Adamou Ndam Njoya
Encyclopedia
Adamou Ndam Njoya is a Cameroon
ian politician, lawyer, author, and professor. He was Minister of National Education from 1977 to 1980, and he has been the President of the Cameroon Democratic Union (UDC), an opposition party, since 1991. He has also been the Mayor of Foumban
since 1996, and from 1997 to 2007 he was a Deputy in the National Assembly
. He unsuccessfully ran as a presidential candidate in the 1992 and 2004 elections.
, West Province
, Cameroon, on 8 May 1942. He received his early education at Foumban and Nkongsamba
and his undergraduate at General Leclerc College in Yaoundé
. He went to France for his advanced education, receiving a MA and a Ph.D in public international law and political science at the University of Paris (Panthéon)
. Ndam Njoya studied diplomacy at the Institut International d'Administration Publique (IIAP)
, followed by three internships, with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the French Embassy in London, and with International Organizations at the United Nations European office in Geneva
, before returning to Cameroon in 1969.
in 1970 (a post he still retains). Ndam Njoya then worked for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
in Cameroon as director of the diplomatic training program from 1970 to 1972, and he helped to create the International Relations Institute of Cameroon
(IRIC); he was the IRIC's first director from 1972 to 1975. He became a member of the Economic and Social Council of Cameroon in 1974, and he was then appointed as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government named on June 30, 1975.
In December 1977, Ndam Njoya was appointed as Minister of National Education. His attempts to introduce stringency and morality into the educational system met with resistance, especially from the wealthy Francophone families who were used to financial incentives determining the success of their children at primary and post-primary institutions. In July 1980, under such pressure, President Ahmadou Ahidjo
removed him as Minister of National Education and instead appointed him as Minister Delegate at the Presidency in Charge of General Inspection of State and Administrative Reforms, a relatively powerless post. In January 1982, Ahidjo dismissed him from the government.
from 1985 to 1989.
again permitted opposition political parties in Cameroon, and Ndam Njoya started gathering together reformist minded politicians. In July 1991, he was briefly arrested along with other opposition politicians, but was quickly released. In September 1991, he announced the formation of the Cameroon Democratic Union (Union Démocratique du Cameroun, UDC), a political party. In his party statements Ndam Njoya has stressed decentralisation of government and respect for the rights of minorities.
Ndam Njoya was the UDC candidate in Cameroon's first multiparty presidential election
, held in October 1992, and he took fourth place with 3.6% of the vote. In Foumban, his stronghold, he received 59% of the vote, but his success was confined to West Province, where he received 68,284 of his 107,411 total votes (17.58% of the vote in West Province). He was elected as Mayor of Foumban in the January 1996 municipal election and was additionally elected to the National Assembly in the 1997 parliamentary election
as a UDC candidate in Noun.
On 13 January 2001, Ndam Njoya and various other party leaders participated in an unauthorized protest in Yaoundé against the National Election Observatory, believing that it would not be an impartial body. The protest was dispersed by security forces, and Ndam Njoya, along with the other party leaders, was detained for five hours.
In the presidential election
held on 11 October 2004, all of the opposition parties agreed to support a single candidate against Biya. After Ndam Njoya was chosen by the coalition caucus, John Fru Ndi
pulled the Social Democratic Front (SDF) out of the coalition and ran separately. As a result, Ndam Njoya, representing a coalition of political parties, officially received only 4.48% of the vote, placing third behind SDF candidate John Fru Ndi at 17.4%; President Biya won the election with 70.9 % of the vote, according to official results. As has become standard in Cameroon elections, "massive fraud" was alleged. Ndam Njoya received his best score in West Province, where he won 16.71% of the vote.
Since 2004, Ndam Njoya has remained Chairman of the Cameroon Democratic Union, speaking out against corruption in government and continuing to work for decentralisation. He was re-elected for another five-year term as CDU Chairman at a party congress in Yaoundé, attended by about 3,000 delegates, on 30 November–2 December 2006; there was no challenger for the position.
After serving two terms in the National Assembly, Ndam Njoya chose not to run again for a seat in the July 2007 parliamentary election
. He did, however, run again for his position as Mayor of Foumban and was re-elected, defeating Njankouo Lamere, the Deputy Minister of Finance.
Ndam Njoya said in October 2007 that electoral fraud had produced so much injustice that it could potentially lead to civil war. Speaking on 17 December 2007, he expressed his opposition to a proposal to amend the constitution to remove term limits on the office of President, saying that only two five-year terms should be allowed and that presidential elections should be conducted under a two-round voting system.
He also is a personal advocate of interfaith dialogue and sits on the Board of World Religious Leaders for The Elijah Interfaith Institute
.
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
ian politician, lawyer, author, and professor. He was Minister of National Education from 1977 to 1980, and he has been the President of the Cameroon Democratic Union (UDC), an opposition party, since 1991. He has also been the Mayor of Foumban
Foumban
Foumban or Fumban is a city in Cameroon, lying north east of Bafoussam. It has a population of 83,522 . It is a major town for the Bamoun people and is home to a museum of traditional arts and culture...
since 1996, and from 1997 to 2007 he was a Deputy in the National Assembly
National Assembly of Cameroon
The National Assembly is the parliament of Cameroon. It has 180 members, elected for five-year terms in 49 single and multi-seat constituencies....
. He unsuccessfully ran as a presidential candidate in the 1992 and 2004 elections.
Education
Ndam Njoya was born at Njika, FoumbanFoumban
Foumban or Fumban is a city in Cameroon, lying north east of Bafoussam. It has a population of 83,522 . It is a major town for the Bamoun people and is home to a museum of traditional arts and culture...
, West Province
West Province (Cameroon)
The West Region is 14,000 km² of territory located in the central-western portion of the Republic of Cameroon. It borders the Northwest Region to the northwest, the Adamawa Region to the northeast, the Centre Region to the southeast, the Littoral Region to the southwest, and the Southwest...
, Cameroon, on 8 May 1942. He received his early education at Foumban and Nkongsamba
Nkongsamba
Nkongsamba is a city in western Cameroon. It is located in the Moungo department, which is in the Littoral region. The city had a population of 104,050 inhabitants at the 2005 Census. The city is a centre of farming of oil palms, bananas and coffee, and is situated between two mountains, the...
and his undergraduate at General Leclerc College in Yaoundé
Yaoundé
-Transportation:Yaoundé Nsimalen International Airport is a major civilian hub, while nearby Yaoundé Airport is used by the military. Railway lines run west to the port city of Douala and north to N'Gaoundéré. Many bus companies operate from the city; particularly in the Nsam and Mvan neighborhoods...
. He went to France for his advanced education, receiving a MA and a Ph.D in public international law and political science at the University of Paris (Panthéon)
University of Paris I: Panthéon-Sorbonne
Pantheon-Sorbonne University or Paris 1 is a university in Paris, France. With eight hundred years of excellence to build on, the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, a descendant of the Sorbonne and the Faculty of Law and Economics of Paris, is one of the largest universities in France today...
. Ndam Njoya studied diplomacy at the Institut International d'Administration Publique (IIAP)
École nationale de la France d'Outre-mer
The École Nationale de la France d'Outre-Mer was a French grande école, providing training for future colonial administrators...
, followed by three internships, with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the French Embassy in London, and with International Organizations at the United Nations European office in Geneva
United Nations Office at Geneva
The United Nations Office at Geneva is the second-largest of the four major office sites of the United Nations...
, before returning to Cameroon in 1969.
Government service
Ndam Njoya was briefly Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1969 to 1970. He joined the law faculty at the University of YaoundéUniversity of Yaoundé
The University of Yaoundé is a leading university in Cameroon, located in Yaoundé.It was built with the help of France and opened in 1962 as the Federal University of Yaoundé, dropping the "Federal" in 1972 when the country was reorganized....
in 1970 (a post he still retains). Ndam Njoya then worked for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is a foreign-policy think tank based in Washington, D.C. The organization describes itself as being dedicated to advancing cooperation between nations and promoting active international engagement by the United States...
in Cameroon as director of the diplomatic training program from 1970 to 1972, and he helped to create the International Relations Institute of Cameroon
International Relations Institute of Cameroon
The International Relations Institute of Cameroon is one of the five Institutions of the University of Yaoundé II; it was created by decree of President Ahmadou Ahidjo on 24 April 1971. The organization of studies at the IRIC was renovated in 1993. Up until then, the Institute essentially focused...
(IRIC); he was the IRIC's first director from 1972 to 1975. He became a member of the Economic and Social Council of Cameroon in 1974, and he was then appointed as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government named on June 30, 1975.
In December 1977, Ndam Njoya was appointed as Minister of National Education. His attempts to introduce stringency and morality into the educational system met with resistance, especially from the wealthy Francophone families who were used to financial incentives determining the success of their children at primary and post-primary institutions. In July 1980, under such pressure, President Ahmadou Ahidjo
Ahmadou Ahidjo
Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo was the first President of Cameroon from 1960 until 1982.-Early life:Ahidjo was born in Garoua, a major river port along the Benue River in northern Cameroun, which was at the time a French mandate territory...
removed him as Minister of National Education and instead appointed him as Minister Delegate at the Presidency in Charge of General Inspection of State and Administrative Reforms, a relatively powerless post. In January 1982, Ahidjo dismissed him from the government.
Writer
From 1982 to 1990 Ndam Njoya focused on his writing and teaching as well as donating his time to philanthropic endeavors. He has written in the fields of law, political science, history, international relations and political ideas, as well as theatrical pieces, poems, and fiction. He also served as a member of the Executive Bureau of UNESCOUNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
from 1985 to 1989.
Selected works
- Ndam Njoya, Adamou (1975) Prières et chants de louanges à Dieu Ndam et Raynier, Yaoundé, Cameroon;
- Ndam Njoya, Adamou (1976) Le Cameroun dans les relations internationales Librairie générale de droit et de jurisprudence, Paris, ISBN 2-275-01397-0 ;
- Ndam Njoya, Adamou (1977) Njoya : réformateur du royaume Bamoun N.E.A. (Nouvelles éditions africaines), Abidjan, Ivory Coast, ISBN 2-85809-101-3 ;
- Ndam Njoya, Adamou (1982) Les Amo : recueil de poèmes Ndam et Raynier, Yaounde;
- Ndam Njoya, Adamou (1983) Manuel pratique de rédaction administrative et des documents diplomatiques Editions SOPECAM, Yaoundé, Cameroon;
Politician
In December 1990, President Paul BiyaPaul Biya
Paul Biya is a Cameroonian politician who has been the President of Cameroon since 6 November 1982. A native of Cameroon's south, 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...
again permitted opposition political parties in Cameroon, and Ndam Njoya started gathering together reformist minded politicians. In July 1991, he was briefly arrested along with other opposition politicians, but was quickly released. In September 1991, he announced the formation of the Cameroon Democratic Union (Union Démocratique du Cameroun, UDC), a political party. In his party statements Ndam Njoya has stressed decentralisation of government and respect for the rights of minorities.
Ndam Njoya was the UDC candidate in Cameroon's first multiparty presidential election
Cameroonian presidential election, 1992
A presidential election was held in Cameroon on 11 October 1992. It was the first presidential election since multi-party politics had been legalised, and it was also the first to feature more than one candidate. Incumbent Paul Biya won with 39.98% of the vote. Voter turnout was 71.9%.The 1992...
, held in October 1992, and he took fourth place with 3.6% of the vote. In Foumban, his stronghold, he received 59% of the vote, but his success was confined to West Province, where he received 68,284 of his 107,411 total votes (17.58% of the vote in West Province). He was elected as Mayor of Foumban in the January 1996 municipal election and was additionally elected to the National Assembly in the 1997 parliamentary election
Cameroonian parliamentary election, 1997
Parliamentary elections were held in Cameroon on 17 May 1997. The result was a victory for the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement, which won 116 of the 180 seats, including seven constituencies in which the result had originally been cancelled by the Supreme Court due to serious...
as a UDC candidate in Noun.
On 13 January 2001, Ndam Njoya and various other party leaders participated in an unauthorized protest in Yaoundé against the National Election Observatory, believing that it would not be an impartial body. The protest was dispersed by security forces, and Ndam Njoya, along with the other party leaders, was detained for five hours.
In the presidential election
Cameroonian presidential election, 2004
The 2004 Cameroonian presidential election took place in Cameroon on 11 October 2004. Incumbent President Paul Biya was easily re-elected in an election which the opposition claimed had seen widespread electoral fraud.-Background:...
held on 11 October 2004, all of the opposition parties agreed to support a single candidate against Biya. After Ndam Njoya was chosen by the coalition caucus, John Fru Ndi
John Fru Ndi
Ni John Fru Ndi is the founder and leader of Cameroon's Social Democratic Front .Fru Ndi was born in Baba II, near Bamenda in the Northwest Province of Cameroon. The title of Ni, a marker of respect, was given to him when he was born...
pulled the Social Democratic Front (SDF) out of the coalition and ran separately. As a result, Ndam Njoya, representing a coalition of political parties, officially received only 4.48% of the vote, placing third behind SDF candidate John Fru Ndi at 17.4%; President Biya won the election with 70.9 % of the vote, according to official results. As has become standard in Cameroon elections, "massive fraud" was alleged. Ndam Njoya received his best score in West Province, where he won 16.71% of the vote.
Since 2004, Ndam Njoya has remained Chairman of the Cameroon Democratic Union, speaking out against corruption in government and continuing to work for decentralisation. He was re-elected for another five-year term as CDU Chairman at a party congress in Yaoundé, attended by about 3,000 delegates, on 30 November–2 December 2006; there was no challenger for the position.
After serving two terms in the National Assembly, Ndam Njoya chose not to run again for a seat in the July 2007 parliamentary election
Cameroonian parliamentary election, 2007
A parliamentary election was held in Cameroon on 22 July 2007, with some polls held again on 30 September 2007. 1,274 candidates stood for the 180 seats in the National Assembly, with 41 parties participating...
. He did, however, run again for his position as Mayor of Foumban and was re-elected, defeating Njankouo Lamere, the Deputy Minister of Finance.
Ndam Njoya said in October 2007 that electoral fraud had produced so much injustice that it could potentially lead to civil war. Speaking on 17 December 2007, he expressed his opposition to a proposal to amend the constitution to remove term limits on the office of President, saying that only two five-year terms should be allowed and that presidential elections should be conducted under a two-round voting system.
Personal life
He is currently married with five children.He also is a personal advocate of interfaith dialogue and sits on the Board of World Religious Leaders for The Elijah Interfaith Institute
The Elijah Interfaith Institute
The Elijah Interfaith Institute is a nonprofit, international, interfaith organization which was founded by Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein in 1997. Its mission is to foster peace between the world's diverse faith communities through interfaith dialogue, education, research and dissemination...
.