The president has gone on holiday, and after paying a visit to Nicholas Sarkozy, his French opposite number, he is said to be holed up with the wife in the Hermitage hotel  in La Baule in the West coast of France where the 43 rooms he has commandeered are reported to be costing a cool $40,000 a day.

Folk back home aren’t best pleased. Although the President is permitted to spend his own money in whichever way he wishes, it’s really a bit of a slap in the teeth for his countrymen back home in Cameroon where the average annual income is around $1,000.

Above: the extravagant president and his wife at a fancy hat contest with some friends.

It’s easy to criticise, especially when you don’t have access to that kind of cash that would lift you out of poverty along with the rest of your village, but isn’t it so typical of people who get into power and then won’t leave? He’s been president since 1982, and if a British Prime Minister was to flaunt wealth in that way, especially during a recession there would be questions asked.