Opinion: Paul Biya is still Cameroon’s President but for how much longer

Paul Biya has been President of the Republic of Cameroon since 1982 and served as Prime Minister from 1975-1982. This puts a combined total of almost 45 years in a position of political power, making him the longest serving leader in Africa when including both his tenure as Prime Minister and his current tenure as President which is now in its 37^th year (making him the second longest ruling President in Africa currently after the President of Equatorial Guinea) . However, as history has shown us on the continent, the longer the leaders reign, the more controversial it becomes and Biya is no exception. To give a vivid example of African leaders, both past and present, who are or have ruled for a long time and have been deemed as controversial include Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe (37 years), Muammar Gaddafi of Libya (42 years), Kamuzu Banda of Malawi (30 years), Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea (40 years) and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda (34 years), to name a few. Hence, this opinion piece seeks to explore Biya’s rule, what has kept him in power for so long and why at 87 years of age (he is Africa’s oldest ruler) does he still hold on to power.

 

From Prime Minister to President

Paul Biya was sworn in as the country’s first Prime Minister on June 30, 1975 following amendments to the country’s constitution for this post proposed by the ruling party, the Cameroon National Union (CNU), which he previously served as Secretary-General. In 1979 he was designated as the successor to the founding father of Cameroon Ahmadou Ahidjo following a law that designated the Prime Minister as the President’s successor, according to bona udeze, in his book: Why Africa?: A Continent in a Dilemma of Unanswered Questions (2009). Ahmadou Ahidjo resigned and this paved way for Biya to succeed him as President on November 6, 1982. However, by 1983 tensions developed between Biya and Ahidjo whom the former accused the latter of orchestrating a coup allegedly through his aides according to a book published by Europa publishers titled: A Political Chronology of Africa (2001). This clash between Biya and Ahidjo gives us a vivid example of how Biya has come to treat his opponents or those he distrusts which has been evidently with a ‘heavy hand’ as this opinion piece will discuss on.

Paul Biya a democrat?

Paul Biya’s rule can largely be described as authoritarian and it appears that despite the country been a multi-party democracy the behaviour of the state and its conduct in various domains, particularly in the conduct of elections has made it to be seen as anything other than a fledging democracy. This is because the country has been run by the same political party since its independence from former colonial power France in 1960, albeit a renewed version of it called the People's Democratic Movement (RDPC) party that was founded by Biya in 1985. However, it was under Biya’s rule that Cameroon transitioned from a one-party state dominated by the CNU to a multi-party democracy and implemented a number of democratic reforms which his supporters credit him for. The RDPC has faced little resistance from other political parties as is evidenced by its ‘successful’ but ‘controversial’ wins in elections since the first democratic election in 1992 which the party narrowly won and has won all subsequent elections to date. Thus, this makes Cameroon a dominant-party system which Andrew Heywood defines in his book Politics (2013) as “a competitive system in which a number of parties compete for power in elections but is dominated by a single major party that consequently enjoys prolonged periods in power”.

The RDPC has been in power for 35 years but overall if we are to take into consideration the CNU before Biya reformed it, this will total 60 years this year. Other notable examples of dominant-party systems throughout the world include the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan, which was in power for 54 years until 2009, the Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) in Zimbabwe since 1980 and the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa which has been in power since 1994. Heywood goes on to further state that although this system should not be confused with a one-party system (a system where only one political party virtually controls all institutions unopposed with a disregard by some for universal suffrage) which appears to have multiple interpretations, it may at times exhibit similar characteristics, with the RDPC seemingly behaving more like a one-party system that is intolerant of opposition than a multi-party system.

‘Election Authoritarianism’

The 1992 Presidential election was a landmark moment in Cameroon’s post-independent history and probably a moment the opposition in Cameroon regrets to ponder on as it was the closest they ever got to unseating Biya who won the election narrowly with about 40% of the vote and opposition leader John Fru Ndi acquiring almost 36% according to the African elections database. The decision to have this election came as a result of popular discontent and the ‘democratic wave’ sweeping the world following the fall of communism in 1989 in what US academic and political commentator Samuel P. Huntington called ‘the third wave’ of democracy. Despite this gesture by Biya to allow for a ‘democratic dispensation’ to materialise in Cameroon, make no mistake that Biya was going to allow it to happen ‘democratically’ as this was further from the truth as I will explain.

The Ministry of Territorial Administration (MINAT) managed the election and evidence of its bias were laid bare, as noted in Yonatan Morse, in his article Electoral authoritarianism and weak states in Africa: The role of parties versus presidents in Tanzania and Cameroon (2017), as the MINAT was under the president’s purview. Officers were appointed by Biya and shockingly opposition parties were prevented from monitoring sub-divisional tallying centers resulting in many seeing these elections as fraudulent. This appears to be the case with subsequent elections in 1997, 2004, 2011 and 2018 where the opposition parties have alleged widespread fraud and with the exception of the 1992 election Biya has attained over 70% of the vote ever since. His rule is set to continue as a controversial amendment to the constitution scrapped the limit to presidential terms in 2008.

This undemocratic approach to elections reveals why Biya has remained in power to date with the recent elections in 2018 merely affirming this as Biya clinched yet another win in ‘authoritarian fashion’ as he has done so since 1992, hence the phrase ‘election authoritarianism’ being a fitting description to this political soap opera which has been well oiled and stage managed. The use of fake election observers or “zombie observers” as it is termed in the 2018 election was one of the most spectacular political circuses I have ever come across as was the case with so called international observers calling the elections “good” during an interview on Cameroon Radio Television and allegedly claimed were representing Transparency International which Transparency International denied according to Foreign Policy. This vividly shows how far Biya will go to stay in power and he has certainly mastered the art of staying in power but for how much longer as the state appears to be in an early phase of disintegration unless urgent democrat reforms are implemented.

This is because  “It is now facing widespread political strife and conflict on another front following the insurgency in the country’s North with Boko Haram, that has taken aim at the country’s very foundation, the combination of French- and English-speaking regions into a single state” according to Foreign Policy. This latest conflict in Cameroon’s anglophone region in the North-West and South-West has escalated into a dangerous separatist movement following protests by lawyers and teachers demanding better provision for the use of English leading Cameroon to be on the brink of a wide-scale civil war. The question that arises here is; does Biya really have the energy to face these crises and with old age creeping up could he eventually be disposed in the same manner as Zimbabwe’s late former President Robert Mugabe (aged 93 at the time) who was forced to resign following a military intervention in November, 2017.

 

‘Absent President’

Paul Biya is seen as having a “hands off” approach to governing Cameroon. This can be attributed to the country’s unusual dual heritage of both British and French colonial rule where the President since 1982 is from the francophone regions, while the Prime Minster is from the anglophone regions and as head of government Biya leaves the Prime Minister to do the job (however Biya who is the Head of State still holds most executive powers), hence Biya’s hands off approach according to a Cameroonian analyst. However, this absence which Cameroonians have become accustomed to has also been attributed to Biya’s poor health as he is almost 90 years old. Biya was largely absent from the campaign trail prior to the country’s 2018 election and made only a few public appearances and left most of the campaign work to his aides. His most recent high-profile absence even caused death rumours forcing the government to issue a denial of it. This is because, like almost every country in the world, Cameroon has also been affected by the recent outbreak of the coronavirus and finally made a televised address to the nation after two months of silence on May 19, 2020 with his previous address to the nation being on March 5, 2020, which is unusually scarce for such a serious situation where many world leaders have been making regular televised addresses, some having them almost daily to reassure their nations which Cameroonians have also come to expect from their leader. Biya is known for been out of his country for long periods of time which solidifies him being called an ‘absent president’.

According to the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) Biya has spent at least four-and-a-half years on his “brief private visits” during the course of his presidency and In some years, like 2006 and 2009, Biya has spent a third of the year out of the country, with his favourite destination apparently being the five-star Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva which has striking views of Lake Geneva and Mont Blanc. The coronavirus pandemic comes at an incredibly difficult time for the country adding to the woes of the already crisis hit nation where strong democrat leadership is needed with a visible president to help guide the country through this challenging period.