Why is Prez Biya afraid of bringing home the late Prez Ahidjo's remains?

November 30, 2014 will mark the 25th anniversary of the death of Cameroon’s former/first President AhmadouAhidjo in Dakar Senegal. Ever since his death, various attempts have been made at negotiating the return of his remains to his fatherland but to no avail.

The former president’s family lays the blame at the door of the man whom he hand-picked to succeed him – President Paul Biya.

According to the late president’s son Mohamadou Badjika Ahidjo “it is government which must take the initiative to repatriate the remains of the former president and we are available as a family to collaborate in the effort. I think the initiative should come from the state”. This view is supported by the former president’s wife Germaine Ahidjo.

However, President Biya does not think so. In an interview with France 24 on October 30, 2007, he declared that “…the problem of the repatriation of the remains of the former president, is according to me, a family problem. … If the family of my predecessor decides to transfer the remains of President Ahidjo, it is a decision that depends only on them. I don’t have any objection, nor observation to make”.

Hopes of a pleasant end to the wait were rekindled on March 30, 2008 when late President Ahidjo’s friend, the former president of Benin Emile Zinzou paid a visit to President Paul Biya. It was then popularly speculated that former President Zinzou had come to negotiate the return of Ahidjo’s remains. Nothing has been said about the issue ever since.

In March 2010, the national media published a story alleging that the then Special Adviser to the President, Martin Belinga Eboutou had been despatched to the Senegalese capital to discuss the possible repatriation of the remains of Cameroon’s first president with then Senegalese leader Abdoulaye Wade. A source at the Civil Cabinet of the Presidency eventually said “Mr.Belinga Eboutou has never travelled to Dakar for such a mission”.

Contacted later on the possible repatriation of the remains of his father, Mohamadou Ahidjo said the return of the remains of his father depended on the Cameroon government. He said nobody in government had contacted him on the issue recently.

The less than respectable treatment to which the remains of President Ahidjo are being subjected by his hand-picked replacement have been the subject of speculations each time the anniversary is around the corner.

“I think it is the fear of the unknown that is making Biya not to take the initiative to repatriate the remains of the man who made him what he is today. Government does not know the reaction of the masses if the remains of former President Ahidjo were to arrive the country today.

They are not used to handling such sensitive issues”, a senior journalist at the state-owned Cameroon Radio Television (CRTV) who elected for anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue told Cameroon Concord recently.

“It serves the Biya government better if the body of the former president remains in Senegal. They don’t want to create a shrine for the masses who are now beginning to see the Ahidjo years in power as the good old days as compared to the austerity and plundering of the national commonwealth identified with the Biya years”, added Peoples Action Party (PAP) stalwart Ekole Ekole Joseph.

If by being silent about the repatriation of Ahidjo’s remains to his fatherland the Biya government intended to make Cameroonians forget of their first leader, then they are succeeding.

During the 2011 presidential election campaigns, only one candidate, Ben Muna of the Alliance of Progressive Forces (APF) mentioned the late president’s name and promised to repatriate his remains if he were elected head of state.