Why Many Family Businesses In Cameroon, Do Not Survive Their Founders (Part 13):

The Richest Cameroonian Businessman, VICTOR FOTSO, Passed Away In 2020, Without Leaving Behind A Groomed – Successor To Take Over The Management Of The Family Business

The Business Mogul, VICTOR FOTSO, At The Time Of His Death Had 25 Wives And Over 1O0 Children. He Even Predicted That After His Death, There Would Be A Big Fight In His Family Over Assets.

 One Of VICTOR FOTSO’s Daughters, US Based Barrister CHRISTELLE NADIA FOTSO, Asserted That One of The Biggest Mistakes That Her Late Father Made In Life, Was To Have Gotten Married To So Many Wives And Make So Many Children, Simply Because He Had The Money – Power

Business mogul, Victor Fotso, who was considered to be the richest Cameroonian, passed away in a hospital in Paris, France on March 20, 2020 at the age of 94. He was the Founder of the huge Family Business known as Fotso Group.  He had several industries and other businesses in Cameroon. He was also into large scale agriculture. The Fotso Group was the Founder and majority shareholder of the Commercial Bank of Cameroon, CBC.  Fotso also had businesses in a number of countries like Ivory Coast and France.

Victor Fotso who hailed from Bandjoun, Koung – Khi Division in the West Region of Cameroon, also later got into politics. Thanks definitely to his wealth, he rapidly became a CPDM bigwig, as well as the Mayor of his native town, Pete Bandjoun, where he reportedly used his personal finances to do a lot for the council and community. In the traditional and cultural domain, Victor Fotso was recognized by his people as Patriarch. In fact he was one of the highest notables in his native Bandjoun land.

As for his social and marital life, Victor Fotso started with one wife, especially when he was still struggling in life. But when money started flowing in, so did he increase the number of wives, to the point where he had over 25 wives, excluding concubines. But there was one thing that made Victor Fotso to be different, from most of the rich polygamists in our society. From observations, most of the rich polygamists tend to attach themselves or show more affection and respect to their new wives, than especially the wives with whom they were together in the difficult days.  Fotso was much different here. Besides his mother, the one other woman in Victor Fotso’s life that he never joked with was his first wife.  More so, he never hesitated when criticized by the other wives, to bluntly tell them that he had no apology to them for being very close to his first wife, because as he always said, that was a woman who accepted to marry him when he was still struggling in life. Great!

Meanwhile by the time of his death in 2020, the Patriarch, Victor Fotso, had a total of 25 wives and over 100 children. In fact, the exact number of Fotso’s children by the time of his death, were not quite known by the family.  The family then put the total number of children at being between, 120 – 130. One of Fotso’s daughters, US based Barrister Christelle  Nadai Fotso, even said that the father did not know some his children.

Fotso Did Not Leave Behind A Successor That He Had Groomed For The Family Business

The one big mistake that the multibillionaire, Victor Fotso, who was Founder of the huge Family Business known as Fotso Group, did, was that he died at the age of 94, without leaving behind a child or some of his children, or some close family members, that he had groomed to take over the management of the business empire that he had created.  Not that the business tycoon did not know what to do, or did not realize the importance of grooming a successor or successors that will eventually take over the management of the Family Business.

To be fair to the business mogul and Patriarch, Victor Fotso, he in fact groomed two of his children, a female and a male, who were both children he had with his first wife, in the management of the Family Business. He along the line even gave them certain powers in the management of the Family Business, the Fotso Group. Just that due to some unfortunate situations, those two children later became unavailable. It is not clear why Victor Fotso did not try to groom another two or three of his other children in the management of the large Family Business. Instead, he just like gave it up, but knowing so well that in such a situation, his death would lead to a bitter infighting in his family, over the  control of the huge Family Business he  would have leave behind.

And in fact, the big fight in the family started just weeks after Victor Fotos’s death, over the burial programme. There was no doubt that the conflict which erupted over the burial programme, was a kickoff in the war that was to be fought by the children and widows of late Victor Fotso, over the huge wealth that the late industrialist and billionaire left behind. Lawyers and the court were even brought into the scene or into the fight that erupted in the Fotso family, soon after his death, or better still, when his corpse was still lying in the mortuary in Paris. Even some elite of ruling CPDM as well as some local administrative authorities in Cameroon, and the Cameroon diplomatic mission in France, also got involved.

Fotso Victor Himself, Predicted A Fight Over Assets After His Death

Many Cameroonians did not know that the business magnate and patriarch, Victor Fotso, had so many wives and children.  As aforementioned, with a huge financial power, the business mogul married over 25 wives and had a total of more than than 100 children, or better still, between 120 – 130 children. As regard the number of wives, Victor Fotso at the time of his death had a total of 25 wives, having divorced some, while some had passed away. Some of his wives live at the family home in Bandjoun, some at Fotso’s residence in Yaounde, some in Douala, and so on.

One of Victor Fotso’s daughters, Barrister Christelle Nadia Fotso, based in the United States, who travelled to France and visited the father on his dying bed at a hospital in Paris, wrote a piece on the social media after her father’s death, in which she made some revelations. She among other things disclosed that the father told her during that visit, that he knew that there would be a big fight in the family over assets after his death.  She said the father advised her to stay out of any of the fights over property.  So the multibillionaire while he lived already foresaw that a war would erupt in his family over property, including money, once he was gone.

It can be said that Victor Fotso himself, perhaps unconsciously, partly laid the foundation of the conflict that sparked off in the family even before his burial, over the huge wealth that he left behind. The daughter, Barrister Christelle Nadia Fotso, stated in one of her write-ups which raised eyebrows in the Fotso Family, that her father made a fatal mistake in probably thinking that by using his money-power to marry so many women and make so many children, he was a great man. She said, rather, by doing so, the father was instead destroying himself and family. Going by her, Victor Fotso did not even know some of his children. Barrister Christelle Nadia Fotso also said that despite the many wives and children, the father died alone in Paris, France. She however did not expatiate on what she meant by saying that the father died alone. That left many people to interpret it in their different ways, depending on their understanding or thinking.