YAOUNDE, Cameroon
Cameroonian President Paul Biya marked 40 years in power Sunday but stayed out of the spotlight as questions swirled about the 89-year-old who is the only leader most of the Central African country’s people have ever known.
Thousands of his supporters
gathered in the capital, Yaounde, to celebrate the anniversary but there were
only giant portraits of the absent president.
Biya has not appeared in
public since French President Emmanuel Macron visited in July. Decrees and
photos of Biya receiving various diplomats are regularly posted on the
president’s social media accounts.
“Since our father took power
we live in peace — he protects us well,” said Biya supporter Paul Ambassa on
Sunday. “May God keep him.”
However, critics of the Biya
regime were wearing black on Sunday amid the celebrations.
“Nov. 6 is considered a day of
national mourning because Mr. Biya inherited a rich, prosperous and growing
country,” said critic Darling Nguevo. “And he set about unraveling every sector
of life and society.”
“Corruption has made its bed
in the country. So has bad governance. Paul Biya is old and his public
appearances are rare, and this is happening against the backdrop of the
succession battle,” he added.
Biya is Africa’s
second-longest serving leader: The president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro
Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, has been in power since 1979.
Biya was Cameroon’s prime
minister and became president in 1982 after his predecessor, Cameroon’s first
president following the country’s independence from France, stepped down due to
health reasons.
The majority of appointments
Biya made in the ensuing years were members of his own southern Beti ethnic
group, which quickly grew to dominate senior prefect positions and the prime
minister’s office.
He survived a 1984 coup
attempt. When the country’s first multi-party election was finally held in
1992, Biya bested his opposition rival by just 4 percentage points.
In the decades since, Biya’s
party has used everything from fraud to redistricting to expand his victories
and the ruling party’s legislative majorities, according to political analysts.
Human rights groups have accused him of brazen strongman tactics, including
torture and intimidation of his opponents.
Biya has faced challenges in
recent years that range from a secessionist movement in Cameroon’s
English-speaking provinces to the threat in the north posed by Islamic
extremists aligned with the Nigeria-based Boko Haram group.
Critics point to the role that
corruption has played in entrenching Biya’s regime, with the spoils allegedly
going to his allies in government, the security forces and the president’s
family.
Political analyst Aristide Mono
said the celebrations around Biya’s 40th anniversary in power were “part of a
tradition of sanctification.”
“The people in charge of these
various mobilizations are very much driven by the logic of clientelism, as each
tries to show his allegiance, to show a lot of fidelity and loyalty,” Mono
said.
Displays of loyalty have
become particularly important the older Biya gets. The president’s son, Franck
Biya, has been more visible at his father’s side. Some think he is positioning
himself as a possible successor.
There are fears chaos could
break out in a country with more than 200 different ethnic groups once the
president’s long tenure ends.
“Biya hasn’t taken the time to
prepare a successor, someone who could amply inherit his power,” Mono said. -
AP
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