YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon – Father Étienne Bakaba — a journalist and singer — has urged President Paul Biya to announce his decision not to seek re-election “as soon as possible.”

In an open letter, Bakaba noted that the Cameroonian leader has become too old and frail to lead the country, stating, “You can’t do it anymore,” regarding his capacity to govern.

The priest of the Douala Archdiocese clarified that his call for the president to step aside is not based on the Constitution, electoral law, or the statutes of Biya’s CPDM party.

“It is a matter of common sense,” the priest said.

“Give Cameroonians who have a healthy ambition to instill a new spirit in a new homeland the opportunity to prepare properly for a real election, the result of which will be accepted by the sovereign people-an election without violence,” the letter states.

“It is an appeal and a prayer!”

The priest blasted Biya’s supporters who have been calling on him to seek an eighth term in office, saying that such supporters want the president “to die in power.”

He described such people as “the real enemies of Cameroon.”

“When the time comes, they will not be able to hide from history. These eternal foxes leeching cheese from the beak of the crow are doing it for themselves and not for you. Nor are they courting for the overwhelming majority of Cameroonians who bend their backs under the weight of misery, corruption, embezzlement, insalubrity, tribalism, unemployment, darkness, dry taps, crime, rape, moral and household filth, unemployed graduates,” he continued.

He noted that there were honest militants within the president’s political party who strongly believe Biya is no longer the right man for the country’s top job, but who are too afraid to speak out.

“This is not a disavowal, it’s not a betrayal, it’s pure realism. But these disciples, for fear of repression or out of modesty, don’t dare tell you to stop! At least publicly, but behind the scenes they are in the game,” the priest said.

While many in the party and in government might be too afraid to speak out, some of the President’s allies, whom Bakaba describes as “traitors and opportunists”, are already jumping ship.

He didn’t name names, but it’s likely he was referring to two cabinet ministers who recently resigned and declared their intentions to challenge their previous boss in the October presidential election.

Issa Tchiroma Bakary, the erstwhile Minister of Employment and Vocational Training, resigned on June 22, complaining that Biya, now 92-years-old, was no more in command of state affairs.

“There is no leadership,” Tchiroma said in an interview following his resignation.

“The president is absent. For 14 years, no council of ministers has been held. Four ministers have died without being replaced. There is silence from the top,” he said.

In a 24-page letter to Cameroonians, Tchiroma promised to dismantle the “broken system” which for over 40 years has bred “abuse, contempt, and the confiscation of power.”

Just days after Tchiroma’s resignation, another notable figure in Biya’s cabinet also called it quits. Bello Bouba Maigari, who has worked with President Biya for decades, also resigned as Minister of Tourism and Leisure to challenge the President in the October Presidential election.

Even as Father Bakaba says he believes that Biya is no longer able to rule, he doesn’t believe that these Ministers who have resigned can be taken seriously, and predicts their own political end had come.

He hopes Biya’s “mandate of great opportunities” as the current mandate was baptized, would finally come to an end with the President assuring Cameroonians he won’t seek re-election.

“It is a prayer and a wish. This opportunity is sovereignly possible for you. It seems to me providential for the near future of our beloved homeland, Cameroon,” the priest said.

Bababa isn’t the only Catholic priest to have called on Biya to step aside.

Bishop Emmanuel Dassi Youfang of Bafia has voiced similar concerns, telling Crux that Cameroon needs a President with “the energy to visit various parts of the country in order to keep abreast of the problems of the people.”

“I don’t think our current President has that kind of energy,” he stated.

Opposition political leader and a declared candidate for the Presidential election, lawyer Akere Muna told Crux that Biya “will do Cameroonians a great deal of good if he opts not to seek an eighth term of office.”

“He has served the nation as President for 43 years. I don’t think he has anything more to offer and I think he deserves to go home and rest,” he said.