Cameroonian President Paul Biya marked 40 years in power on Sunday but stayed out of the spotlight.The 89-year-old, who is the only leader most of the Central African country’s people have ever known came into power in 1982 .
Thousands of his supporters gathered in the capital, Yaounde, to celebrate the anniversary but there were only giant portraits of the absent president.
Paul Biya has not appeared in public since French President Emmanuel Macron visited in July. Photos of Biya receiving various diplomats are regularly posted on the president’s social media accounts.
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.
He survived a 1984 coup attempt.
When the country’s first multi-party election was finally held in 1992, Biya beat his opposition rival by just four percentage points.
Biya has been accused of having majority of appointments being members of his own southern Beti ethnic group, which quickly grew to dominate senior positions.
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.
Leave a Reply