji issued a decree banning media discussion of the president’s health, declaring it a “matter of national security”. Journalists who violated this censorship faced prosecution, while regional governors were ordered to establish “monitoring cells” to track dissent on social media platforms.
This represents the hallmark of authoritarian governance: when the ruler becomes too weak to maintain public appearances, the system resorts to censorship and surveillance to suppress any challenge to its legitimacy. The ban on health discussions wasn’t about protecting Biya personally—it was about protecting the entire power structure that depends on his symbolic presence.
The international community’s response has been notably muted. Neither ECOWAS nor the African Union has condemned this erosion of democratic norms, revealing the limitations of Africa’s regional institutions in addressing governance failures. France, which maintains significant economic ties with Cameroon, continues to provide diplomatic legitimacy to Biya’s rule while publicly promoting democratic values elsewhere.
The Succession Crisis Looms
Biya’s phantom presidency occurs against a backdrop of mounting internal and external pressures. The president has faced unprecedented public criticism, including from Catholic Archbishop Samuel Kleda, who declared it “unrealistic” for Biya to continue governing at his advanced age. Two cabinet ministers from northern Cameroon publicly questioned his capacity to lead and resigned from government.
Most dramatically, Biya’s own 27-year-old daughter Brenda Biya used TikTok in September 2025 to urge Cameroonians not to vote for her father, declaring that “he has made too many people suffer”. Though she later attempted to retract her statement, the video went viral and represented an unprecedented family rebellion against Africa’s oldest leader.
This internal fracturing reflects deeper structural problems within Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM). After removing constitutional term limits in 2008, Biya has presided over a system where succession planning has been deliberately avoided to maintain his indispensability. Should he become incapacitated, the constitution mandates that Senate President Marcel Niat Njifenji would organize elections within 120 days, but the absence of clear succession mechanisms creates potential for instability.
The phantom campaign also highlights Cameroon’s broader democratic deficit. The country faces active separatist conflicts in its Anglophone regions, Boko Haram insurgency in the north, and widespread economic hardship. Yet these critical challenges receive minimal attention during an electoral process dominated by the spectacle of an absent incumbent seeking to extend his rule until potentially age 99.
Opposition efforts remain constrained by systematic repression and fragmentation. Maurice Kamto, who officially received 14 percent of votes in the disputed 2018 election, has managed to unite 30 opposition parties under the Alliance for Political Change coalition. However, electoral irregularities, media restrictions, and the arrest of opposition figures during previous elections demonstrate the structural barriers to genuine political competition.
The ultimate tragedy is that Cameroon’s youth, who comprise over 60% of the population, have never experienced leadership transition or genuine democratic accountability. Unemployment remains endemic, infrastructure deteriorates, and violent conflicts persist, yet the country prepares to grant another seven-year mandate to a leader whose primary campaign strategy is avoiding public appearances.
Perhaps most symbolically damaging is the image of supporters carrying framed photographs of Biya through campaign rallies while the actual president remains thousands of kilometers away in Swiss luxury hotels. This visual metaphor perfectly captures a political system where symbols have replaced substance, and democratic participation has been reduced to choosing between portraits rather than policies.
As one political analyst observed, “Biya’s phantom campaign is not an aberration—it is the logical conclusion of a system that has prioritized personal rule over institutional governance for over four decades”. The October 12 election will determine whether Cameroonians accept this hollow democracy or demand leadership that serves their interests rather than perpetuating gerontocratic rule.
For regional observers, Biya’s phantom campaign represents a cautionary tale about the dangers of unlimited presidential terms and weak democratic institutions. When leaders can campaign through AI videos while avoiding public scrutiny, it signals the complete breakdown of electoral accountability that should concern democrats across the continent.
