IBADAN, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) –Supporters of Africa’s second-longest serving president Paul Biya, are holding events this week to mark the Cameroonian leader’s 40 years in power.
Biya, who has been Cameroon’s president since 1982, is rarely seen in public these days.
On Thursday, 3 November, 2022, Voice Of America reported that the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) dispatched party officials to towns and villages to organise conferences and mobilise more support for Mr Biya.
In February, Cameroon threw birthday celebrations across the country for Mr Biya, who turned 89, making him Africa’s oldest and second longest-serving leader after Teodoro Obiang Nguema, of Equatorial Guinea who has been in power since 1979.
These celebrations were held in absentia as Mr Biya resides in Switzerland.
Mr Biya became president in 1982, taking over from Cameroon’s first president, Ahmadou Ahijo.
Mr Biya had previously served as prime minister since 1975.
Since 1992, he has won all multiparty elections despite accusations of heavy election rigging from opposition parties.
In 2007, Mr Biya announced his intent to eliminate the two-term limit.
In February 2008, protests were held against his decision, and hundreds of protesters were killed, and thousands were arrested.
In 2008, the constitutional revision was voted on by the National Assembly, and in 2011, Mr Biya was reelected with 78 per cent of the vote.
Supporters of Cameroon’s ruling party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM, sang that Biya can still rule the central African state for another seven-year term, starting in 2025.
Biya was declared the winner of the country’s 2018 election garnering over 80% of the votes.
In 2021, Biya’s opponents said renewed calls for the octogenarian to run for president in 2025 cannot be taken seriously.
Christopher Ndong, secretary general of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement — a party that claims its candidate, Maurice Kamto, won the 2018 election and that Biya stole his victory — Ndong says an invitation for Biya to be a candidate in 2025 means the CPDM wants the octogenarian to die in office.
“It is a slap in the face of Cameroonians and democracy in this country. Given his age, what will he do with power? Right now, he is not active. Honestly, this is a provocation of the first order. Look at the chaos all over the place. The country is in debts. In fact, it shows you that there is nobody at the head. That 2025 call should not be taken seriously because we know the state and health of the head of state cannot permit him to rule this country in 2025,” Ndong said.
Ngole Ngole Elvis, head of the CPDM party academy and Biya’s close aide, says calls for Biya to run are democratic. He says instead of complaining that Biya has been in power for long, the opposition should prepare to democratically vote for who they think should be their president in 2025.
“Wait for the next election and make sure that you prepare for it in such a way that with your freedom, you should have put in place the right campaign strategies, the right campaign messages, the right manifestos, the right candidates,” Elvis said.