CAN AHIDJO`S DAUGHTER BECOME BIYA`S MINISTER?

CAN BIYA APPOINT AMINATOU AHIDJO A MINISTER?

    

By Tikum Mbah Azonga

Some months ago, Aminatou Ahidjo, daughter of Cameroon`s first president Ahmadou Ahidjo, unexpectedly returned to Cameroon from exhile. This was surprising because not only is her mother still abroad, but she is still critical of Paul Biya in the way she says he treated her husband. Ahidjo had deliberately amended the constitution, thus making the Prime Minister (Paul Biya) his constitutional successor, and no longer had the President of the National Assembly When Ahidjo voluntarily stepped down in 1982 after 24 years Biya succeeded him.

When Aminatou returned to Cameroon, she declared support for Paul Biya and joined Biya`s CPDM. She even campaigned for the president in the elections that were held at the time. Paul Biya formally joined the president political party, the CPDM and campaigned for the president at elections. Today, speculations are rife about the president appointing Aminatou as a minister in the cabinet reshuffle that is believed to be imminent.

Politics is an unpredictable exercise in which sometimes political leaders ride on a crest and at other times on a trough. Obviously in Biya`s  (very) long term in office, he has ridden crests such as the majority his CPDM enjoys in the National Assembly and the Senate. Aminatou`s recent alliance is undoubtedly another victory for  the president ,for who would have believed that after the acrimony that broke out between Ahidjo and Biya after the latter had quit power, both familes could come together? It is noteworthy that one of Ahidjo`s sons, Mahamadou Ahidjo, is a Roving Ambassador, appointed by Paul Biya.  CPDM in the North West Region, he late father`s birth place.

Aminatou described the CPDM as “a rallying party and a party which has a heart” She also expressed “deep gratitude” to President Paul Biya and pledged “strong support for his policies”.

It will be interesting to see whether Aminatou`s move will serve to bind the two families. If Biya is wise, he can cash in and  do one thing observers have been longing for: repatriating the former president`s mortal remains from Senegal and giving him a benefitting state burial in Cameroon. If that happens and Aminatou is also appointed a minister, then Biya will have taken political moves which few of his peers have ever considered.

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