Jeanne-Irene could bear it no longer. She thought she
also had a
right to happiness. After all ,she could not
perpetually live the
life of a hostage. Had she not done everything for
him? She had
hoped he would change for the better, but the state
of affairs
indicated that this would not happen. This man had
become addicted
to practices she could not bear. He felt satisfied;
which

Blood: Biya?s Power Lotion by Ebale Angounou
The Inside Story of a
Bloodhound Who May Be a Serial Killer Page 15 sounded
the necessity
to discontinue their cohabitation. Or could he
finally listen to
her, understand her and grant her freedom? Paul Biya
was
intransigent; divorce was out of question. Power, he
explained has
its constraints, exigencies and of course, multiple
advantages, but
is very demanding especially when supposed to be
exercised within a
given context. But Jeanne-Irene was not prepared to
listen to such
rubbish since she (and not him ) was the one
suffering. By choosing
to live as he pleased, he had made a captive of her.
Her last hope
was that he would renounce standing for the following
presidential
election. As he had been involved in malpractices
only to maintain
himself in power, his life would change if he
relinquished it. He
would become normal again. The President told her
that he had no
intention of resigning after giving democracy to
Cameroonians: he
was canvassing for another mandate. Moreover, he was
intending to
call for early elections on a date he would soon
announce. This
meant Jeanne-Irene?s troubles were far from
over Irene?s especially
as the President pushed on with his magic and
witchcraft practices.
She went on abasing herself in her home while the
iron curtain
between them toughened and would not give way before
long. Most
revolting to her was the fact that she had borne the
shame of
being" barren for so long a time, while he had been
receiving
treatment so as to be capable of procreating. He has
just been
clinically declared as apt to make children and a
trip to Europe had
just confirmed this. But Paul Biya was thinking of
marrying a young
girl who would have the time to bear many children
for him. This
would be better than searching for these children
with an old woman
who, if not already in her menopause, had not enough
strength to
withstand the pains of child-bearing. To add to this,
he did not
contemplate repudiating her. He intended to enter
polygamy
irrespective of what the law said about it. His legal
chicanery
would consist in divorcing her, then contracting
another marriage
whose terms would favour polygamy. He would then be
able to take a
second wife. On second thought, he judged this
procedure snaggy. He
would shorten it by going out of the bounds of thLaw. He was Head
of state, President of the Republic and Supreme
Magistrate of the
state. No one could raise a small finger by accusing
him of going
against the Law ?made for others but not for
him, for if he wasn?t
above the Law, he was the Law-meant to protect him
and not to
complicate matters for him. If his Gabonese
colleague, Omar Bongo,
could marry a young girl (daughter of another
president), why should
he not do same? Why should he bother about an old
woman whereas the
prevailing tendency was to go for beautiful and
exhilarating young
girls? He expressed all these ideas to Jeanne-Irene
in as
indifferent a manner as he could. She considered this
a painful
insult and sheer ingratitude. After sacrificing much
for him for the
sake of love, was that how he could thank her? The
President told
her that she had no other choice as he himself had no
grip on
events. Pushed to the wall by his excessive greed,
cynicism and
sadism, Jeanne-Irene bluntly told him the she would
campaign against
him in the imminent elections. She would tell
Cameroonian women and
husbands all she had been going through since he
became president.
She would also tell them of his ungrateful intention
of taking
another wife tag "

barren" expecting that they would bear children when
he would get
cured of his illness. "I swear before you, Paul, that
I will do it,"
she threatened. Whereas she had all along patiently
borne the
Swearing was uncalled for. He knew she would do it,
so he weighed
the impact of such a revelation on Cameroonians, who
loved
Jeanne-Irene and felt deep sympathy for her. They
would act in
solidarity with and out of sympathy for her. Even his
allies and
accomplices within the C. P. D.M would surely leave
him in the cold.
It would be wiser not to give her the time to carry
out her threat.
She had too strong a personality and character. "You
will not do it,
miserable woman." The hard, evil and sneering look
made Jeanne Irene
shiver. Instead of playing the ostrich, he thought,
it was necessary
to face the situation boldly; he would have to kill
her. On her part
she knew him to be no buffoon. He could do anything
to preserve his
power and position. He had always told her that each
situation had
its solution. In frenzy, she sent for her nephew (the
President?s
aide), told him the situation and pleaded with him to
help her
escape. He only tried to calm, and reassure her
Roger, I assure you
he has threatened me?He will kill me.". Roger who
knew he could do
it without qualms, was neither an alarmist nor a
pessimist. "Calm
down, mother. He can kill anybody else but not you."
Shortly after,
she learnt that her husband was going to Dakar for a
heads- of-
state summit. This worried her because she knew him
to be a
boycotter of heads-of ?state summits. He had
negative dispositions
towards the Francophonie. How come he should suddenly
decide to
attend

Blood: Biya?s Power Lotion by Ebale Angounou
The Inside Story of a
Bloodhound Who May Be a Serial Killer Page 16 a mean
summit with no
stakes? she wondered. The head of state?s wife
still had more cause
to wonder when she learnt that her husband had
summoned the Chief of
presidential security, chief Superintendent
Minlo?o Medjo Pierre, an
unscrupulous butcher despite his Christian bearing
not. Under fair
winds, the meeting of the two men would not have
disturbed Jeanne
Irene; but considering existing circumstances
and knowing her
husband too well, the meeting propped a thousand and
one questions
in her head. In fact Paul Biya?s final word to
his collaborator are
well known; "I don?t want to see her alive on
my return." Though
Minlo?o sympathized with the wife, he was on
the husband?s pay-
roll. He must do away with Jeanne- Irene. It was an
order. She knew
it was time for his departure. Paul eluded her. He
did not drop in
to tell her he was traveling; it was impossible to
feign fondness in
front of a woman he had decided to have killed.
Instead, a rather
chagrin- harassed, sad and embittered Roger came to
her. "Mother, we
are going," he muttered, bursting into tears. She had
been a mother
to him since his childhood. He, her sister?s
son, had grown up under
her care. "I asked you to help me escape but you
refused. Why shed
tears now?" "Mother, I can betray my uncle but I
can?t betray my
President. He has confidence in me.." The President
had also had
confidence in her?And I pledged him with honour and
loyalty" No
pledge to her. He had pledged nothing for her. Going
out of the
Unity Palace that day, Motaze knew he would never
again see his aunt
alive. Power, in fact, is absurd. Heads of state were
in conclave in
Dakar when Paul Biya stood up to tell his peers the
sad news. What
had happened? Comments by Charles Ndongo (the
journalist who had
accompanied the Head of state ) informed the world
that Paul Biya
had been expecting the worst, since he had left his
wife back at him
in very poor health. Duty had obliged him to be in
Dakar and, while
there, he was expecting news. The president was
overtly worried
during the summit. At some point, his bodyguard
approached him and
broke the news to him. Paul Biya then stood up and,
in a solemn
tone, said; "I?ve just received terrible news;
my wife has died."
This happened in August 1992. Looking at it
critically, the
brilliant Charles Ndongo is not an ingenuous
journalist. Considered
between the lines, his report conveyed his message. A
loving husband
cannot travel knowing that his wife might die after
his departure.
Paul Biya betrayed his anxiety to the extent of
looking at his
watch. The truth is that he knew the details of the
operation and it
had been arranged that he would be informed once the
job was
finished. He even knew when the gun- shot would be
fired. The least
delay of the news irritated him because he was afraid
of failure.
This type of plot must absolutely succeed. Paul
Biya?s African peers
were not duped. They smelled the rat. Between
themselves, they know
one another fairly well. This explains why heads of
state did not
surround him during the funeral ceremonies. Only
messages of
condolence poured in a situation where there would
have been a
massive presence of presidents to pay their last
respects to the
woman who had once been Mrs. Biya. Even their wives
many of whom
were Jeanne- Irene?s Friends) did not mind not
attending the funeral
in her honour. It was boycotted,
.