A combined photo of Brenda Biya and President Paul Biya
By Victory Oghene
The daughter of Cameroon’s president, Brenda Biya, has publicly urged her fellow countrymen not to vote for her father, the country’s long-serving president, Paul Biya in the upcoming October 2025 election.
Brenda, who is popularly known on social media as “King Nasty,” campaign against her father during a TikTok Live session, where she accused her 92-year-old father of dragging the country into poverty, unemployment, and decades of stagnation.
This is the first time in African political history that the child of a sitting president has openly opposed their parent’s rule.
Paul Biya who was christened born Paul Barthélemy Biya’a bi Mvondo and born on the 13th of February 1933, has been serving as the second president of Cameroon since 1982. He was previously the fifth prime minister under President Ahmadou Ahidjo from 1975 to 1982. As of 2025, he is the second-longest-ruling president in Africa (after Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo in Equatorial Guinea), the longest consecutively serving current non-royal national leader in the world, and the current oldest head of state in the world.
His presidency has long been tainted by allegations of authoritarianism, widespread corruption, human rights abuses, and disputed elections.
Biya in July declared his intention to seek an eighth term in office in the country’s upcoming presidential election scheduled for October 12.
The announcement was made via posts on his official X account, shared in both French and English.
“I am a candidate for the 12 October 2025 presidential election,” he said.
“Rest assured that my determination to serve you is commensurate with the serious challenges facing us. Together, there are no challenges we cannot meet.”
“The best is still to come,” he added.
In a statement titled, ‘Declaration of Candidacy for the 12 October 2025 Presidential Election by His Excellency Paul BIYA,’ the president said “ensuring the security and well-being of the sons and daughters of our beloved and beautiful country is the sacred duty to which I have devoted my time and energy since assuming the helm of State”.
“However, much remains to be done. In the face of an increasingly difficult international environment, the challenges facing us are more and more pressing,” he said. “In such a situation, I cannot shirk my mission.”
“I have therefore decided to heed the numerous and insistent calls from the ten regions of our country and from the diaspora.”
“The best is still to come,” he added.
