Thirty years of Paul Biya

Background to the story

President Paul Biya of Cameroon acceded to the covetous position in November 1982, after his predecessor who was Cameroon's first President, Ahmadou Ahidjo amended the constitution in Biya's favour, stepped down and named him his "constitutional successor". Come November of this year, 2015, Paul Biya will be in power for thirty three years.

Yet - barring the unforeseen - he is likely to stay longer, for at least three more years up till 2018 if he has to finish his current seven-year mandate. This year, he is aged 82.

The article below is my assessment of his thirty years in power when he hit that mark three years ago in 2012. The article was first broadcast on Foundation Radio (The Voice of the Voiceless) in Mile 6, Ngomgham-Mankon, in Cameroon`s North West Region where I served as Station Manager. The Radio is part of the Fomunyoh Foundation whose Founder and CEO is the Washington-based Dr. Chris Fomunyoh.

A record in both time and space

Obviously, by any reckoning, thirty years is a long time, especially in politics. The best way of putting things in perspective is by visualizing the outlook of a Cameroonian child born at the time the president acceded to the helm of affairs of the Cameroonian nation. Under normal circumstances, at thirty, one is an active adult, either in academics or in employment, unless of course, there is no job as is the case with many Cameroonians nowadays.

The president's political children

Those born at the time Paul Biya became president can be called Cameroonians of the Biya generation. Such Cameroonians have the advantage or the disadvantage of having known only one president: Paul Biya. The country’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, had handed over to Paul Biya, his "constitutional successor", before these new generation Cameroonians were born. To such Cameroonians, Ahidjo’s administrative style of austerity and ruthlessness is therefore totally unknown.

So too are the long years of the bitter and bloody guerrilla warfare that pitted the French-backed Ahidjo regime against the self-proclaimed patriots of the UPC who swore they would topple Ahidjo and the French and steer the country in the right direction.

It is a political paradox that whereas such battles for freedom succeeded in other countries such as Kenya, Algeria and Guinea Bissau, they failed woefully in Cameroon with Ahidjo gaining the upper hand. Again, to people of the Biya generation, the Southern Cameroons option for righting the wrongs done against the country's Anglophone population can be so distant from them that they really can only vouch for it out of sympathy rather than any real political commitment.

God's anointed leader?

Whether we like it or not, history will retain that angel or demon, Paul Biya has ruled us for thirty uninterrupted years, and continues to do so. This is happening in spite of the multiple strategies of the opposition parties and those who simply do no want him, aimed at thwarting him and snuffing him out ; the numerous prayers said by clerics here and there ; the insults and curses hurled by individuals, including those in the Diaspora (oui, on vous connait !); the portrayal of Biya as a Dracula with blood dripping from his eyes, mouth and nostrils ; the blunt repudiations of foreign powers and their later recapitulations, as well as the public marches by the women of the Tekumbeng secret society in Bamenda.

From that point of view, one can wonder whether if so many people have wished Biya away and he still survives and gets on with it, there is not somewhere here a suggestion of the last words of William Tolbert of Liberia when he realized that rebel troops were shooting their way into the presidential palace and exclaimed to his wife who was holed up there with him: "I see the hand of God in this!"

In fact, Fru Ferdinand, a Cameroonian patriarch who has elected residence in the United Kingdom, once described Paul Biya as "the most insulted president in the world". This was when Fru was Section President of the CPDM (Biya’s political party) in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Whatever is the case, after such a long period with one and the same person, one does end up by having the odd feeling that familiarity can indeed breed contempt.

Mixed blessings for the president

In the thirty years of reign, Biya has achieved a number of things among which are liberalization of the political and media landscapes, an expansion in the number of health units and educational establishments, and the opening up of Cameroon to the world.

The only problem with the widening of the political landscape is that in the process, too many political parties have been created, to the extent of making a mockery of multiparty politics. Biya’s critics accuse him of setting up bogus parties in order to « confuse » the opposition. But his supporters argue that once a bona fide Cameroonian meets the conditions laid down for forming a party, not giving him or her that chance is tantamount to robbing him or her of inalienable democratic rights. Apart from the above, the country is faced with problems in the areas of governance, credibility, employment and even the economy, as we all know.

Background to the anniversary celebration

It was against this backdrop that members of the CPDM party recently took the country by storm to mark the president’s thirty years in power. On that point, it must be said that the fiesta remained a purely CPDM affair, although it is doubtful that if opposition parties were invited as such, they would have flocked to it.

Even so, one wonders whether as these many people, outmatching each other as they wore CPDM party regalia and shouted "total and unconditional support" for Biya, really gave thought to what exactly they were doing. Firstly, those of them who are civil servants abandoned work to sing the praises of an anniversary which strictly speaking was a private rather than a national event.

As a result, many workplaces were deserted, abandoned and users were left to their own devices. Surely, when statisticians and economists sit down to calculate the cost to the nation, it will be realized that it is colossal. Was that really necessary ?

Being more Bonapartist than Napoleon,

And, by the way, what kind of feast was this that the person who was supposed to be the main character instead kept a low profile and said practically nothing about it whereas it was others who trumpeted it from the roof tops ? In fact, some CPDM party members, as usual, used the opportunity to flex their muscles, outmatching and outnumbering their counterparts from the same constituencies, all in a bid to show the president that they were more Biya than the next person. Is that what our country needs ?

Taxpayers' money down the drain

By the way, how was the jamboree funded and how was it carried out ? Huge sums of money were obviously used with officials traveling to their home bases to celebrate. It does not matter whether the money came from the party headquarters or from the local organs of the party or from generous donations from all and sundry. Numerous rallies were held where "total and unconditional support" was declared for Paul Biya. Solidarity marches took place, with those who did not participate being seen as black legs. Motions of support, sometimes drafted well in advance, were addressed to the president. But is that what Cameroonians want?

A two-tier system

In many cases, the political speeches and resolutions culminated in a reception (the famous Item 11) – strictly on invitation, of course. In a way, such a move is regrettable because it is exclusive, divisive, discriminatory and elitist. And so anyone who turned up uninvited was unceremoniously turned away. Thus, the poor man in the street, the peasant farmer in the deprived rural areas of the country, watched from an uncomfortably long distance, how the big guns were popping champagne (a very expensive kind of imported wine) and swallowing large chunks of meat. Is that how we want other compatriots of this same country to feel ?

Where the CPDM missed the point

In my opinion, the CPDM party should have used this event to take stock of the much vaunted thirty years.The party ought to have used the occasion to put the common man – the man in the street – the rural man, the silent majority of Cameroon, center-stage instead of relegating him to the background.

The key question the CPDM – the party of the majority, the ruling party – should have asked on this day was : "after thirty years in power, where do the Cameroonian people stand and how are they fairing?" As it were, the party missed the point, and so "betrayed" the very people to whom they would soon come running, in order to obtain votes for the forthcoming municipal and legislative elections. The CPDM barked up the wrong tree, and by so doing, it shot itself in the foot and sold itself short. Is that what a country’s ruling party should do ?

So, who picks up the pieces?

Humpty Dumpty has fallen and the pieces must be picked up. So who will do the dirty job ? And even if the pieces are picked up, who will put them back together ? In other words, now that the party is over and the deck is being cleared, what do those who went out to celebrate have to show the Cameroonian people now that all has been said and done? When they were feasting privately, what did they offer the common man ? What did they even bring from Yaounde, the national capital, for the down and out ? Did they support any community project such as a health unit , a bridge, potable water, a community hall, a village library or scholarships for deserving pupils or students ? If not, then what was the point of spending all that money ?

The Cameroonian people as the ultimate arbiter

A world statesman once said you can fool some of the people some of the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time. The first thing those who led teams to their home bases to celebrate but ignored was that when eventually they lose their present top jobs, they will come back to be with the very common man they had treated with disdain. So it is good to be nice to those you meet on your way up because they are the same ones you will meet on your way down.

What next for the CPDM?

However, it is not too late for the ruling party to save face. It must now pause, literally look at itself in the mirror and confess that this time around, at least, it got it wrong, and next time, it will do better. The party failed its people. The CPDM has failed to prove to Cameroonians that it is, like one of its top barons once claimed, "the way, the life and the truth"; unless, of course, such proclamations were merely election sloganeering and political rhetoric.