It is now 40 years since Paul Biya succeeded Ahmadou Ahidjo as president of Cameroon and still betrays no hint of relinquishing power at the ripe old age of 89.
As prime minister since 1975, Biya ten 49 came to power on November 6th 1982, after being handpicked by Mr. Ahidjo as his successor.
But he soon fell out with his predecessor who he accused of masterminding a coup in 1984, prompting Ahidjo to flee into exile in the Senegalese capital Dakar where he died in 1989.
Since then Biya has been Cameroon’s undisputed leader and has the double distinction of being Africa’s most elderly head of state and its second longest serving leader after Teodore Obiang Nguema who has ruled Equatorial Guinea since 1979.
To mark his milestone in power, Biya’s government has announced a series of national events incuding festivities to celebrate the nonagenarian who has been something of a divisive figure in Cameroon.
The main highlight of his leadership since 2016 has been a bloody separatist conflict in the country’s Southeast and Southwest regions where anglophones feel discriminated against and marginalised by the French-speaking majority.
Aside from the destruction to infrastructure including schools and medical centres, the conflict has killed tens of thousands and uprooted millions from their regions as they fled atrocities blamed on both sides of the conflict divide.
Biya critics also accused his government of rampant corruption and lack of economic policies to create employment among the country’s burgeoning youth population and reduce poverty.
Through the course of 40 years of his leadership, Biya has weathered demonstrations such as the deadly riots of 2008 and election challenges to his rule most notably by Anglophone politician John Fru Ndi, each time emerging as Cameroon’s undisputed leader.
Biya was named alongside Nguema and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe as one of the world’s 20 worst tyrants in the early 2000s.
He had polled 71 percent of the vote in the 2018 presidential election which was marked by a low voter turnout.
WN/as/APA