Cameroon: President Paul Biya aged 92-year-old is now seeking for the eighth term elections. He ruled as Prime Minister from 1975 to 1982 and has become the World’s Oldest President.
Biya has no intention of stepping down yet and its been 43 years, as he announced in mid-July 2025 that he would stand in the presidential elections to be held on October 12, seeking an eighth seven-year term.
President Paul Biya released an official statement on his X handle and suggested that he was giving in to widespread calls for him to remain in power. He announced his candidacy and said, “I have therefore decided to heed the numerous and insistent calls from the ten regions of our country and the diaspora.”
“Rest assured that my determination to serve you is commensurate with the serious challenges facing us,” he added.
The announcement was remarkably similar to the previous one made in 2018. The Cameroonian president backed on his seventh presidential candidacy and said that being aware of the challenges they must take up together to ensure a more united, stable and prosperous Cameroon.
“I am willing to respond positively to your overwhelming calls,” said the Cameroonian president.
Paul Biya enjoy relative popularity, according to Roger Nicolas Oyono Mengue, a doctorate student at the Les Afriques dans le Monde (LAM) research centre at Sciences Po Bordeaux.
“Since 2020, there have been numerous motions of support from across the political spectrum calling on the president to run again. Paul Biya also declared in December 2024 that his determination to serve the people remains intact,” he said.
He further added, “Paul Biya tends to create suspense in the way he governs, only to ultimately reassert his legitimacy by presenting himself as the key piece of the puzzle.”
But this latest announcement has sparked some criticism as Biya’s public appearances have dwindled. He spends most of his time in his palace in his hometown Mvomeka’a, located in the country’s south, or on private trips to Geneva.
His absence from the public sphere for more than six weeks last October reignited rumours about the state of his health.
Paul Biya is the man who has ruled unchallenged for more than four decades and has also come under fire for embezzlement and corruption allegations, poor leadership and a failure to address Cameroon’s security issues.
As the leader of a nation where almost 40% of the population lives at or below the poverty rate, his taste for luxury and lavish holidays has also sparked criticism.