Cameroon’s Head of State Paul Biya born Paul Barthelemy Biya’a Bi Mvondo today celebrates his eighty-seventh birthday.

He is a Cameroonian politician serving as the President of the Republic of Cameroon since 6 November 1982.

As a native of Cameroon’s south region, Paul Biya rose rapidly as a bureaucrat under President Ahmadou Ahidjo in the 1960s, serving as Secretary-General of the Presidency from 1968 to 1975 and then as Prime Minister of Cameroon from 1975 to 1982.

He succeeded Ahidjo as president upon the latter’s surprise resignation in 1982 and consolidated power in a 1983–1984 staged attempted coup in which he eliminated all his rivals.