Ahmadou AHIDJO
Ahmadou AHIDJO profile Garoua Nord Cameroon politician
President and leader of the government since October 20, 1961.
One of the “fathers of African independence” who has survived the decade due to his own political astuteness and ruthlessness in dealing with his opponents and to the unflinching support of France.
Career

A radio operator at the Post Office, he started his long political career in January 1947 when he was elected to the Representative Assembly. A young councillor of progressive ten¬dencies, he was re-elected in March 1952 and again in December 1956, and in January 1957 was elected president of the Territorial Assembly, as a compromise candidate, by a unanimous vote among its members.

A Muslim and elected for the Adamoua circle in the Northern Province, he had the support of the local Muslim chiefs and from certain southern politicians who saw him as a progressive.

After the 1956 elections, the main problem was the growing terrorism in the rural areas fostered by the Cameroon People’s Union, UPC, operat¬ing particularly in the Sanaga Maritime and Bamileke areas. Accused of using excessive violence in the repression of the UPC, the Prime Minister Andre¬Marie Mbida resigned in February 1958 and Ahidjo, who was then Vice-Premier and Minister of the Interior, took office. He was not yet 34.

Ahidjo had supported Mbida’s tough stance and as Minister of the Interior had implemented it. He soon made use of even more repressive methods and of the amnesty passed by the French National Assembly in January 1958. But Ahidjo also proposed a political solution and programme for the achieve¬ment of independence and within a month of his accession, he started negotiations with France, applying three months later in May 1958 for full in¬dependence.

The following month General de Gaulle, who became Ahidjo’s political mentor and protector, was made French Prime Minister. Six months later by the decree of December 30,1958, Cameroon became an autonomous ter¬ritory. But the Cameroon was still under United Nations trusteeship and in March 1959 Ahidjo adroitly presented his government policy before the General Assembly and won its approval for independence on January 1, 1960.

The first elections in independent Cameroon took place in the tense atmosphere created by persistent rebel activity in the Bamilieke areas. The Union Camerounaise, which had been created in 1958 by a group of 30 northern deputies, won with a majority of 61 seats out of 100. One month later, after some intensive back room maneuvering, he was elected President by 89 votes to the 10 UPC members who abstained.

The new President soon pressed for unification of the Cameroon Republic and the British administered Western Cameroons. A referendum was held and the northern half of the country chose union with Nigeria while the southern half voted in February 1961 for union with the Cameroon Republic.

After numerous trips abroad including a pilgrimage to Mecca in March 1966, followed by an audience with the Pope six months later, he was the first Chief of State in July 1968 to pay a visit to General de Gaulle who had recently survived the political turmoil of May 1968 in France. This shrewdly timed gesture, which was duly apprecia¬ted by the French President, brought Ahidjo's famous declaration “I am a non-French Gaullist”.

Ahidjo has consistently taken a strong line on race issues. In 1962 he denounced the situation in Rhodesia, South Africa and the Portuguese terri¬tories as “an insult not only to the black man but also a permanent menace to the security of the African continent". Almost ten years later he reaffirmed his country’s position by saying in May 1971 that unless South Africa decided to reconsider its apartheid policy he was against the idea of any dialogue.