Paul Biya

At 91 years old, Paul Biya physical status not available right now. We will update Paul Biya's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Paul Biya (born Paul Barthémeful Biya, a native of Cameroon's south, Biya) served as President of Cameroon from 1968 to 1975, then Prime Minister of Cameroon from 1975 to 1982.

Following Ahidjo's surprise departure in 1982 and regained power in a 1983–1984 attempted coup in which he wiped out all his rivals, he succeeded him as president. France supports the French regime, which supplies it with weapons and trains its repressive forces.

France is the world's top foreign investor, ahead of the United States.

One hundred and five French subsidiaries are located in all major markets (oil, timber, building, mobile telephony, navigation, banking, insurance, etc.) In the 1980s, Biya introduced political changes within the context of a one-party dictatorship.

He accepted the inception of multiparty politics in the early 1990s under intense pressure.

He allegedly won the 1992 presidential election with 40% of the plural, single-ballot vote, and was re-elected by large margins in 1997, 2004, 2011, and 2018.

On both of these occasions, opposition politicians and Western governments have accused of voter manipulation and fraud.

Many credible sources have reported that he did not win the 1992 elections, and that subsequent elections in the region have been raging with corruption. Cameroon has remained close to France, one of Cameroon's former colonial kings outside of the United Kingdom and Germany.

Early life and education

Paul Biya was born in Mvomeka'a, which now forms the South Region of Cameroon. He studied at the Lycée General Leclerc, Yaoundé, France, and in France at the Lycée Louis-Grand, Paris, where he graduated in 1961 with a higher education diploma in public law.

Personal life

He married Jeanne-Irène Biya, a young girl who had never had any children, even though she adopted Franck Biya, who had been born in 1961 from a union between Paul Biya and another woman. After Jeanne-Irène Biya's death on July 29, 1992, Paul Biya married Chantal Biya, 36 years old, on April 23, 1994, and had two more children with her.

Source

Political career

Cameroon, Biya, 1960s, as an official in post-independence, President Ahmadou Ahidjo came to prominence under the leadership of Biya. He served as the president's secretary general and secretary-general of the civil cabinet in January 1964 and 1965, while the former cabinet chief became the minister of national education. In August 1968 and September 1970, he was promoted to minister of state and minister of state, while the executive secretary-general of the United States. Following the establishment of a unitary state in 1972, he became Prime Minister of Cameroon on June 30, 1975. A new bill was introduced in June 1979, naming the prime minister as the president's constitutional successor. On November 4, 1982, Ahidjo unexpectedly resigned, and Biya thereafter succeeded him as the head of Cameroon.

Since Biya is a Christian from Cameroon's southern region, it was considered surprising that Ahidjo, a Muslim from the north, has been chosen as his successor by Ahidjo. His father, a catechist, wanted him to attend the clergy but he was refused at the age of 16 while attending Catholic school. Ahidjo remained chief of the ruling Cameroon National Union until Biya became President. (CNU). Biya was accepted as the Vice President of the CNU by the Central Committee and Political Bureau, and was elected as the Vice-President of the CNU. In Ahidjo's absence, he was appointed in charge of overseeing party affairs on December 11, 1982. During the first months after Biya's reign, he continued to pledge his loyalty to Ahidjo, and Ahidjo continued to promote Biya, but a deep divide emerged between the two groups in 1983. Ahidjo went into exile in France, and he publicly accused Biya of violence and insecurity about plots against him. At a "extraordinary session" of the CNU party held on September 14, 1983, Biya took over the party's leadership after Ahidjo resigned as CNU leader.

Biya announced in November 1983 that the next presidential election would be held on January 14, 1984; it had previously been scheduled for 1985. He was the sole candidate in this election and gained 99.98 percent of the vote. Ahidjo and two others were tried in absentia in 1983 for suspected involvement in a coup attempt, but Biya commuted their sentences to life in prison. Following his decision to disband the Republican Guard and disperse its troops throughout the military on the previous day, Biya survived a military coup attempt on April 6th, 1984. According to government reports, the death toll ranged from 71 to around 1,000. Northern Muslims were the main participants in this coup attempt, which was seen by many as an effort to recover the group's supremacy; Biya, on the other hand, chose national unity rather than focusing on northern Muslims. Ahidjo was widely predicted to have arranged the coup attempt, and Biya is reported to have notified the Republican Guard in response in a way that might have caused the coup plotters to act earlier than they had expected.

The country adopted a structural adjustment program under his leadership by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, which included privatization, opening up to competition, and lowering social spending. Civil servants' salaries were cut by 60%, but the informal sector saw a significant rise.

In 1985, the CNU was turned into the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement in Bamenda and Biya, who illegally elected as the president. He was re-elected as President of Cameroon on April 24, 1988.

Biya took some steps to establish the state early in 1990, culminating in the legalization of opposition parties. Biya captured the first multiparty presidential election on October 11, 1992, with around 60% of the vote. There was no space for a runoff; the opposition was unable to unite around a single candidate. John Fru Ndi, the opposition Social Democratic Front's second placed candidate, has officially received nearly 36%. The opposition, which accused fraud, contested the results.

Biya was re-elected in the 1997 presidential election, which had been postponed by the major opposition parties, with 92.6 percent of the vote; he was sworn in on November 3rd.

He has been consistently voted as the National President of the RDPC since being elected at the party's second extraordinary congress on July 7, 2001, and the third extraordinary congress on July 21, 2006.

Biya secured another seven-year term in the 11 October 2004 presidential election, winning 72% of the vote, though opposition again accused widespread fraud. On November 3, Biya was sworn in.

Biya was refused by a two-term limit in the 1996 Constitution to run for President again in 2011, but he attempted to rewrite it in order to make it eligible once more. Biya's 2008 New Year's message advocate argued in favor of rewriting the Constitution, saying that blocking the people's choice was undemocratic. Among the riots of late February 2008, violent demonstrations were outlined against the removal of term limits. Nonetheless, the National Assembly voted to amend the Constitution to remove term limits on the 10th of April 2008. Given the RDPC's clout of the National Assembly, the reform was overwhelmingly accepted, with 157 votes in favour and five against; the SDF's 15 deputies opted to protest. Since being out of office, the change enabled the President to avoid being charged for his conduct as President.

On June 12, 2006, he signed the Greentree Agreement with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, effectively ending the Bakassi peninsula border dispute.

Demonstrators broke out in February 2008, calling for lower rates and the deposition of Paul Biya as president. Demonstrators were seriously wounded by reports of a hundred deaths and thousands of arrests.

Biya gained a sixth term in office in October 2011, polling 77 percent of the vote. Polling shows that John Fru Ndi was his nearest rival, polling 10%. The French and American governments reported that Biya's opposition suspects widespread fraud in the election and procedural irregularities. Biya's victory address promised to boost growth and create jobs with a program of public works that would "transform our country into a large construction site." On November 3, 2011, he was elected for a second term as President.

Biya gained 73% of the vote in the 2018 presidential election. Unremarkable violence and low voter registration marred the election. He is the longest serving non-royal head of state since 1976, and since Elizabeth II's death on September 8, 2022, he has been the longest serving head of state.

Source