New Cameroon Football Team Coach Denis Lavagne

Custom Search

The Cameroon national Soccer squad has a new coach.  French born Denis Lavagne has taken over he reigns of the team. Previously, he was coach of Cotonsport in Cameroon.

He replaces Javier Clemente, who was sacked after he failed to qualify the Indomitable Lions for the 2012 African Nations Cup.

Denis Lavagne (copyright africapresse.com)

Cameroon 2011: Sarkozy instructs Biya to implement constitution

French president Nicholas Sarkozy finally gave a timid welcome back into the Francophonie fold to Paul Biya, president of the oil rich Central African Nation, Cameroon.


Eight days after his election under dubious circumstances, the aged Biya, who is 78 years old had been waiting for endorsements from Western Democracies and none was coming his way.




Last week, he had to send his External Relations minister, Henri Ayissi Eyebe,  to France to plead for a congratulatory message. He got firm instructions instead to fully implement the 1996 constitution from France. Sarkozy and US president Barack Obama don't have any love for despots and have made no bones about this.

At least, Sarkozy made a statement and for this, Henri Eyebe Ayissi WILL BE in the next government. That is how Biya's  autocratic, despotic, ethnocentric and tribalistic regime works!


Biya had it coming. No matter how you read it, the message he got from Sarkozy reads more like a scolding from a teacher than a diplomatic message destined to a head of State. 


US president Barack Obama has not bothered to acknowledge that anything significant happened in Cameroon. Even when Biya insists and gets installed in the presidential palace, he should know that the clock is ticking, and Sarkozy, Obama, the International Community and Cameroonians can turn their backs on him at any time. His tribalism infused ruling Cabal or his friends from the Communist People's Republic of China won't be able to protect him, when the hour of reckoning comes.


He can show some degree of good will in the new younger faces in his next government. The world will be watching.

New World Order taking shape: Africa on Back Burner

The Arab world is roiled in an unprecedented crises. Autocratic despots who have used the natural resources of their countries as bargaining chips to cling on to power are now facing the awakening of the masses they effectively controlled in the dark ages when information was the privy of the privileged few.

Recent weeks have seen various regimes in the arab world suddenly having to deal with popular uprisings. These came as a surprise to many, including scholars and other luminaries of think tanks like the Bilderberg Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, or the Trilateral Commission.

Western governments had to react rapidly , and soon, information and total control of unfolding events was in the hands of the masses. That was good news. The Internet played a pivotal role, with tools like Facebook and Twitter used to organize peaceful protests against dictators.

However, not all popular uprisings are created equal. In countries that have populations that yearn the newly acquired freedom of the Tunisians for example, lack of coordination by peaceful protestors because of poor telecommunications infrastructure can often lead to violent repression of the people by the ruling class. This is evident in Yemen, Cote d'Ivoire and Cameroon.

But if you go further South, in Cote d'Ivoire for example, incumbent Laurent Gbagbo who lost presidential elections to economist Alassane Quattara, is still sitting tight, irrespective of calls by the United Nations, International Observers and an uprising by his people. The reason may be, the wind of change that is blowing in the Maghreb, attracting all the focus of global security analysts, diplomats and the media.

Since the beginning of March 2011, there has been talk of a very tense atmosphere in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other countries in the Middle East that have had the same ruling elite for many decades. While the world's leading economic and military powers try to make sense of the unfolding situation in the Arab countries, other despots in sub saharan Africa like Laurent Gbagbo in Cote d'Ivoire, and paul Biya in Cameroon lie low and take advantage of the situation to consolidate their power.

It is essential that while the New World Order falls into place, Africans stand up and take their rightful place in the global community of nations. This can only come as a result of countries having leaders who have a popular mandate, and who understand that they serve at the pleasure of the citizens of their country. Those who hold on tight to power like Muammar al Qaddafi in Libya and Laurent Gbagbo in Cote d'Ivoire or Paul Biya in Cameroon also seem to be those with the least enviable achievements, given the resources at their disposal. The oppressed masses will be heard, time is on their side.

Cameroon 2011: Is Biya legitimate?

Winning elections used to be a stroll in the park for entrenched dictators like Paul Biya. Cameroonians mounted a weak protest in 2008 in the face of yet another amendment of the constitution of the oil rich African nation which allowed the aging leader, 78 year old Paul Biya to stand yet for another mandate as President of the Republic after 36 years in power.

Those who attempted to mount opposition to this move quickly found themselves in jail. The electoral process in Cameroon is not credible, and Paul Biya now finds himself in the midst of popular rejection by Cameroonians. In a democracy, it is abnormal for an individual, and his tribesmen to dominate the rest of the country, stifling any diverging voice or point of view and throwing political opponents in jail. Professor Titus Edzoa, whose only crime was to have dared to stand as a candidate for the 1997 presidential elections is still in jail, with the keys in Paul Biya's pocket.

The official website of the Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon ( www.prc.cm ) so far shows only two congratulatory messages, one from the figurehead German Federation President Christian Wulff (real power lies with the Chancellor, Angela Merkel), and the second, from the Moroccan King, Mohammed VI (Arab Spring knocking on his door after Libya - solidarity anyone?). No other head of state or leader has addressed a congratulatory message to Paul Biya, eight days after he was declared winner of the presidential elections.

The silence is telling. Even other African Presidents have not broken ranks to congratulate Biya. Total silence from Ndjamena to Libreville, Abuja to Malabo. Even the highly visible rapprochement he has had with the Communist People's Republic of China has not earned him a friendly message from President Hu Jintao. Slowly, beautiful Cameroon is becoming a pariah State under the stewardship of Paul Biya. When a man takes all the resources of his country and places them in the hands of his tribesmen, who in turn brutalize the rest of the citizenry, he will one day meet his reckoning from those same tribesmen to whom he conferred power.

Once more, we have to say, Biya still has time...not much time, but just enough to leave power, retire peacefully to his beloved Lake Geneva beach residence and save face. Whether he gets indicted by the International Tribunal at the Hague or some other legal Jurisdiction for plundering the Cameroon's treasury and Human Rights abuses that occurred during his 36 year watch, is a question that will be left to the fresh and dynamic leaders who will rise up to reverse 36 years of despotic rule to decide.

The real score for Mr Biya during the 2011 presidential election is visible on his very own official website. He has been rejected firstly by the Cameroonian people, and now, by his peers!