Excerpted
from Emmanuel Konde’s Cameroon: Traumas
of the Body Politic (2015), pp. 151-153.
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CHAPTER 7
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| Professor Emmanuel Konde (Author) |
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.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=emmanuel+kondePaul 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
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| 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.
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
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.
