God the Politician

9. Recollections of a Faked Coup Plot

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Recollections of a Faked Coup Plot coup d’état is the method used most commonly in Africa to replace regimes that resist all forms of change through the ballot box. Nigeria tops the continent in the number of coups and attempted coups since independence. It is therefore no surprise that Anthills of the Savannah, the best publication on regimes created by coups, is written by a Nigerian, the often-quoted Chinua Achebe. Coups are, however, not always plotted by the military. Dictatorial regimes make use of spin doctors, appointed for that purpose, to organize coups and justify harsh reprisals on persons they find too powerful to sack, or whose dismissal without proper justification could increase rather than dampen public sympathy for them. Cameroon had its first experience of a coup and how to suppress them on 6 April 1984. To understand this event properly, I think a detailed account of the circumstances that led up to it would be useful .I am highly indebted to the veteran journalist, the late Jerome Fultang Gwellem, for his account in a publication en titled Paul Biya: Hero of the New Deal. The Ahidjo-led Conspiracy Gwellem’s book begins with an account of how Paul Biya took over Cameroon’s leadership from Amadou Ahidjo. Ahidjo had resigned from his position as Cameroon’s head of state on 2 November 1982, although the decision was only made public on 6 November. In his resignation speech, Ahidjo, who hailed from the North Province of Cameroon, said he was handing over to Paul Biya and called on Cameroonians to rally behind the new head of state. (Biya hails from the South Province which is dominated by the Beti ethnic group.) Ahidjo had ruled the country with an iron fist since 1958 when he assumed the office of premier of the then East Cameroon. His 25-year rule witnessed a rebellion by the Union des Populations of Cameroun (UPC), a political party fighting for the total independence of Cameroon from France. The French used Ahidjo to crush the rebellion in a ruthless manner. His era witnessed the end of multiparty politics in September 1966 when four parties formed the A 69 Cameroon National Union (CNU), which then became the only party in Cameroon for close to 18 years. In 1972 the federated states of East and West Cameroon were replaced by a unitary constitution which ushered in the United Republic of Cameroon. Cameroonians had never known another president since independence. Ahidjo was an institution, a power broker and in the public’s eye, a demi-god. His style brought to mind that of the French King Louis XIV who was the incarnation of the state. ‘L’etat c’est moi’ (‘I am the state’), he is quoted as saying. He is also quoted as saying: ‘The thing is legal because I have said so’ and ‘After me, the flood’, an accurate prediction of the chaos that took place in France in 1789. Ahidjo was extremely powerful, which explains why the announcement was received with such shock and disbelief. Between his resignation and the formal handing over to his successor, Ahidjo, who resigned on medical grounds on the advice of his doctors, rejected all pleas by his cronies to stay on. His doctors had told him his health was failing. The Devil’s Philosophy Ahidjo had resigned on the understanding that he would retain the position of CNU national chairman, a condition Biya would have been committing political suicide if he coveted without first having a grip on the nation’s top job. As soon as he had it, he logically wanted to be in full control. The devil’s philosophy that once out of a chair that chair should be kicked aside came to play not long after Biya was sworn in. He began by sacking six cabinet members who he knew were Ahidjo loyalists in three marathon cabinet reshuffles. That of 18 June 1983 removed Victor Ayissi Mvodo, the all-powerful minister of territorial administration, Sadou Daoudou, the secretary general at the presidency who is the de facto vice president of the republic and four others. French President François Mitterrand, who paid a visit to Cameroon two days later (on 20 June 1983) assured Biya of his support. The sacking took place five months after Ahidjo had granted an interview with the state-owned newspaper Cameroon Tribune stating that the CNU would initiate government policy which Biya would execute. As proof of how...