ISBN 9789956558964
Pages 200
Dimensions 216 x 140 mm
Published 2008
Publisher Langaa RPCIG, Cameroon
Format Paperback

God the Politician

by Peterkins Manyong

God the Politician is a compelling analytical, critical, informed and largely eyewitness account of the major events that have taken place in Cameroon since the return of multiparty politics in the 1990s. The accession of Paul Biya to power under the one-party regime in 1982 and the attempt to overthrow him in a coup d'état in 1984 are told in flashback, so are the excesses of power without responsibility that have come to be associated with over 25 years of Biya as President. Most of the story is centred on the struggle by the opposition, led by the Social Democratic Front (SDF), to overthrow the incumbent. In his determination to crush opposition, President Biya and his collaborators have sometimes used intrigue, but mostly force and callous indifference to basic human rights and to democracy. Bloodshed has often been the result of the regime's titanic struggles against freedoms. President Paul Biya is not in a hurry to go and so instead of democratizing Cameroon, he has chosen to Cameroonize democracy, turning electoral fraud into an art. Because of massive fraud during elections and the inability of the opposition to unite, political party leaders have decided to join him who they cannot beat.

The book is an x-ray of a regime and the Frankenstein monsters it has created and sustained to thwart democracy. It exposes the corruption, electoral fraud, human rights abuse and cynicism that make politicians believe they can play God in the lives of Cameroonians.

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About the Author

Peterkins Manyong

Peterkins Manyong was born in 1959 in Baba 1, Ngoketunjia Division in the Northwest Province of Cameroon. He has a BA in English Modern Letters from the University of Yaoundé. He taught in several secondary schools, among them, Our Lady of Lourdes College and Longla Comprehensive College before embracing journalism. He is currently a leading political analyst, with regular features in The Post newspaper. He has won several prestigious awards in investigative journalism and political reporting.

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