In June, Cameroonian Philémon Yang, 76, is expected to officially take over the presidency of the 79th General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) for one year. He will succeed Denis Francis of Trinidad and Tobago. The position is almost acquired in Cameroon, according to a senior official of the Cameroonian presidency contacted by Le Monde who assures that Philémon Yang “is now, barring any last minute surprises, the only candidate from Africa”.
The suspense was maintained by South Africa until the meeting of the Executive Council of the African Union on February 16 in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), causing some misunderstandings in Yaoundé. “South Africa knew that, for the African presidency of the UN GA, it was the turn of the Central Africa region,” says another senior official of the Cameroonian presidency. Ultimately, Pretoria withdrew the candidacy of its former public services minister, Geraldine Joslyn Fraser-Moleketi.
Of the thirteen presidencies of the UN General Assembly held by the African continent, Central Africa has to date chaired the body only once. Gabonese Jean Ping was elected in June 2004 to lead this body from September of that year to September 2005.
“After Cameroon’s declaration of intent in July 2023 during the 23rd ordinary session of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of Ceeac [Economic Community of Central African States], Cameroon’s candidate was dubbed by the Central Africa sub-region. The African Union only endorsed a candidacy that the other sub-regions had already validated,” continues the last source cited.
Never far from Paul Biya
It must be said that Paul Biya personally invested in his former prime minister getting the job. At the Etoudi Palace, the Presidency of the Republic, we agree that it was the Head of State himself who made the choice of the candidate. Stingy with his public declarations, he campaigned for him, officially requesting on January 5 the support of the ambassadors accredited to Yaoundé in his speech of greetings to the diplomatic corps.
The discreet Philémon Yang can thus count on the goodwill of President Paul Biya, of whom he was prime minister for ten years. Since he was replaced in this position in January 2019, this English-speaker from the North-West region, where a conflict between separatist movements and Cameroonian armed forces has been raging since 2017, has remained in the mysteries of power.
Appointed Grand Chancellor of National Orders, whose office is located at the Presidency of the Republic, Philémon Yang remained invited to all official ceremonies, never seated far from the Head of State. “His candidacy for the presidency of the UN GA was immediately validated by the ECCAS countries, because he is a well-known figure in this space where he very often represented the president during summits,” relates an official from the Ministry of External Relations, who adds that the integrity and discretion of the former prime minister also worked in his favor. “He was never cited in cases when he was at the head of government,” adds our interlocutor.
A former prosecutor, Philémon Yang rose through the ranks in the shadow of Paul Biya who appointed him vice-minister of territorial administration in June 1975, when he himself had just been appointed prime minister by President Ahmadou Ahidjo. Quiet and level-headed, living modestly according to those close to him, he spent twenty years (1984-2004) as Cameroon’s ambassador to Canada and was spared prosecution when several ministers of the governments he led between 2009 and 2019 were now detained, sentenced after being accused of embezzlement of public funds.
In New York, if negotiations continue for the constitution of the office of the 79th General Assembly of the UN, the former prime minister is already preparing to live a new life, engaged in resolving the world’s crises and far from the internal wars in Cameroonian political life.