The Africa Report | Paul Biya’s faithful supporters celebrated his 42 years in power in Cameroon this week. An official statement praised both his record and his discreet style of leadership, while also hinting at a potential candidacy for the 2025 presidential election.
With 91 years on this planet, 42 of which have now been spent in Etoudi Palace, the world’s oldest sitting elected leader continues to celebrate the anniversary of the day he took office – on 6 November 1982 – after the resignation of Ahmadou Ahidjo.
Born Paul Barthélemy Biya’a bi Mvondo, Cameroon‘s head of state is both elusive and anything but elusive.
In terms of longevity, he has certainly built a lengthy tenure that almost rivals that of his Equatorial Guinean counterpart, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, whose reign has lasted over 45 years. But unlike Obiang, Paul Biya operates under the radar, like a stealth aircraft, hard to track and difficult to find.
This political trademark may well explain Biya’s long political life. According to an editorial in Cameroon Tribune on 4 November, the “Biya Code” is defined by “absence, distance and silence.” While the lack of images of the president – between the China-Africa summit in early September and 21 October – had sparked much speculation, Paul Biya’s return has been as well publicised as the anniversary of his reign.
A low-profile workaholic?
While international media often refer to the president as the “lazy king”, the deputy secretary of the Rassemblement Démocratique du Peuple Camerounais (RDPC) interviewed this past weekend instead described him as a leader who “works tirelessly for his country” and “knows the issues well”.
It is a narrative that continues to unfold during this anniversary period. A letter from the ruling party praises a “fantastic record” as a guarantee of “stability and progress”; a documentary screened in the provinces is titled “Paul Biya, a great statesman with a remarkable destiny”; and the latest edition of Temps des Opportunités, the magazine published by the presidential civil cabinet, speaks of “intense” diplomatic activity with “Paul Biya as a metronome”.
Even the most robust cannot escape the wear and tear of time, and the burning question is: What happens next? Although the name of his son Franck was at one point circulating as a potential successor to the presidency, the issue remains taboo. Meanwhile the symphony of praise is not without calls urging Biya to run for an eighth term in the 2025 presidential election.
A motion signed by dozens of activists and supporters invites “all Cameroonians, regardless of their political views, to join us in our call for the candidacy of the President of the Republic, Paul Biya.”
When mentioning the President’s 92nd birthday in 2025, the RDPC letter responds that the Cameroonian people are “a people of respect for age and elders” and that they must “continue under the leadership” of the head of state. If he were to stand as a candidate and be re-elected, Paul Biya would be expected to complete his next term in his 100th year.