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Paul Biya - Wikipedia
Paul Biya - Wikipedia
Paul Biya
Paul Biya (born Paul Barthélemy Biya'a bi Mvondo; 13
February 1933) is a Cameroonian politician serving as the Paul Biya
President of Cameroon since 6 November 1982.[1][2]
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Political career
As an official in post-independence 1960s Cameroon, Biya rose to prominence under President
Ahmadou Ahidjo. After becoming Director of the Cabinet of the Minister of National Education in
January 1964 and Secretary-General of the Ministry of National Education in July 1965, he was
named Director of the Civil Cabinet of the President in December 1967 and Secretary-General of the
Presidency (while remaining Director of the Civil Cabinet) in January 1968. He gained the rank of
Minister in August 1968 and the rank of Minister of State in June 1970, while remaining Secretary-
General of the Presidency. Following the creation of a unitary state in 1972, he became Prime
Minister of Cameroon on 30 June 1975. In June 1979, a law designated the Prime Minister as the
President's constitutional successor. Ahidjo unexpectedly announced his resignation on 4 November
1982, and Biya accordingly succeeded him as President of Cameroon on 6 November.[1][2]
Because Biya is a Christian from the South Region of Cameroon, it was considered surprising that he
was chosen by Ahidjo, a Muslim from the north, as his successor. His father who was a catechist
wanted him to be in the clergy but at the age of 16 while in Catholic school, he was dismissed. After
Biya became President, Ahidjo initially remained head of the ruling Cameroon National Union
(CNU). Biya was brought into the CNU Central Committee and Political Bureau and was elected as
the Vice-President of the CNU. On 11 December 1982, he was placed in charge of managing party
affairs in Ahidjo's absence. During the first months after Biya's succession, he continued to show
loyalty to Ahidjo, and Ahidjo continued to show support for Biya, but in 1983 a deep rift developed
between the two. Ahidjo went into exile in France, and from there he publicly accused Biya of abuse
of power and paranoia about plots against him. The two could not be reconciled despite efforts by
several foreign leaders. After Ahidjo resigned as CNU leader, Biya took the helm of the party at an
"extraordinary session" of the CNU party held on 14 September 1983.[7]
In November 1983, Biya announced that the next presidential election would be held on 14 January
1984; it had been previously scheduled for 1985. He was the sole candidate in this election and won
99.98% of the vote.[7] In February 1984, Ahidjo was put on trial in absentia for alleged involvement
in a 1983 coup plot, along with two others; they were sentenced to death, although Biya commuted
their sentences to life in prison, a gesture seen by many as a sign of weakness.[8] Biya survived a
military coup attempt on 6 April 1984, following his decision on the previous day to disband the
Republican Guard and disperse its members across the military.[7] Estimates of the death toll ranged
from 71 (according to the government)[8] to about 1,000.[7] Northern Muslims were the primary
participants in this coup attempt, which was seen by many as an attempt to restore that group's
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supremacy; Biya, however, chose to emphasize national unity and did not focus blame on northern
Muslims.[7][8] Ahidjo was widely believed to have orchestrated the coup attempt,[8] and Biya is
thought to have learned of the plot in advance and to have disbanded the Republican Guard as a
reaction, forcing the coup plotters to act earlier than they had planned, which may have been a crucial
factor in the coup's failure.[7][8]
It shall adopt a structural adjustment plan submitted to it by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
and World Bank: privatization, opening up to competition, reducing social spending, etc. Civil
servants' salaries are reduced by 60%, the informal sector increased very significantly, but the ruling
classes are not affected by this programme.[4]>
In 1985, the CNU was transformed into the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement, in Bamenda
the capital city of the Southern Cameroon and Biya was unlawfully elected as its president. He was
also re-elected as President of Cameroon on 24 April 1988.[2]
He has been consistently re-elected as the National President of the RDPC; he was re-elected at the
party's second extraordinary congress on 7 July 2001 and its third extraordinary congress on 21 July
2006.[17][18]
On 12 June 2006, he signed the Greentree Agreement with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo
which formally put an end to the Bakassi peninsula border dispute.[19]
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In February 2008, riots broke out, calling for lower prices and
the departure of Paul Biya. The demonstrators were severely
repressed with reports of a hundred dead and thousands of
arrests.[4]
Biya won the 2018 presidential election with 71.3% of the vote.[24] The election was marred by
violence and low voter turnout.[25]
Although Biya made some efforts to open up the political environment, his regime still retains clear
authoritarian characteristics and has largely bucked the trend toward democracy in Africa since the
1990s. Under the constitution, Biya has sweeping executive and legislative powers. He even has
considerable authority over the judiciary; the courts can only review a law's constitutionality at his
request. The RDPC continues to dominate the National Assembly, which does little more than
approve his policies.
"Tyrants, the World's 20 Worst Living Dictators", by David Wallechinsky, ranked Biya with three
others commonly in sub-Saharan Africa: Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Teodoro Obiang Nguema
Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, and King Mswati of Swaziland. He describes Cameroon's electoral
process in these terms: "Every few years, Biya stages an election to justify his continuing reign, but
these elections have no credibility. In fact, Biya is credited with a creative innovation in the world of
phony elections. In 2004, annoyed by the criticisms of international vote-monitoring groups, he paid
for his own set of international observers, six ex-U.S. congressmen, who certified his election as free
and fair."[26] In a 2005 interview William Quantrill, a retired member of HM Diplomatic Service,
argued that the reluctance of Biya to delegate responsibility seriously hampered the quality of
governance, with trivial decisions often delayed until he got round to delivering them, and that there
was too much government interference in the economy in general.[27]
Biya regularly spends extended periods of time in Switzerland at the Hotel InterContinental Geneva
where the former director Herbert Schott reportedly said he comes to work without being
disturbed.[28] These extended stays away from Cameroon – while sometimes as short as two weeks –
are sometimes as long as three months and are almost always referred to as "short stays" in the state-
owned press and other media.[29][30] In February 2008, he passed a bill that allows for having an
additional term in office as president which was followed by civil unrests throughout the country. The
main violent riots took place in the Western, English-speaking part of the country starting with a
"strike" initiated by taxi drivers in Douala, allegedly causing more than 200 casualties in the
end.[31][32][33] In 2009, his holiday in France allegedly cost $40,000 a day spent on 43 hotel
rooms.[34]
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In 2009, Biya was ranked 19th in Parade Magazine's Top 20 list of "The World's Worst
Dictators".[35]
In November 2010, Bertrand Teyou published a book titled La belle de la république bananière:
Chantal Biya, de la rue au palais (English: "The beauty of the banana republic: Chantal Biya, from
the streets to the palace"), tracing Chantal Biya's rise from humble origins to become Paul Biya's First
Lady.[36] He was subsequently given a two-year prison term on charges of "insult to character" and
organizing an "illegal demonstration" for attempting to hold a public reading.[36] Amnesty
International and International PEN's Writers in Prison Committee both protested his arrest and
issued appeals on his behalf; Amnesty International also named him a prisoner of conscience.[36][37]
He was freed on 2 May 2011 when the London chapter of International PEN agreed to pay his fine in
order that he might seek treatment for his worsening health condition.[38]
In February 2014, French citizen Michel Thierry Atangana was released from a makeshift Yaoundé
prison where, under Biya's orders, he had been arbitrarily detained for 17 years under false claims of
embezzlement because of supposed closeness to presidential candidate Titus Edzoa.[39] Considered a
political prisoner and prisoner of conscience by the United States Department of State, Amnesty
International, Freedom House, and the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention since 2005,[40]
Michel was released under Biya's personal decree but the Working Group's tripartite demands
remain unfulfilled.[41][42]
In 2016, Cameroonians in the nation's capital city of Yaoundé criticized Biya's reaction to the
country's worst train crash in which 79 people died. Critics included government officials who
remained anonymous, fearing a backlash.[43]
The Anglophone protests in late 2016 were led by English-speaking lawyers in protest against the use
of French in Cameroonian courts, which led to violent clashes with police. Opposition party leader
Edna Njilin of the Cameroon People's Party spoke out against the enforced use of French in the
classroom. In January 2017, the government ordered a suspension of Internet services in the
Northwest and Southwest provinces.[44] Criticism of the suspension and increased opposition led to
resumption of services in late April.[45]
By June 2017, protests in Cameroon's English-speaking provinces and cities led to police responding
with force, with 4 protesters killed and over 100 arrested. International criticism has been levied at
the United States for their lack of response to the growing Cameroonian crisis.[46]
In April 2017, a Cameroonian journalist working for Radio France Internationale, Ahmed Abba, was
sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment by a military tribunal for failing to report acts of terrorism. The
judgement was severely criticized by human rights groups including Amnesty International.[47]
On 7 November 2018, another Cameroonian journalist, Mimi Mefo, was arrested after reporting on
social media that the Cameroonian military was behind the murder of an American missionary in the
country, Charles Trumann, in October of that year. Mefo was charged with "publishing and
propagating information that infringes on the territorial integrity of the Republic of Cameroon," but
was released and charges were dropped on 12 November after her arrest was condemned by both
local and international media groups.[48]
Southern Cameroon
In early 2017, videos and reports surfaced online showing a genocide was taking place in Southern
Cameroon,[49] sanctioned and led by Paul Biya. A petition to the United Nations gave details of police
raping students at a university. Supporters are calling for the independence of Southern Cameroon
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before the violence escalates.[50] The National Commission for Human Rights and Freedoms
embarked on a fact-finding mission in Buea to investigate allegations of human rights abuses in the
region.
Many allegations of indiscriminate killing, burning of villages, rape and humiliation of English-
speaking citizens carried out by the BIR (Bataillon d'Intervention Rapide) have been made along with
supporting video footage. The BIR is a special force body that reports directly to President Biya.
Individual sources testify that all of those sent to fight the secessionist militia are French speaking,
thus widening the linguistic division between local residents. [1] (https://www.bbc.com/news/av/wo
rld-africa-44584122/witnessing-cameroon-s-descent-towards-civil-war)[2] (https://www.theguardia
n.com/global-development/2018/may/30/cameroon-killings-escalate-anglophone-crisis)
Notes
1. Profile of Biya at Cameroonian presidency web site (http://www.prc.cm/index_fr.php?link=6) (in
French).
2. Biography at 2004 presidential election web site (http://www.presidential2004.gov.cm/candidats.p
hp?id_cand=10&module=bio&lang=en) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20070930015452/h
ttp://www.presidential2004.gov.cm/candidats.php?id_cand=10&module=bio&lang=en) 30
September 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
3. Emvana, Michel Roger (2005). Paul Biya: les secrets du pouvoir (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=ypWQjMONIlcC&pg=PA187&lpg=PA187&dq=Paul+Biya+premier+fils+est+adopt%C3%A9#
v=onepage) (in French). KARTHALA Editions. ISBN 978-2-84586-684-3.
4. Thomas Deltombe, Manuel Domergue, Jacob Tatsita, Kamerun !, La Découverte, 2019
5. "Elections. La fraude "made in Cameroon" fait fureur" (http://www.cameroonvoice.com/news/articl
e-news-8679.html). www.cameroonvoice.com.
6. "Biography" (https://www.prc.cm/en/the-president/biography). www.prc.cm.
7. Milton H. Krieger and Joseph Takougang, African State and Society in the 1990s: Cameroon's
Political Crossroads (2000), Westview Press, pages 65–74.
8. Jonathan C. Randal, "Tales of Ex-Leader's Role In Revolt Stun Cameroon" (https://www.washingt
onpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/19/AR2006071901340_pf.html), The Washington
Post, 15 April 1984, page A01.
9. John Mukum Mbaku, "Decolonization, Reunification and Federation in Cameroon", in The
Leadership Challenge in Africa: Cameroon Under Paul Biya (2004), ed. John Mukum Mbaku and
Joseph Takougang, page 34.
10. Elections in Cameroon (http://africanelections.tripod.com/cm.html), African Elections Database.
11. "UK Home Office Immigration and Nationality Directorate Country Assessment – Cameroon" (htt
p://www.unhcr.org/home/RSDCOI/3c2b4e020.html), UNHCR.org.
12. "Cameroun. Biya reinstalle" (http://web.peacelink.it/africa/weekly/06_11_97), ANB-BIA, 3
November 1997.
13. "Cameroon's Supreme Court confirms Biya's re-election" Agence France Presse, 25 October
2004.
14. "President Biya is sworn in for another seven-year mandate." (http://www.spm.gov.cm/detail_art.p
hp?id_art=271&type=simpl&lang=en) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20091125004546/htt
p://www.spm.gov.cm/detail_art.php?id_art=271&type=simpl&lang=en) 25 November 2009 at the
Wayback Machine, Cameroonian government website].
15. "Cameroun: Paul Biya va modifier la Constitution" (http://www.afriquenligne.fr/actualites/politique/
cameroun%3a-paul-biya-va-modifier-la-constitution-2008010214343/) Archived (https://web.archi
ve.org/web/20130305170820/http://www.afriquenligne.fr/actualites/politique/cameroun%3a-paul-b
iya-va-modifier-la-constitution-2008010214343/) 5 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine,
Panapress, 2 January 2008 (in French).
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External links
Official website (https://www.prc.cm/en/)
World Statesmen – Cameroon (http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Cameroon.html)
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Political offices
Preceded by
Simon Pierre Tchoungui
as Prime Minister of East
Cameroon Prime Minister of Cameroon Succeeded by
Preceded by 1975–1982 Bello Bouba Maigari
Salomon Tandeng Muna
as Prime Minister of West
Cameroon
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