Paul Abine Ayah

Last updated

Paul Abine Ayah was a member of the National Assembly of Cameroon and a member of the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement. Until recently, he joined the Opposition Party called the Peoples Action Party (PAP). In August 2007 he was elected as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly of Cameroon. [1] He is a deputy for Manyu in the Southwest Region.

He graduated from the Cameroon National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM) in Yaoundé in 1976 and went on to become the vice-president of the Court of Appeal in Buea, Southwest Region, until becoming member of the National Assembly of Cameroon in 2002.

He is based in Akwaya, which is accessible by a poorly maintained road and foot track from Mamfe in Cameroon, however it is easier to access from Nigeria. The area has been subject to unrest due to land and tribal conflict. [2]

In June 2006, along with other deputies, he called on the government to investigate allegations of high-level corruption involving one of its ministers, Augustin Frédéric Kodock, regarding Kodock's earlier tenure at the head of the Agriculture Ministry. [3]

In November 2007, he indicated his support for a law banning female genital mutilation, which is still practiced by members of the Ejagham tribe in the area he represents as a deputy. He also indicated his support for a law that would ban marriage for children. [4] For women and girls marriage without parental consent is not permitted until 21 in Cameroon, and marriages of girls under 15 years old are not permitted by law, [5] except with presidential permission. However, marriages as young as 8 or 9 years old occur in the north of Cameroon. [5]

In early 2008, Ayah was an outspoken critic of the 2008 changes to the Constitution of Cameroon, which removed term limits that would have prevented President Paul Biya from standing for re-election in 2011. According to Ayah, the changes were "not democratic", and he said that if the bill was adopted it would "will take us back some 200 years." [6] Despite not being present at the vote in the National Assembly and declaring that he had not made a procuration for his vote, a vote was reportedly made in his name. [7]

In November 2007, he indicated his support for a law banning female genital mutilation, which in the past was practiced by members of the Ejagham tribe. Paul Ayah represents the Akwaya subdivision as a deputy.[ citation needed ]

On 3 January 2011, Ayah Paul resigned from the CPDM and stood for the presidential elections. He was later appointed as a sitting judge at the supreme court of Cameroon.

Arrest and release

Ayah Paul was arrested on 21 January 2017, in connection of advocating for Cameroon to return to federal system of government as it was in the 1960s. He was tried at the Yaoundé military tribunal with other Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC) which is now banned and illegal by the government of Cameroon in relation to the civil unrest in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon. [8] Ayah Paul, was released from prison by a presidential decree on 30 August, 2017 after spending more than eight months in detention in Yaounde prison. [9] [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Biya</span> President of Cameroon since 1982

Paul Biya is a Cameroonian politician who is the second president of Cameroon since November 6, 1982, having previously been the prime minister of Cameroon from 1975 to 1982. He is the second-longest-ruling president in Africa, the longest consecutively serving current non-royal national leader in the world and the oldest head of state in the world. He is regarded as an authoritarian leader and dictator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social Democratic Front (Cameroon)</span> Political party in Cameroon

The Social Democratic Front is the main opposition party of Cameroon. It was led by Ni John Fru Ndi from its foundation until his death in 2023, and receives significant support from the Anglophone Southwest and Northwest Regions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philémon Yang</span> Prime Minister of Cameroon

Philémon Yunji Yang is a Cameroonian politician who served as Prime minister from 30 June 2009 to 4 January 2019. Previously he was Assistant Secretary General of the Presidency, with the rank of minister, from 2004 to 2009. He served in the government from 1975 to 1984 and was Cameroon's Ambassador to Canada from 1984 to 2004. He is the longest-serving Prime Minister in Cameroonian history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ephraïm Inoni</span> Prime Minister of Cameroon

Ephraïm Inoni is a Cameroonian politician who was Prime Minister of Cameroon from 2004 to 2009. He was a long-time aide of President Paul Biya and is a member of the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (RDPC). He was appointed to the position of Prime Minister by Biya on December 8, 2004 and was sworn in that day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Assembly (Cameroon)</span> Lower house of the Parliament of Cameroon

The National Assembly is the lower house of the Parliament of Cameroon. It has 180 members, elected for five-year terms in 49 single and multi-seat constituencies. Together with the senate, it constitutes the legislative arm of government.

Adamou Ndam Njoya was a Cameroonian politician, lawyer, author, and professor. He was Minister of National Education from 1977 to 1980, and the President of the Cameroon Democratic Union until his death on 7 March 2020. He was replaced by his wife Patricia Tomaïno Ndam Njoya as Mayor of Foumban, a position he held since 1996. From 1997 to 2007, he was a Deputy in the National Assembly. He unsuccessfully ran as a presidential candidate in the 1992, 2004, 2011 and 2018 elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constitution of Cameroon</span>

The Constitution of Cameroon is the supreme law of the Republic of Cameroon. Adopted in 1972, it is Cameroon's third constitution. The document consists of a preamble and 13 Parts, each divided into Articles. The Constitution outlines the rights guaranteed to Cameroonian citizens, the symbols and official institutions of the country, the structure and functions of government, the procedure by which the Constitution may be amended, and the process by which the provisions of the Constitution are to be implemented.

Henri Hogbe Nlend is a Cameroonian mathematician, university professor, former government minister and presidential candidate.

Polygamy is illegal in France and has been the center of recent political debates, due to surges of Malian immigrants living polygamously in the country. Due to such, stricter laws have been enforced to stomp out polygamy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Issa Tchiroma</span> Cameroonian politician

Issa Tchiroma Bakary is a Cameroonian politician who served in the government of Cameroon as Minister of Transport from 1992 to 1996 and has been Minister of Communication since 2009. He is the President of the Front for the National Salvation of Cameroon, a minor political party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prevalence of female genital mutilation</span>

Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting (FGC), female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is practiced in 30 countries in western, eastern, and north-eastern Africa, in parts of the Middle East and Asia, and within some immigrant communities in Europe, North America and Australia. The WHO defines the practice as "all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons."

Simon Munzu was the United Nations Secretary-General's Deputy Special Representative for Côte d'Ivoire from October 2014 to August 2016. Prior to this appointment of 7 October 2014 by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Munzu served the United Nations in various capacities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jaha Dukureh</span>

Jaha Dukureh is a Gambian women's right activist and anti-female genital mutilation campaigner. Dukureh was subjected to female genital mutilation in the Gambia when she was a little more than a week old. She is the founder and executive director of Safe Hands for Girls, an organization working to end FGM, and was the lead campaigner in The Guardian's End FGM Guardian Global Media Campaign. In April 2016, she was named to the 2016 Time 100 list. Dukureh was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in February 2018, has won the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal, and is a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador for Africa. A feature film about Jaha's life was released by Accidental Pictures and The Guardian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglophone problem</span> Tension between anglophone and francophone Cameroonian regions

The Anglophone problem is a socio-political issue in the modern Republic of Cameroon, rooted in the country's German, British, and French colonial legacies. Anglophone (English-speaking) Cameroonians form a minority population of around 16 percent, mainly from the northwest and southwest regions that formerly constituted the Southern Cameroons, part of the former British Cameroon colonies. These Anglophone regions were formerly controlled by Britain as a mandate of the League of Nations, and then as a United Nations trust territory. During the Foumban Conference of 1961, territories with different colonial legacies were finally united into one state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Nkemngong Nkengasong</span> Cameroonian author (1959–2023)

John Ngosong Nkemngong Nkengasong was a Cameroonian playwright, novelist, poet and scholar. He was often referred to as a "radical visionary" of Anglophone Cameroon and an “ardent upholder of innovative creativity and crusader for the truth” as is demonstrated by his novels, poetry, short stories but most notably his plays.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2018 Cameroonian presidential election</span>

Presidential elections were held in Cameroon on 7 October 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felix Agbor Balla</span> Cameroonian lawyer

Agbor Nkongho aka Balla is an Anglophone Cameroonian human rights lawyer who is the president of the Fako Lawyers Association, vice president of the African Bar Association in charge of Central Africa, founder and chairman of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa and founder of Agbor Nkongho Law Firm an activist and freedom fighter who was arrested on 17 January 2017. Agbor Nkongho was born on August 23, 1970. He is a leading member of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC) which has been banned and its activities declared illegal in Cameroon.

Dr Fontem A. Neba is an Anglophone Cameroonian university lecturer, author and a civil rights activist who emerged on the Cameroon political stage as the founding Secretary General of Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium before it was banned by the government of Cameroon on January 17, 2017. He was arrested on the same day alongside Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor and deported to Yaoundé overnight where they would both spend nine perilous months in the Kondengui Maximum security prison. Before becoming Secretary General of the banned Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC), he was the Secretary General of teachers’ trade union of the University of Buea (SYNES) before his arrest on January 17, 2017, for staging a peaceful protest in the defence of Anglophone Cameroon common law system of education. He is the author of English Language Mastery and Academic Success which was launched on June 18, 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016–17 Cameroonian protests</span> Protests in the anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon

The 2016–2017 Cameroonian protests were a series of protests that occurred following the appointment of Francophone judges in English-speaking areas of the Republic of Cameroon. In October 2016, protests began in two primarily English-speaking regions: the Northwest Region and the Southwest Region.

The legal status of female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting (FGC), differs widely across the world.

References

  1. ↑ "Eighth legislature kicks off with Prime Minister taking part". Archived from the original on 24 October 2007. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  2. ↑ ""Hon. Ayah Asked To Stop Tribal War": The Right of Reply". Postnewsline.com. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  3. ↑ "MPs Demand Probe Into Kodock's Tenure As Agric Minister". Postnewsline.com. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  4. ↑ "Cameroon: Law Against Female Circumcision". Allafrica.com. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  5. 1 2 "UNHCR - Document Not Found". Archived from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
  6. ↑ "Breaking International News & Views". Reuters.com. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  7. ↑ Désaccord : Un député Rdpc dit non à la modification Archived 2008-04-14 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ↑ "Top Cameroon judge arrested amid civil society crackdown - Africa Review". Archived from the original on 2017-09-01. Retrieved 2017-09-01.
  9. ↑ "Cameroon president orders charges dropped, release of Anglophone leaders". 30 August 2017.
  10. ↑ "Cameroon: Ayah Paul Abine's Case - Lawyers Request Immediate Liberation". Allafrica.com. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.