The long-awaited beard-shaving of journalist Souley Onohiolo, code-named Operation “Tomber la barbe” (Lose the Beard), will take place after eight months of waiting for a government reshuffle that never came.
Eight months ago, the journalist made a bold wager: he would not shave until President Paul Biya, re-elected on 12 October 2025, changed the government that has been in place since 2019.
“The President of the Organising Committee for the ‘Shaving Big Souley ONOHIOLO’ project informs the national and international press that on Friday, 3 July 2026 at 12:00, at the Botanik’s Beauty Centre (a service-providing establishment) located in the Essos neighbourhood of Yaoundé, the official ceremony of ‘Lose the Beard’ of Souley ONOHIOLO, Emeritus Journalist, Senior Reporter, and Editorialist, will take place,” reads the statement from the organising committee.
According to committee members, the shaving ceremony will be held “under the High Patronage and General Supervision of Dieudonné Mveng Balla, Promoter of the Info TV channel.”
This event is described as “a singular and unprecedented gathering that will bring together the cream of the media from Cameroon and around the world, around a man whose personal and silent revolt has spanned eight months of hair commitment – a forest of beard and untrimmed head – to establish itself as a republican struggle.”
Ultimately, Souley Onohiolo has resigned himself to shaving after keeping his bet for eight months without any prospect of a government reshuffle. It is out of sheer weariness that the journalist is parting with his hair.
“Better still, it is a symbol of resistance, a mark of civic engagement, and a firm will to impact society – to move the lines. It is this story that the ceremony of 3 July will close, in the presence of the press and under the gaze of those who have followed, from near or far, this singular epic,” adds the organising committee.
