Much was read into the absence of some of Nigeria's neighbours - Presidents Charles Taylor of Liberia and Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso (both of whom Nigeria accuses of backing the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone) plus President Paul Biya from Cameroon whose country continues to pursue claims against Abuja for the Bakassi Peninsula...
Vol 39 No 13 |
- FRANCE
- AFRICA
Under President Paul Biya's idiosyncratic economic regime Yaoundé has been slow to ratify CEMAC regulations...
Those of course include Hayatou's native Cameroon whose President Paul Biya is still close to President Jacques Chirac and can be relied upon to ensure that the Cameroon Football Association Chairman toes the party line...
Vol 39 No 4 |
- FRANCE
- AFRICA
Cameroon's Paul Biya is a particular source of frustration...
And after their hotly disputed poll victories late last year Kenya and Cameroon's Big Men rulers Daniel arap Moi and Paul Biya have to contend with feisty parliaments where some 50 per cent of the representatives are oppositionists...
In Cameroon Paul Biya retained the presidency after a dubious poll...
Enough political leaders were present to make the summit look convincing but the absentees as well as Nigeria's General Sani Abacha Congo-Kinshasa's Laurent Kabila and Sudan's Omar el Beshir included Paul Biya of Cameroon (busy forming a government) Ben Mkapa of Tanzania (at his party's congress) and regional kingpins Daniel arap Moi of Kenya Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Nelson Mandela of South Africa...
The only surprise was the scale of the victory claimed for President Paul Biya...
Each leader regards himself as the ideal consensus candidate to beat President Paul Biya...
Over a third of leaders have so far accepted Bongo's invitation including the Organisation of African Unity head Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe Nigeria's General Sani Abacha Cameroon's Paul Biya Uganda's Yoweri Museveni Rwanda's Pasteur Bizimungu Senegal's Abdou Diouf and either Nelson Mandela or Thabo Mbeki from South Africa...
