In April 1984, the streets of Yaoundé were transformed into a theater of war. Tanks rolled past the Unity Palace, and the Republican Guard—an elite unit intended to protect the presidency—turned its guns on the state. It was a bloody coup attempt that left over 1,000 people dead and President Paul Biya huddled in a bunker, his life and his young presidency hanging by a thread.
But Biya survived. That moment of extreme vulnerability became the catalyst for one of the most enduring and sophisticated autocracies in modern history. As of 2026, the 92-year-old leader has ruled Cameroon for over 42 years, transforming a once-promising federation into a centralized state held together by patronage, strategic absence, and a masterclass in “constitutional engineering.”
The Roots of a Complex Nation
To understand Biya’s reign, one must understand the fractured geography he inherited. Cameroon’s history is a patchwork of colonial legacies:
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German Era (1884–1916): Established as Kamerun, the region was a source of brutalized labor for tropical plantations.
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The Mandate Split: After WWI, the League of Nations divided the territory between Britain (20%) and France (80%).
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The Reunification (1961): Following independence, the “Two Cameroons” united. However, the union was uneasy, pitting a centralized, Francophone administrative style against a British-influenced Anglophone tradition.
Paul Biya, a French-educated seminarian who once considered the priesthood, rose through the ranks under Cameroon’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo. While Ahidjo was a stern, northern Muslim, Biya was a polished, southern Christian. Ahidjo saw in Biya a “timid” bureaucrat with no political teeth—a miscalculation that would eventually lead to Ahidjo’s forced exile and death.
The Mechanics of Power: How Biya Captured the State
Biya’s longevity is not the result of mere brute force; it is the result of State Capture. He has systematically ensured that every pillar of Cameroonian society is beholden to the presidency.
1. The Judicial and Legislative Puppet Strings
Biya has turned the democratic process into a ceremonial rubber stamp for his decisions.
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The Senate: Of the 100 seats, Biya personally appoints 30. In the 2023 elections, his party, the CPDM, secured every single one of the 70 elected seats.
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The National Assembly: In 2020, the CPDM won 152 of the 186 seats.
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The Judiciary: The President serves as the Chairman of the Higher Judicial Council, giving him the power to appoint and dismiss the very judges who are supposed to oversee electoral disputes.
2. The Capture of Traditional Institutions
In rural Cameroon, Chiefs and traditional rulers hold immense moral authority. Biya neutralized this potential opposition by integrating them into the state machinery. By offering vehicles, stipends, and national medals—or threatening dismissal—he turned traditional rulers into de facto campaign managers for the ruling party.
3. Rule by Absence
Perhaps the most unique aspect of Biya’s rule is his “remote control” presidency. Investigations by the OCCRP revealed that Biya has spent years of his presidency at the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva.
| Category | Estimated Expenditure (First 35 Years) |
| Hotel Bills | ~$65 Million ($40,000 per day) |
| Chartered Flights | ~$117 Million |
| Daily Entourage | Up to 50 people (Ministers, bodyguards, staff) |
The Cracks in the “New Deal”
Biya originally rose to power promising a “New Deal” of rigor and moralization. However, this facade crumbled under the weight of economic decline and ethnic tension.
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The Anglophone Crisis: In 2016, what began as a peaceful protest by lawyers and teachers against “Francophonization” spiraled into a civil war (the Ambazonia War). The conflict has claimed between 6,000 and 12,000 lives and displaced over half a million people.
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Economic Stagnation: Despite oil wealth, Cameroon’s economy has suffered from rampant corruption, once being ranked as the most corrupt nation in the world by Transparency International.
The 2025/2026 Election Cycle: The Final Stand?
As the 2025 presidential election approached, the Biya regime intensified its efforts to sideline the opposition, most notably Maurice Kamto of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC).
Kamto, a legal heavyweight who challenged Biya’s 2018 victory, has faced repeated house arrests and legal hurdles. In a strategic move, the government delayed parliamentary elections until 2026. Because Cameroonian law requires a candidate’s party to have elected representatives to qualify for the presidency, this delay serves as a legal “trap” to disqualify Kamto from the 2025 race.
The Current Political Landscape
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Paul Biya: 92 years old, seeking to extend a 42-year reign.
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Maurice Kamto: Facing legal “lawfare” and restricted movement.
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The People: Caught between a desire for change and the fear of a post-Biya power vacuum.
Conclusion
Paul Biya’s story is a cautionary tale of how democratic structures can be hollowed out from within. By the time the 1984 coup was crushed, Biya learned that to survive, he had to be everywhere and nowhere at once—omnipresent in the law, but physically distant in Geneva.