39 Facts About Paul Biya

Paul Biya was born on Paul Barthelemy Biya'a bi Mvondo, 13 February 1933 and is a Cameroonian politician who has been serving as the second president of Cameroon since 1982.

Paul Biya was previously the fifth prime minister under President Ahmadou Ahidjo from 1975 to 1982.

Paul Biya introduced political reforms within the context of a one-party system in the 1980s, later accepting the introduction of multiparty politics in the early 1990s under serious pressure.

Ethnically Beti, Paul Biya was born in the village of Mvomeka'a in what is the South Region of Cameroon.

Paul Biya studied at the Lycee General Leclerc, Yaounde, and in France at the Lycee Louis-le-Grand, Paris, going on to the Institut des hautes etudes d'Outre-Mer, where he graduated in 1961 with a higher education diploma in public law.

Paul Biya gained the rank of minister in August 1968 and the rank of minister of state in June 1970, while remaining secretary-general of the presidency.

Ahidjo unexpectedly announced his resignation on 4 November 1982, and Paul Biya accordingly succeeded him as president of Cameroon on 6 November.

Paul Biya's father, who was a catechist, wanted him to join the clergy, but at the age of 16, while in Catholic school, he was expelled.

Paul Biya was brought into the CNU Central Committee and Political Bureau and was elected as the vice-president of the CNU.

In November 1983, Paul Biya announced that the next presidential election would be held on 14 January 1984; it had been previously scheduled for 1985.

In February 1984, Ahidjo was put on trial in absentia for alleged involvement in a 1983 coup plot, along with two others; they were sentenced to death, although Paul Biya commuted their sentences to life in prison.

Paul Biya survived a military coup attempt on 6 April 1984, following his decision on the previous day to disband the Republican Guard and disperse its members across the military.

Paul Biya chose to emphasize national unity and did not focus blame on northern Muslims.

In 1985, the CNU was transformed into the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement, in Bamenda and Paul Biya was unlawfully elected as its president.

Paul Biya was re-elected as President of Cameroon on 24 April 1988.

Paul Biya initially took some steps to open up the regime, culminating in the decision to legalize opposition parties in 1990.

Paul Biya has been consistently re-elected as the National President of the RDPC; he was re-elected at the party's second extraordinary congress on 7 July 2001 and its third extraordinary congress on 21 July 2006.

Paul Biya won another seven-year term in the 11 October 2004 presidential election, officially taking 70.92 percent of the vote, although the opposition again alleged widespread fraud.

Paul Biya's opponents alleged wide-scale fraud in the election and procedural irregularities were noted by the French and US governments.

Paul Biya's regime is supported by France, one of the former colonial powers in Cameroon, which supplies it with weapons and trains its military forces.

Paul Biya makes relatively few public appearances, and is sometimes characterized as aloof.

Under the constitution, Paul Biya has sweeping executive and legislative powers.

Paul Biya even has considerable authority over the judiciary; the courts can only review a law's constitutionality at his request.

Paul Biya is credited with a creative innovation in the world of phony elections.

Paul Biya regularly spends extended periods of time in Switzerland at the Hotel InterContinental Geneva where the former director Herbert Schott reportedly said he comes to work without being disturbed.

In 2009, Paul Biya was ranked 19th in Parade Magazine's Top 20 list of "The World's Worst Dictators".

Paul Biya was given a two-year prison term on charges of "insult to character" and organizing an "illegal demonstration" for attempting to hold a public reading.

Paul Biya was freed on 2 May 2011 when the London chapter of International PEN agreed to pay his fine in order that he might seek treatment for his worsening health condition.

Paul Biya's detention was widely condemned by human rights organizations, and his popularity continued to grow during this period.

On 14 November 2019, Paul Biya admitted in a Paris forum of trying to assimilate former British Southern Cameroons into the majority Francophone system, formerly East Cameroon State but failed, due to identity differences, thus triggering the conflict.

Paul Biya became a naturalized citizen of France when he studied there, but he later relinquished his French citizenship when he returned to Cameroon to serve in government positions.

Franck Paul Biya is seen as a possible successor of his father in the context of presidential elections scheduled for 2025.

Jeanne-Irene Biya died on 29 July 1992 after a short illness while Paul Biya was attending a conference abroad.

Paul Biya married Chantal Vigouroux, who is 36 years his junior, on 23 April 1994, and has two more children with her: Paul Jr and Brenda Biya.

Brenda Paul Biya, who is a LGBTQ activist, publicly revealed her same-sex relationship with Brazilian model Layyons Valenca on 5 July 2024.

Paul Biya later stated that she hoped the post would change anti-LGBT laws in Cameroon.

Paul Biya reportedly accused Valenca of sharing the photographs "for the attention of social media followers and even extort money" on TikTok.

Paul Biya is a Rosicrucian, and was likely part of the Rosicrucian organization CIRCES, led by the French esotericist Raymond Bernard.

Bernard was his personal advisor; Paul Biya gave him an allowance of several million francs, and gave the organization itself 40 million francs for Bernard's services.