Paul Biya
Paul Barthélemy Biya is a Cameroonian politician who has been serving as the second president of Cameroon since 1982. He was previously the fifth prime minister under President Ahmadou Ahidjo from 1975 to 1982., he is the second-longest-ruling president in Africa and the longest consecutively serving current non-royal national leader in the world; at the age of, he is also the oldest current head of state in the world.
A native of Cameroon’s south, Biya rose rapidly as a bureaucrat under President Ahmadou Ahidjo in the 1960s, as Secretary-General of the Presidency from 1968 to 1975 and then as prime minister. He succeeded Ahidjo as president upon the latter's surprise resignation in 1982 and consolidated power in a 1983–1984 staged attempted coup in which he eliminated all of his major rivals.
Biya introduced political reforms within the context of a one-party system in the 1980s, later accepting the introduction of multiparty politics in the early 1990s under serious pressure. He nevertheless leads an authoritarian regime in Cameroon. He won the contentious 1992 presidential election with 40% of the plurality, single-ballot vote and was re-elected by large margins in 1997, 2004, 2011, 2018, and 2025. Opposition politicians and Western governments have alleged voting irregularities and fraud on each of these occasions. It is widely believed that the 1992 election was manipulated in his favor, and domestic and international observers have documented evidence of systemic electoral fraud in parliamentary and presidential elections under his administration.
Early life and education
Ethnically Beti, Paul Biya was born in the village of Mvomeka'a in what is now the South Region of Cameroon. He studied at the Lycée General Leclerc, Yaoundé, and in France at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, Paris, going on to the Institut des hautes études d'Outre-Mer, where he graduated in 1961 with a higher education diploma in public law.Early career
As a Chargé de Mission in post-independence 1960s Cameroon, Biya rose to prominence under President Ahmadou Ahidjo. After becoming director of the Cabinet of the minister of national education in January 1964 and secretary-general of the ministry of national education in July 1965, he was named director of the civil cabinet of the president in December 1967 and secretary-general of the presidency in January 1968. He gained the rank of minister in August 1968 and the rank of minister of state in June 1970, while remaining secretary-general of the presidency.Leadership (1975–present)
Premiership (1975–1982)
Following the creation of a unitary state in 1972, Biya was appointed prime minister by President Ahidjo on 30 June 1975. Because Biya is a Catholic from the southern region of Cameroon, it was considered surprising that he was chosen by Ahidjo, a Muslim from the north, as his successor. Biya's father, who was a catechist, wanted him to join the clergy, but at the age of 16 he was expelled from Catholic school.In June 1979, a new law designated the prime minister as the president's constitutional successor, which entailed Biya as the legal successor to Ahidjo should the presidency become vacant intra-term. Ahidjo announced his resignation on 4 November 1982 and Biya became president two days later on 6 November.
Presidency (1982–present)
After Biya became president, Ahidjo initially remained head of the ruling Cameroon National Union. Biya was brought into the CNU Central Committee and Political Bureau and was elected as the vice-president of the CNU. On 11 December 1982, he was placed in charge of managing party affairs in Ahidjo's absence.During the first months after Biya's succession, he continued to show loyalty to Ahidjo, and Ahidjo continued to show support for Biya, but in 1983, a deep rift developed between the two. Ahidjo went into exile in France, and from there, he publicly accused Biya of abuse of power and paranoia about plots against him. After Ahidjo resigned as CNU leader, Biya took the helm of the party at an "extraordinary session" of the CNU party held on 14 September 1983.
In November 1983, Biya announced that the next presidential election would be held on 14 January 1984; it had been previously scheduled for 1985. He was the sole candidate in this election and won 99.98% of the vote. In February 1984, Ahidjo was put on trial in absentia for alleged involvement in a 1983 coup plot, along with two others; they were sentenced to death, although Biya commuted their sentences to life in prison. Biya survived a military coup attempt on 6 April 1984, following his decision on the previous day to disband the Republican Guard and disperse its members across the military. Estimates of the death toll ranged from 71 to about 1,000. Northern Muslims were the primary participants in this coup attempt, which was seen by many as an attempt to restore that group's supremacy. Biya, however, chose to emphasize national unity and did not focus blame on northern Muslims. Ahidjo was widely believed to have orchestrated the coup attempt, and Biya is thought to have learned of the plot in advance and to have disbanded the Republican Guard in response, forcing the coup plotters to act earlier than they had planned, which may have been a crucial factor in the coup's failure.Under his rule, the country adopted a structural adjustment plan submitted to it by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which involved privatization, opening up to competition, and reducing social spending. Civil servants' salaries were reduced by 60%, and the informal sector increased very significantly.
In 1985, the CNU was transformed into the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement, in Bamenda and Biya was unlawfully elected as its president. He was also re-elected as President of Cameroon on 24 April 1988.
Biya initially took some steps to open up the regime, culminating in the decision to legalize opposition parties in 1990. According to official results, Biya won the first multiparty presidential election, held on 11 October 1992, with about 40% of the vote. There was no provision for a runoff; the opposition was unable to unite around a single candidate. The second placed candidate, John Fru Ndi of the opposition Social Democratic Front, officially received about 36%. The results were strongly disputed by the opposition, which alleged fraud.File:Paul biya and colin powell.jpg|thumb|Biya and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in September 2002|left
In the October 1997 presidential election, which was boycotted by the main opposition parties, Biya was re-elected with 92.6 percent of the vote; he was sworn in on 3 November.
He has been consistently re-elected as the National President of the RDPC; he was re-elected at the party's second extraordinary congress on 7 July 2001 and its third extraordinary congress on 21 July 2006.
Biya won another seven-year term in the 11 October 2004 presidential election, officially taking 70.92 percent of the vote, although the opposition again alleged widespread fraud. Biya was sworn in on 3 November.
After being re-elected in 2004, Biya was barred by a two-term limit in the 1996 Constitution from running for president again in 2011; however, he sought to revise this, to allow him to run again. In his 2008 New Year's message, Biya expressed support for revising the Constitution, saying that it was undemocratic to limit the people's choice. The proposed removal of term limits was among the grievances expressed during violent protests in late February 2008. Nevertheless, on 10 April 2008, the National Assembly voted to change the Constitution to remove term limits. Given the RDPC's control of the National Assembly, the change was overwhelmingly approved, with 157 votes in favor and five opposed; the 15 deputies of the SDF chose to boycott the vote in protest. The change also provided for the President to enjoy immunity from prosecution for his actions as president after leaving office.
On 12 June 2006, he signed the Greentree Agreement with Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo which formally put an end to the Bakassi peninsula border dispute.
In February 2008, riots broke out, calling for lower prices and the departure of Paul Biya as president. The demonstrators were severely repressed with reports of a hundred dead and thousands of arrests.
In the October 2011 presidential election, Biya secured a sixth term in office, polling 77.9% of votes cast. John Fru Ndi was his nearest rival, polling 10%. Biya's opponents alleged wide-scale fraud in the election and procedural irregularities were noted by the French and US governments. In his victory speech, Biya promised to stimulate growth and create jobs with a programme of public works which would "transform our country into a vast construction site". On 3 November 2011, he was sworn in for another term as president.
Biya won the 2018 presidential election with 71.3% of the vote. The election was marred by violence and low voter turnout.
In July 2025, Biya filed his candidacy for an eighth term in the 2025 Cameroonian presidential election scheduled in October. On 27 October, the Constitutional Council announced that Biya was re-elected for an 8th consecutive term. In the aftermath of the election, a series of protests broke out after allegations of electoral fraud were made by the opposition. Biya was inaugurated for his eighth term on 6 November as protests continued. Biya's opponent in the election, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, had fled the country to Gambia right after his inauguration amid threats from his government.