Introduction
Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo was Cameroon’s first president from 1960 until 1982.
Early Life
Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo was born on 24 Aug. 1924 in Garoua, northern Cameroon, to a Fulani village chief. From 1942–53 he worked as a radio operator in the French Colonial administration, and in 1947 was elected to the first territorial assembly. Re-elected in 1952, he became president of this consultative panel in 1957. From 1953–56 he also served in France as the Cameroon member of the French Union. In 1957 he was appointed vice premier and minister of the interior in Cameroon’s government.
After the resignation in 1958 of the country’s first premier, André-Marie Mbida, Ahidjo formed his own party, the Cameroonian Union (CNU), and was elected Mbida’s successor. When French Cameroon won independence from France in 1960, he was sworn in as the nation’s first president.
Career Peak
Following independence, Ahidjo oversaw unification with British Cameroon in 1961 to form the Federal...
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(2019). Ahidjo, Ahmadou Babatoura (Cameroon). In: The Statesman’s Yearbook Companion. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95839-9_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95839-9_12
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