Making of a Right Royal President:

Paul Biya - 35 years on and favorite for 2018

Cameroonians at home and in the diaspora will Monday 6 November 2017 join CPDM supporters in celebrating 35 years of Paul Biya’s ascension to Etoudi as President of Cameroon

By Ojong Steven Ayukogem in Yaounde

Paul Biya is the only hope for the future of Cameroon! At least this is what Jean Kuete, Secretary General of the Central Committee of the ruling CPDM party wants Cameroonians to believe, and this is what he exhorts CPDM supporters and Cameroonians in general to bear in mind as they take to the ceremonial grounds on Monday, 6 November 2017, to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the New Deal regime and its natural leader, Paul Barthelemy Biya bi Mvondo.

            Paul Biya, 84, was handed power on a platter of Gold, on 6 November 1982, by former president Ahmadou Ahidjo, after the latter resigned from office. Biya was the Prime Minister and constitutional successor at the time. He was 49 years then (born on 13 February 1933 in Mvomeka, near Sangmelima in the South region).

            “Cameroonians, Cameroonians, my fellow countrymen, I have decided to resign from my functions as president of the United Republic of Cameroon. This decision will take effect on Saturday 6 November 1982 at 10 a.m……I call on Cameroonians to give your full-hearted support to my constitutional successor, Paul Biya. He merits the confidence of all, both at home and abroad,” said Ahidjo in his resignation speech that was read on national radio shortly after 7 pm on Thursday 4 November 1982.

            When Biya grabbed power in 1982 he had served as Prime Minister for seven years, and this was not before he occupied successively the posts of Minister of Special Duties at the Presidency, Director of Cabinet of the Presidency cumulatively as Secretary General of the Presidency among others.

            A former junior seminarian and an alumnus of the Lycee General Leclerc in Yaounde, Biya picked a Bachelor’s degree and a post-graduate diploma (DEA) in public law from the prestigious University of Paris, Sorbonne, France. He also took a graduate diploma in political studies at the Ecole d’Outre Mer in Paris, France.  

            Armed with these qualifications, Biya returned home in 1962 (shortly after the Foumban Conference) and immediately integrated the civil service as Charge de Mission at the Presidency and later as Director of Cabinet at the Ministry of National Education (under the late William Aurelien Eteki Mboumua as his boss). He would later become Secretary General of the Ministry of Education before Ahidjo called him back at the Presidency and made him his director of Cabinet.

            It is worthy to note that Biya became President and Head of State of Cameroon exactly 20 years after joining the civil service in 1962. He spent the better part of these years in the most exalted positions