Cameroon: President Biya's French Spin Doctors

2 June 2011

Bisong Etahoben

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya’s recent participation at the inauguration of Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara may have been low-key, but it has set off a cold war between France’s main public relations outfits. In effect, Patricia Balme, the 52-year-old founder of the French publicity agency Pb Com International, who has been Biya’s spin doctor and image builder for about 20 years, may lose that position to Image 7, another French PR agency.

This follows what presidential insiders in Yaounde describe as “fruitful talks” in Yamoussoukro during the Ouattara inaugural between President Biya and Anne Méaux, an adviser at Image 7.

Also in the running for the Biya PR slot is Stéphane Fouks, head of the international communication agency Worldwide Euro Rscg, who for the past four years, formulated the communications strategy in France of disgraced former IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Grand priestess

It should be noted that Image 7 was hired by the Ouattara Inauguration Organising Committee to give the extra shine to the occasion and Anne Méaux was the agency’s point person, who did the marketing of the inaugural.

Described by French media as the “grand priestess of Image 7”, Ms Méaux for many years marketed the image of toppled Tunisian leader Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and currently does public relations work for President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal.

She also recently signed a contract with President Ouattara to market his image to the world.

President Biya’s decision to give a closer atteention to Ms Méaux may have been dictated by the fact that she has the ear of several officials in the Elysée Palace. This would be a plus for the Biya presidential entourage, especially at this time when relations between Yaounde and Paris have not been at their best.

France, it should be noted, has been vocal against long-serving African leaders and Biya, who has been in power since 1982, is one of the longest serving African presidents still in power. He intends to stand for re-election in October.

Their boosters

Ms Méaux made her éntree into the world of communications when she was hired to market the image of former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.

In spite of her impressive cv, Ms Méaux does not seem to have clinched the Biya communication contract yet. Her two competitors for the job, Patricia Balme and Stéphane Fouks, also have their boosters in the Yaounde presidential palace.

In spite of all the fuss about the hiring and firing of foreign spin doctors by President Biya, the race for the presidency will largely depend on the Cameroonian voters, who alone have the right to decide who their leader will be.

In fact, the president’s dependence on the foreign media to build his image has not endeared him to the local media, especially given that since coming to power 29 years ago, Biya has never organised a press conference with Cameroonian media.