Paul Biya, the founder of La Republique du Cameroun from the defunct United Republic of Cameroon has set many cruel precedents in Yaoundé. Many of his fake rigour and moralization teachings are still being carried out today and according to one prominent Cameroonian academic, staying faithful to Paul Biya’s ruling party have been the litmus test for all political activity in Cameroon in the last 41 years.

Therefore, as Biya is painfully approaching a disgraceful end after stifling the United Republic of Cameroon, we of both the Cameroon Concord News and the Cameroon Intelligence Report have come to the conclusion that 41 years of death, destruction, and corruption are his legacy.

Paul Biya was born in Mvomeka’a some few kilometers from Yaoundé the nation’s capital and was known as a religious man before November 6, 1982 when he took office. This was at the time when most Cameroonians had a deep respect for Roman Catholic clerics and Roman Catholic institutions.

After the 1986 April 6 coup that was carried out by the Hausas of the Nord who are predominantly Muslims, Biya and millions of other Cameroonians viewed this as an attack on Christianity and on a Christian leader. After the coup, hundreds of Hausa army soldiers were killed.

But the evilest precedent set by Biya was the destruction of the United Republic of Cameroon and the chasing away of Dr John Ngu Foncha and S.T. Muna from Yaoundé. This was to place the country under the guardianship of the Francophone political elite and the Francophone military commanders. And of course, Paul Biya installed himself as the all-powerful Monarch of Cameroon.

When he took power from Ahmadou Ahidjo, Biya expressed support for human rights and patriotism.

“I was born a Cameroonian, I live a Cameroonian and I shall die a Cameroonian,” he said.

Biya won the support of the masses both in French and Southern Cameroons who were disenchanted with the Ahmadou Ahidjo regime by promising them a popularly elected government that would represent the people of English and French Cameroun.

He won the support of Anglophones in the North West region and opined that outside Yaoundé, Bamenda was his second home. He created his ruling CPDM party in Bamenda, staged his Agro-Pastoral Show again in Bamenda and was rewarded with the title of Fon of Fons. These were all calculated political schemes aimed at fanning the flames of the North West/South West Divide and skillfully stealing the leadership of the nation from the founding fathers of the KNDP. Joseph Owona who is presently in Hell was his operations manager.

So, once in power, he showed his true colors as the Fon of Fons. He took a firm line against Anglophone dissent, warning Southern Cameroonians of his theocracy of a forthcoming crackdown.

Biya rose to power on an anti-French platform that was put in place by President Ahidjo but used the 1986 coup to chase away all anti French sentiments deep within the government. Many believe the real reasons behind the 1986 coup was to strengthen Paul Biya’s hand in power to suppress the voices of Anglophone dissent as he and his Francophone political elites geared to start a systematic policy of marginalization and suppression.

The first victim of the coup was Prime Minister Bello Bouba Maigari. He resigned his position as prime minister in protest to the killing of hundreds of Hausa service men and as an acknowledgement that he no longer had the trust of the head of state.

Economically, the total disregard for the livelihood conditions of Cameroonians is one of Paul Biya’s many destructive legacies, and after 41 years, he has left more than 80% of Cameroonians in poverty.

After the so-called wind of change and the emergence of Ni John Fru Ndi, dissident groups were allowed to freely voice their opinion for some few years. After that, Biya indicated that he had zero tolerance for anyone who opposed his despotic rule.

In 1990, he targeted the city of Bamenda as the epicenter of opposition to his rule and carried out what was known as a “State of Emergence”. Under his orders, the regime initially placed the SDF Chairman Ni John Fru Ndi and his top aides under house arrest and banned public rallies in Anglophone Cameroon. Today, political meetings are still under the tight control of the regime.

Biya and his gang speak democracy but whoever adds democracy to La Republique du Cameroun’s political vocabulary is an enemy. To Biya, all those advocating for a Sovereign National Conference are citizens who are trying to bring corruption and destruction to the nation and should be oppressed.

Biya has broken the pens of all the patriotic news papers, closed down all the patriotic magazines and press and put their editors in jail. No one outside his Beti-Bulu tribal extraction is allowed to even state their existence. For 41 years, Cameroon under Biya is indeed a one party state.  

With support from successive French governments in Paris, Biya is not afraid of anything! At 91, he is going forward in his path and not bothered whether Cameroonians call him a dictator or say that he opposes freedom. And that is exactly what he is doing.

Feeling threatened by Anglophone dissent against his absolute rule, Biya has executed several of his jailed political opponents including supporters of the Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces.

Francophone military leaders who are making the decisions on the war in Southern Cameroons do not hesitate, nor show any doubt or be concerned with details. They always try to be most ferocious against the people of English speaking Cameroon. And with this, in less than seven years, around 20,000 English speaking Southern Cameroonians have been killed. A sea of prominent progressive Francophone political prisoners and opponents of the regime are still hanged in Yaoundé and Douala prisons.

Shortly after assuming power, Biya began investing in the Sub Saharan region using corrupt made in Yaoundé business tycoons such James Onobiono, Amougou Belinga and Engo Desire who headed the National Social Insurance Fund. Biya wanted to expand his control into Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Central African Republic and Congo-Brazzaville due to it’s largely Beti, Bulu and Fang population.

To this day, Biya spends billions of FCFA on his policy of meddling in neighboring countries and in French politics as well. This CEMAC policy brings nothing but death, destruction, and poverty to the Cameroonian people.

Biya is now calling the war in Southern Cameroons a blessing from his ancestors for the mere fact that nearly all French speaking Cameroonians have rallied behind him on lame and ridiculous reason that he is preserving the territorial integrity of the nation.

The 7 year war has devastated more than 105 Southern Cameroons villages, demolished several Southern Cameroons towns with 1.5 million displaced people.

The Captain Guerandi affair openly and officially revealed that Biya and his agents have showed his utter disregard for all international laws.

Biya will die soonest and many ordinary Cameroonians both in La Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons will rejoiced upon his death.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai