President Paul Biya: A Multidimensional Leader
The preliminary ideologies of President Paul Biya were presented in a roadmap known as the New Deal policy which was imbued in the virtues of rigor and moralization, and communal liberalism. To understand the vision Paul Biya had for Cameroon is to identify the cornerstones of Rigour and Moralization and or Communal Liberalism. With it was a policy that opted for the reintroduction of multiparty politics, a free society and democracy.
Emmanuel Ngota
Unfortunately, the ingredients with which the policies were engraved touched the interest of some conservationists within. The dissenting voices finally exploded like volcano in a coup plot. And on April 6, 1984, some of his detractors stage an attempt to remove him from power through the barrel of the gun. Regrettably for the “coup plotters”, evil could not triumph over the truth. By the time that Cameroonians wanted to refocus their energy and support Biya to set Cameroon towards achieving his New Deal political program, another disaster hit the country. It wasn’t manmade anyway but a natural disaster that took place at Nyos claiming thousands of lives. When the storm was over, Cameroon was caught in the wrap of the economic crisis. The world economic crisis affected almost every sector, even though Paul Biya managed to sustain the economy from collapsing into the doldrums, Cameroon’s five years development plan that had been guiding development process in the country shrunken. The civil service was like in a jungle, while the rich became richer, the poor became poorer. President Biya was then obliged to go in for structural adjustment. Salaries of civil servants were cut-down, and President Biya called on Cameroonians to tighten their sleeves.
As a Modernizer, between 1982 and 1985, Paul Biya’s mindset geared towards economic recovery and setting the pace for democracy. In 1985 he decided to introduce a political platform that could accompany his aspirations for Cameroon. That is how the CPDM in Bamenda to match those aspirations while the CNU died a natural death. As if to say he was seeing tomorrow, President Biya told radio Monte Carlos in France that he would be remembered as the man who brought democracy to Cameroon. In December 1990, the anti-democratic laws of 1962 were scraped off by the National Assembly to usher in new laws that give room for democracy, freedom expression, freedom of associations and liberty.
His projects are telling as he is considered as a great achiever looking at his giant strides both socially, economically and politically. The greatest achievement that Cameroonians have enjoyed is the peace that has ensued for the past years. Even though there had been little raptures here and there, Cameroon has been politically stable and thus scoring high standard diplomatic goals.