(culled from www.theposwebedition.com)
Foreign Policy, a magazine published by the authoritative Washington Post newspaper group, says President Paul Biya is a suave bandit who has amassed excessive personal wealth from the public till. "Paul Biya of Cameroon is a suave bandit who has reportedly amassed a personal fortune of more 200 million US dollars (a circa FCFA 100 billion) and the mansions that go with it," partly reads the critical piece on Cameroon's President.
The article, signed by Ghanaian economist, George B.N. Ayittey, President of Free Africa Foundation, is published in the July-August edition of the magazine. The publication is an excerpt of his book, The March of Freedom: Defeating Dictators in Africa and around the World, expected to be published in 2011.
Captioned: "The worst of the worst", the article rates Biya as one of the sit-tight dictators of the world. The magazine qualifies Biya as the 23rd worst dictator. The US magazine equally casts a stigma over Cameroon's President as a sit-tighter who has virtually disarmed the opposition in his country.
"Biya has co-opted the opposition into complete submission. Not that he is worried about elections; he has rigged the term limit laws twice to make sure the party does not end any time soon," reads the article. The article that is a review of the 40 worst dictators of the world, equally indicts President Biya for hanging on to power for 28 years in a country where human rights violations have virtually become a norm.
The article cites the recent death of a journalist, Bibi Ngota, at the Kondengui Prison in Yaounde, as a perfect example of the violations. The writer of the article recalled that President Biya forcefully changed the constitution in March, 2008 in order to eternalize himself in power. Since the beginning of the Biya regime, the article points out, Cameroonians have not known free, fair and transparent elections, adding that the election management body, ELECAM, is manned by CPDM cohorts.
Made Constitutional changes in March 2008 to rule Cameroun for life BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images
While faulting the justice system in Cameroon, Foreign Policy holds that Biya's country is still one place where the period of pre-trial detention of suspects is still very long. After bashing Biya, the magazine settles on the Equato-Guinean President, Teodora Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
As a scary dictator, the paper holds that Obiang Nguema and his family literally own Equatorial Guinea. With a personal fortune of FCFA 306,540 billion, the magazine rates Obiang Nguema as the richest African dictator. He is said to be richer than the Queen of England, the Ruler of Kuwait and the former football star, Diego Maradona.
The magazine observes that while the President is very rich, the Equato-Guinean people are paradoxically gnashing in poverty in a country blessed with the opulence of natural resources. Corruption is said to be reigning in the oil-rich central African country as government officials are in a hurry to line their pockets. The magazine rates many other dictators in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Reactions
Reacting to the fact that President Biya is cited as one of the dictators, the Secretary General of the SDF, Dr. Elizabeth Tamajong, the Foreign Policy publication has only confirmed what her party has been telling the public over the years.
"Doubting Thomases can see that we have a big dictator at the helm of the state," said the SDF scribe. The Deputy Secretary General of the ruling CPDM, Gregoire Owona, declined making any comment when The Post contacted him, saying he had not yet read the article. The Post struggled in vain to get the reaction of the Minister of Communication and government spokesman, Issa Tchiroma Bakary.
