Cameroon:Traumas of the Body Politic Cont'd (Just Published New Book)

Excerpted from Emmanuel Konde’s Cameroon: Traumas of the Body Politic (2015), pp. 151-153.

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                                                  CHAPTER 7 

Professor Emmanuel Konde (Author)

Biya's New Deal Society

 

The greatest political gift that the people of Cameroon have had since the colonization of their country by Europeans in 1884 was initiated by Paul Biya about 100 years after.  Under colonial rule and the first quarter century of decolonized Cameroon (1884-1982), the people of Cameroon suffered one hardship after another at the hands of three European powers from 1884 to 1960, and from Ahmadou Ahidjo from 1960 to 1982.  Under the external and internal colonizing regimes the Cameroonian people lost their political freedoms, especially their rights to free assembly and free expression.  No sooner had Biya assumed the reigns of power in 1982 than he set in motion a transforming ethos that is still unfolding.  Viewed from this perspective, President Biya’s can be posited as a transitional figure with respect to the evolution of Cameroon politics: from absolute authoritarianism to democracy.  But all transitions are fraught with pitfalls.  Cameroon’s is no exception.  To avoid the mishaps attendant to all social and political transformations, Cameroon’s transition needs to be guided skillfully.  To this end, history has placed Paul Biya in an unenviable position to lead Cameroon toward opening up of this once closed society.  But who is this man, Paul Biya?  And what did his proposed “New Deal” entail? Presented below is a brief biographical sketch of President Biya and a critical analysis of his early years at the helm of the Cameroon state apparatus.

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Paul Biya was born among the Bulu in February 1933, at Mvomeka'a village in Sangmelima, Dja et Lobo Division of the country's South Region.  Bulu is one of the ethnic groups that

President Paul Biya of Cameroon

comprise the Beti-Pahoiun family in Cameroon. He was 49 at the time of his ascension to power in 1982.  Biya is a highly educated man.  He received six years (1948-1954) of rigorous Roman Catholic seminarian education in colonial Cameroon and studied politics and public law in Paris at Sorbonne University and other French elite institutions of higher learning.  He entered the Cameroon civil service in 1962 and meteorically climbed that country's political ladder to the position of Prime Minister in 1975.  During the first twenty years of his public career President Biya worked under Ahidjo (1962-1982).  From 1967 to 1975 the positions he held involved functions directly related to the presidency.  Like his boss Ahidjo, Biya was a quiet man, a personality trait that must have endeared him to the president.  His calm demeanor projected the facade of a spineless bureaucrat who, though meticulous in discharging his bureaucratic functions, could nonetheless be easily manipulated. Ahidjo trusted him, but it was Biya who finally outsmarted the old fox.

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When Biya succeeded Ahidjo as president in 1982, many Cameroonians saw in him a sincere, incorruptible man of vision and thus they took his every word for gospel--particularly his program of liberalization and democratization.  It is probable that Biya never imagined that he would be handed the reins of power the way it came to pass.  But no sooner was Ahidjo out of the picture than it became evident that Biya was ill prepared for the office that had been suddenly thrust upon him.  It is possible that Ahidjo had intended to gradually groom Biya for the office of president but the latter's ambition for power overcame his natural urge to learn.  Biya's coup against Ahidjo at first seemed hurriedly and prematurely executed, as evidenced by the mounting problems   that befell Cameroon in the early years following his assumption of the presidency.

Although Biya had served under Ahidjo in various top-level administrative posts, the positions were administrative and not political.  Ahidjo was the only politician in Cameroon during his long reign. Biya was more of an intellectual-technocrat. Reputed to have been an excellent administrator, Biya was no politician and thus he committed the grave error of disentangling himself from Ahidjo much too soon.  It is no surprise that the new president initially fumbled in office; and, the abortive coup d'état of April 1984, far from being a disaster, was in fact a blessing in disguise for President Biya.  It did two things for the president: prolonged his honeymoon with the Cameroonian people by opening up a wellspring of showers of support, and that honeymoon provided him an opportunity to adjust to the new realities that confronted him as president.

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            While the April 1984 mutiny increased Biya's popularity, it also paved the way for the

curtailment of presidential powers.  Before the coup, Biya owed allegiance to none but Ahidjo--whom he had summarily and adroitly forced into exile in France the previous year.  After the abortive coup Biya became indebted to the leaders of the Cameroon military establishment who had stood by him during his moment of crisis and had crushed the insurgents.  This development shifted the pendulum of power to a middle position, a sharing of power with leaders of the armed forces that correspondingly reduced Biya to something of a princeps (first among equals) in his own government.  The presence of the military in Cameroon politics was increasingly felt as selected military officers apparently became part of the formal political leadership.

 

Biya may have been of a democratic disposition, even a visionary, at his inception of power in 1982.  The president's political bent from the onset suggested that he was keen about remaking the Cameroonian people of the Ahidjo epoch. But the events of April 6-7, 1984, including the two alleged attempts on his life in 1983, not only altered this trait in him but seemed to have also convinced the new president of the realities of political leadership.  These events compelled Biya to rethink his politics and thus he gradually settled down to governing the country the way that he understood the people wanted to be governed. Accordingly, a style of governance that can best be characterized as "laissez-faire" became the hallmark of Biya's presidency.

 

Click the link below and purchase this book and other Konde's books. The Traumas of Cameroon Body Politic is a must-read by Cameroonians who are interested to have an in-depth knowledge of the history of Cameroon. And for the price of $17.99, it is a bargain.

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