Paul Biya, King In Life Forever

Before the presidential election of 2011, Fanny Pigeaud, then correspondent of the newspaper Libération in Libreville, committed a caustic article exposing the catastrophic governance of Paul Biya and evoking the will of Paul Biya to drag on.

Almost seven years later, this paper remains valid. Meanwhile, she gave a layer by publishing a book in which she decrypts the human regime of November 6, 1982.
In power since 1982, the President of Cameroon was seeking yesterday a sixth term in a ballot without a stake in a country undermined by corruption and locked by repression.

He does not talk much about him. Yet, he is in the pool of presidents who are bogged down in power: Paul Biya, [85], has been the undisputed reign over Cameroon since 1982. Without an end: after changing, in 2008, the Constitution to be able to represent itself, he asked yesterday a new mandate of seven years in a poll to a turn. And no one really doubts the result.

It was not by working hard for his country that this man with the hoarse voice and the now insecure approach managed to stay in power for as long. On the contrary. For thirty years, Cameroon has been retreating, plunged into a deep lethargy, totally out of step with its enormous economic potential.

"There has been no growth in the last five years compared to the number of inhabitants," lamented the International Monetary Fund in early September, citing "under-investment in critical infrastructure" and "bad management of public finances ". 

While his fellow citizens pull the devil by the tail (40% of the population lives on less than $ 2 a day), Biya, nicknamed the "lazy king", stays most of his time in a posh hotel in Geneva or his home village in southern Cameroon. It chairs, on average, a Council of Ministers per year. The last one was held in July 2009.

Manipulator. It is to his manipulative talent that Paul Biya owes his longevity. Following the recipe "divide and conquer", he constantly maintains rivalries and fear within the ruling class, aging like him.

On the same principle, his regime exploited ethnic identities to break the opposition in the 1990s. He also uses justice and force: in February 2008, the police and the army fired live ammunition at young people. protested against his plan for constitutional revision and expensive living. Assessment: officially 40 dead, at least 139 according to NGOs.

The President has also used an original technique: that of maintaining a precarious institutional balance that frightens and paralyzes everyone. For fifteen years, for example, the Senate, which is supposed to play an important role in the event of a power vacuum at the top of the state, exists only on paper.

Another peculiarity: in order to remove them from the political field and to make sure their support, Paul Biya lets, even encourages, ministers and other high officials to use in the coffers of the State and to dip in various mafia traffics. Those who have accumulated too much and begin to have views of the presidential chair are dismissed, invariably charged with "misappropriation of public funds" and incarcerated.

Currently, nine former ministers are in prison. Above all, corruption and cheating, at the heart of the functioning of the state, have won all spheres of society. With repression, they helped to kill the educational system and the opposition, now in tatters, and to rot the political scene, as shown by the abundance of candidates who presented themselves yesterday: they were 22 facing the outgoing president, and none has the capacity to mobilize the crowds and to worry the autocrat.

This total control of Paul Biya would not have been possible without France, which had already, in 1960, installed in power its predecessor, Ahmadou Ahidjo, after a particularly atrocious war. In particular, the French authorities gave crucial help in 1992, during a fiercely disputed presidential election: they openly supported Biya while at the same time the other donors in the country, including the United States, denounced the credibility of the poll.

Paris then gave funding that allowed the regime to regain control of opposition largely overwhelming. Previously, it was Elf who had advanced money to Biya for his election campaign.

Since then, the links between Paris and Yaoundé have remained close: they pass through the many French companies based in Cameroon, which control a good part of its economy, working hand in hand with regime chiefs. Orange, Bolloré, Total, Castel, La Compagnie Fruitière and Hachette are among those who are doing very good business in the country, where corruption makes it possible to transgress the laws and reap huge profits.

Cynicism. Washington has also for some years important commercial interests in the region, the partner countries of Cameroon now have the same line of conduct: do not upset the prince to keep his business. 

The international community thus remained silent during the violent repression of 2008. Better, it gives money to Yaoundé. The European Union finances, for example the electoral body responsible for the implementation of the presidential election, although it is totally subordinated to the party of Biya.

Cameroonians remained lucid, they are tired. They do not take the trouble to vote or raise the cynicism of Biya: during the 2004 election campaign, he promised the construction of infrastructure, speaking of a "Cameroon of great ambitions". 

This time, and since nothing has happened since 2004, he announced on Twitter (service that his regime banned in February because of shy uprising calls that circulated by mail and SMS): "Believe me , our great ambitions will succeed great achievements. "
Fanny Pigeaud, then correspondent of the daily Libération in Libreville