Master political survivor

The former first lady Germaine Ahidjo, widow of Cameroon's first President, recently admitted in a rare interview that her Muslim husband Ahmadou Ahidjo made mistakes during his 26 years as President, but the most grievous was to hand over power to his Christian Prime Minister, Paul Biya. Biya took over in 1982. Since then, figures from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund reflect the decline of Cameroon's economy from a middle-income to a highly-indebted poor country. Unemployment is, officially, above 40%. For the last two years, Cameroon has ranked as the most corrupt country on earth according to international watchdog Transparency International.

Article Tags:
Germaine Ahidjo, Ahmadou Ahidjo, Paul Biya, Akere Muna, French, Jeanne Irène, Chantal, Switzerland, Titus Edzoa, Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, in absentia

end of preview

To read the rest of the article you need to either log in or do one of the following:

Subscribe to Africa Confidential Find out more
Purchase this article on its own Find out more

If you have a print subscription already please click here for full access to the website.
If you have already logged in and believe you should have access to this article please contact customer services.