Encyclopedia world biography paul biya biography

President of Cameroon since

Paul Biya (born Paul Barthélemy Biya'a bi Mvondo; 13 February ) is a Cameroonian politician who is the second president of Cameroon since , having previously been the fifth prime minister from to As of , he is the second-longest-ruling president in Africa (after Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo in Equatorial Guinea) and the longest consecutively serving current non-royal national leader in the world and the oldest head of state in the world.

A native of Cameroon's south, Biya rose rapidly as a bureaucrat under President Ahmadou Ahidjo in the s, as Secretary-General of the Presidency from to and then as prime minister. He succeeded Ahidjo as president upon the latter's surprise resignation in and consolidated power in a – staged attempted coup in which he eliminated all of his major rivals.^[1]

Biya introduced political reforms within the context of a one-party system in the s, later accepting the introduction of multiparty poli