Activities to commemorate Biya's years as president took place in all 360 districts of the central African state, Fru Jonathan, a senior official of Biya's CPDM party and close Biya aide, said.
Supporters urged Biya to run again in the 2025 election, Jonathan said, adding that church services were also held with prayers for the 90-year-old president's longevity to lead Cameroon to become an emerging economy.
"Today, newspapers, televisions can go on to operate and say anything and even insult the president and go free," he said. "In 1982 we had just one political party, today we have more than 250 political parties. We are talking about road infrastructure, energy, the seaports, the airports. We used to have one university in this country in 1982, we now have eleven. Secondary schools and high schools are dotted all over."
Biya has won all elections in Cameroon since the advent of multi-party politics in 1990. Opposition politicians and international rights organizations have accused him of silencing his opponents. Some civil society groups and the opposition allege that Biya rigs elections, and tortures and intimidates his opponents.
Biya’s supporters and the CPDM party deny the accusations and say he has fairly won all elections and is loved by a majority of Cameroonians.
Yusinyu Omer, 35, an unemployed university graduate, says it is absurd that he has only known one president his entire life and blames Biya for Cameroon’s slow development.
"A president who has been there for 41 years has exhausted all the ideas he brought in," he said, "and there is no new idea that he can bring in that can help the development of the country."
"At what age? It is really unheard of," Omer said of calls for Biya to run in the next election.
Omer said Biya has failed to end the fighting with English-speaking rebels who want to separate from the French-speaking part of the country. The fighting is estimated to have killed at least 6,000 people in the northwest and southwest regions since 2017.
Cameroon also faces a challenge from Islamic extremists aligned with the Nigeria-based Boko Haram group. Boko Haram attacks have killed more than 36,000 people, mainly Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
Critics say government corruption has sunk Cameroon into deep poverty.
Biya, who is hardly seen in public, has not said if he will run for office in 2025. The president did not make an appearance during celebrations marking his 41 years of leadership.
The government has always maintained that Biya is in very good physical and mental health.
Biya is the oldest leader in the world and the second-longest serving president after his neighbor, Thedoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea.
Biya served as prime minister of Cameroon before becoming president in 1982, when the country's first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo — who took office in 1960 when Cameroon gained independence from France — stepped down for health reasons.
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