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Paul Biya: From French Mole to Africa’s Oldest Dictator, and France’s Choice for Cameroun’s 2025 Presidential Elections.
Paul Biya humbly shakes hands with his boss
By Mankah Rosa Parks, Senior Investigative Correspondent.
The Making of a Tyrant: From Clerk to Commander.
Paul Barthélemy Biya’a bi Mvondo was not born into the rough-and-tumble world of grassroots Cameroonian politics. His rise to power wasn’t the story of a national hero, a freedom fighter, or even a reformist. It is, instead, the tale of a shadowy climb through betrayal, manipulation, and allegiance to colonial masters—one of the most cynical political stories in post-independence Africa.
Born in 1933 in Mvomeka’a, a small village in the South Region of La République du Cameroun, Biya was a devout Catholic and diligent student. France quickly noticed. At a time when the Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC) was fiercely resisting colonial rule, young Paul was quietly handpicked and flown to France—not to liberate his people, but to serve the colonial project from within. While Ruben Um Nyobé, Félix-Roland Moumié, and other nationalists were hunted and assassinated, Paul Biya was being polished in elite institutions.
The French Plant in UPC Ranks
Though never an active member of the UPC, Biya was planted within the UPC’s intellectual orbit to serve as a listening post. His real loyalties lay elsewhere. Declassified French intelligence documents and oral testimonies from surviving UPC members suggest Biya played a subtle but effective role in undermining the UPC from within. When Ruben Um Nyobé was assassinated in 1958 and Moumié was poisoned in Geneva in 1960, Biya was already grooming himself as a safe “moderate” alternative for France’s post-colonial strategy.
Enter Ahmadou Ahidjo: The Beti-Bulu Bet.
President Ahmadou Ahidjo, La République du Cameroun’s first post-independence ruler and a northerner of Fulani descent, initially viewed Biya as a harmless technocrat. Biya was appointed Director of the Civil Cabinet in 1968, then Secretary-General at the Presidency, before becoming Prime Minister in 1975. These rapid promotions were not due to charisma or political genius—but loyalty to Ahidjo and France.
Behind Ahidjo’s back, Biya nurtured a parallel network of French intelligence operatives and domestic loyalists within the Beti-Bulu elite. He cultivated an image of the quiet administrator while slowly centralizing power. In 1982, when Ahidjo resigned, he named Biya as successor—likely believing he could remain the power behind the scenes. But Ahidjo had underestimated his protégé.
Betrayal and Purge: The 1984 Bloodbath.
In April 1984, Ahidjo loyalists—mostly from the Presidential Guard—attempted a coup. Biya crushed it brutally. Thousands of soldiers, officers, and civilians from the north were arrested, executed, or disappeared. The “Biya Purge” became a turning point. He dismantled Ahidjo’s political machinery, eliminated his rivals, and rewrote history. Even Ahidjo himself was exiled, condemned in absentia, and died mysteriously in Senegal in 1989.
From then on, Biya became the sole architect of La République du Cameroun’s political destiny. A master of divide-and-rule, he exploited ethnic divisions, built a loyalist Beti-Bulu security cabal, and ruled with an iron grip wrapped in velvet French gloves.
Dark Secrets: Eliminating Threats from Within.
Biya’s political path is littered with bodies—figuratively and sometimes literally. Key political figures and potential rivals met untimely ends or were neutralized:
Ayissi Mvondo, once a close relative and contender within the Beti-Bulu power structure, died under circumstances insiders still describe as suspicious.
Christian Cardinal Tumi, the fearless Catholic prelate who consistently called for reform and Anglophone dialogue, was repeatedly harassed and threatened.
André-Marie Mbida, the first Cameroonian Prime Minister and nationalist rival to Ahidjo, was marginalized and died in political obscurity.
Marafa Hamidou Yaya, Biya’s once-trusted minister, was jailed after expressing presidential ambitions.
Guérandi Mbara, former military officer and potential coup leader, vanished without a trace after 1984.
Biya has relied on a toxic mix of patronage, paranoia, and performance. His private militia, the DGRE (General Directorate of External Research), operates as an intelligence service and secret police, eliminating threats before they surface.
Staying in Power: The France Connection.
Biya’s continued grip on power for over four decades isn’t solely due to domestic suppression—it’s also the reward of international complicity. France, the European Union, and even successive U.S. administrations have supported Biya as a “stable ally” despite his abysmal human rights record.
La République du Cameroun’s oil reserves in the Bakassi region, the Chad-Cameroon pipeline, and France’s uranium interests make Biya indispensable. In exchange, Paris shields him diplomatically and props up his regime economically.
The Price: A Nation in Ruins.
Under Biya, La République du Cameroun has descended into economic stagnation, rampant corruption, and civil war. His refusal to acknowledge the legitimate demands of the Anglophone population has plunged the country into a bloody conflict. Over 6,000 civilians have died, hundreds of villages torched, and over a million people displaced.
Biya rarely appears in public, often ruling from Geneva’s InterContinental Hotel while Cameroonians suffer at home. His recent electoral “victories” have been widely condemned as fraudulent. Yet, he remains in power, a symbol of postcolonial betrayal.
Final Word: A Warning from History.
Paul Biya did not emerge as a leader of the people—but as an informant-turned-president, a man of the shadows. His career has been built on betrayal: of the UPC, of Ahidjo, of his own people. He outlived every rival, buried every hope of democracy, and turned La République du Cameroun into a theatre of fear.
At 93 years old, suffering from dementia, reportedly urinating on himself during long meetings, and often failing to recognize his own ministers, Paul Biya is a walking metaphor for the decay of postcolonial African leadership. And yet—he remains France’s preferred candidate for President in 2025. The symbolism is grotesque: a frail, absent-minded relic held up by Paris as the face of “stability.” A living insult to the intelligence of African peoples and a mockery of democratic sovereignty.
France is not giving up—not until Biya dies in the flesh, even if his mind and morality have long been entombed. This is not just the tragedy of La République du Cameroun. It is a wider African humiliation. A bitter reminder that independence without self-determination is an illusion, and freedom without the courage to claim it is slavery by another name.
And as Biya physically fades, his replicas multiply—Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, the Muna dynasty, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Maurice Kamto, and other polished elites are all auditioning to be better-packaged versions of Biya. They are not agents of change—they are caretakers of continuity, vying to inherit the same broken system. They mimic his playbook: speak in calm tones, bow to French interests, silence dissent, and market themselves as “modernizers” while clinging to centralised authoritarianism. They are not breaking the cycle—they are extending it. They are not successors—they are software updates of the same virus.
History may yet hold Biya to account. But unless the people hold his imitators to account as well, the betrayal will continue long after the old dictator is gone.
Mankah Rosa Parks
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