Africa’s Aging Strongmen: What Biya’s 43-Year Reign Says About Power on the Continent
By Rosemary Chiedza Mukucha, is a reporter & opinion columnist at My Afrika Magazine passionate about reshaping African narratives through factual storytelling. She also won the 2025 Global Peter Drucker Essay Challenge.
At 92, Paul Biya’s re-election for an unprecedented eighth term has stirred deep questions about the meaning of democracy in Cameroon and across Africa. Having ruled since 1982, Biya has become one of the world’s longest-serving leaders, embodying both political endurance and a system that seems increasingly immune to change.
While government loyalists hail him as a symbol of stability, critics see his extended rule as the symptom of a democracy hollowed out by fear, manipulation, and fatigue. Opposition leaders such as Maurice Kamto who was again prevented from running represent a political class continually denied space to operate. The electoral landscape, shaped by restrictive laws and intimidation, has left many Cameroonians feeling voiceless.
For the Anglophone regions, Biya’s victory offers little hope for reconciliation. The six-year-old conflict that began as peaceful protests against marginalization has devolved into a deadly standoff. With over 6,000 lives lost and thousands displaced, the question of unity between Anglophones and Francophones remains unresolved. Dialogue efforts have repeatedly stalled, often dismissed as cosmetic gestures rather than genuine peacebuilding attempts.
Beyond Cameroon, Biya’s longevity underscores Africa’s uneasy relationship with term limits and power transitions. From Equatorial Guinea to Uganda, similar political patterns persist where incumbency and patronage eclipse democratic renewal. His continued leadership may signal to younger Africans that power, once seized, is never voluntarily surrendered.
As Cameroon faces mounting economic challenges, youth unemployment, and regional insecurity, the future feels uncertain. Biya’s eighth term is not just another political cycle it is a test of how long a nation can endure the rule of one man, and whether the idea of democracy in Africa can truly evolve beyond personalities into institutions.
While government loyalists hail him as a symbol of stability, critics see his extended rule as the symptom of a democracy hollowed out by fear, manipulation, and fatigue. Opposition leaders such as Maurice Kamto who was again prevented from running represent a political class continually denied space to operate. The electoral landscape, shaped by restrictive laws and intimidation, has left many Cameroonians feeling voiceless.
For the Anglophone regions, Biya’s victory offers little hope for reconciliation. The six-year-old conflict that began as peaceful protests against marginalization has devolved into a deadly standoff. With over 6,000 lives lost and thousands displaced, the question of unity between Anglophones and Francophones remains unresolved. Dialogue efforts have repeatedly stalled, often dismissed as cosmetic gestures rather than genuine peacebuilding attempts.
Beyond Cameroon, Biya’s longevity underscores Africa’s uneasy relationship with term limits and power transitions. From Equatorial Guinea to Uganda, similar political patterns persist where incumbency and patronage eclipse democratic renewal. His continued leadership may signal to younger Africans that power, once seized, is never voluntarily surrendered.
As Cameroon faces mounting economic challenges, youth unemployment, and regional insecurity, the future feels uncertain. Biya’s eighth term is not just another political cycle it is a test of how long a nation can endure the rule of one man, and whether the idea of democracy in Africa can truly evolve beyond personalities into institutions.
