Paul Biya came to power at 49. Fewer people in Cameroon at that time were criminals and what did he do?  Nothing.

After more than 40 years as head of state, Biya is now a champion of incompetence and a pretty mess in human form.

This begs the question: what does President Biya really want? Money, women or cigarettes?  The answer is none of the above.

What every long-serving dictator in Africa eventually wants is something far more elusive. To be sure, another tomorrow that looks exactly like yesterday.

Money? At a certain point in power, the treasury is just accounting.

Women? We of the Cameroon Concord Group can only speculate, but the Unity Palace has a bigger fish to fry.

Cigarettes? Even a chain smoker eventually puts one out.

Frankly speaking, the true object of desire in our editorial office in London is longevity itself. Not biological longevity, not political longevity but the ability to wake up, glance at the calendar and discover that another decade has quietly slipped by while you remained in the same chair.

In this current dispensation, ministers come and go. Presidential advisers come and go. Political trends in Yaounde come and go. Prime Ministers are being appointed. Governments are being changed. Citizens complain. Yet Unity Palace remains as immovable as a mountain that has misplaced its retirement paperwork.

Concerned citizens have been asking, “Why stay so long?” Supporters answer, “Why leave?” Civil administrators answer, “Register your media outlet with the authorities in Yaoundé before asking difficult questions.”

Meanwhile, the nation is watching a political drama so long-running that it risks being reclassified as a geological formation.

So what does President Biya really want?

According to this editorial: not money, not women not cigarettes.

Biya wants the same thing every veteran of power is accused of wanting by journalists all over the world: One more term. Then one more after that. And perhaps, just for administrative convenience, one more after that.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai