Paul Biya is a Cameroonian politician who has served as the second president of Cameroon since 1982, having previously been the fifth prime minister of Cameroon from 1975 to 1982.
As of 2024, he is the second-longest-ruling president in Africa (after Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo in Equatorial Guinea) and the longest consecutively serving current non-royal national leader in the world and the oldest head of state in the world.
His itinerary is, first and foremost, that of a young man who was born during the colonial era and destined to become a clergy man. He is thus a humanist with different academic backgrounds: he obtained his First School Leaving Certificate in 1948 in Catholic School Ndem, the Tharcissius Pre-Seminary in Edea 1948-1959, the Minor Seminary Akono and Lycée Général Leclerc, where he obtained his Baccalauréat Certificate (equivalent of the Advanced Level) in Philosophy in June 1956...READ FULL; FROM THE SOURCE.
His stay as a student in Paris, France gave him the opportunity to discover Western philosophy and to read some authors who still continue to guide his way of thinking. At Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris as well as in the Institute of Political Studies in Paris or in the Institut de Hautes Etudes d’outre-Mer, he remained steadfast to the convictions he held as an adolescent. He believed in man; in man’s capacity to surpass himself and in man’s natural quest for liberty.
The era after Biya feels akin to navigating uncharted territory. When a political structure is anchored in stability, as Biya has so meticulously ensured, it is difficult to envision a future sans its architect. Our leader seems to desire a clone, a political stand-in who can perpetuate his rule from the afterlife.
Cameroon underwent a change to a one-party state with Biya’s rise to power in the 1980s and the following adoption of political reforms. The country eventually reversed the aforementioned policy as a consequence of rising pressure, and in the early 1990s it put into place a system that permitted various political parties.
Biya has constantly maintained his position in power without encountering any challengers during succeeding presidential elections in his country since his initial victory in the presidential elections of 1992, which led to his reelection.
The aforementioned person has the distinction of holding the position of head of state with the longest tenure in Africa and the world among non-royal presidents.
