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Independence to the Present
On Jan. 1, 1960, the French Cameroons became independent, with Ahmadou Ahidjo as its first president. The British-administered territory was divided into two zones, both administratively linked with Nigeria. In a UN-sponsored plebiscite in early 1961, the northern zone voted for union with Nigeria, and the southern for incorporation into Cameroon, which was subsequently reconstituted as a federal republic with two prime ministers and legislatures but a single president. Ahidjo became president of the republic.
National integration proceeded gradually. In 1966 the dominant political parties in the east and west merged into the Cameroon National Union (CNU). In 1972 the population voted to adopt a new constitution setting up a unitary state to replace the federation. A presidential form of government was retained, but Cameroon was a one-party state, with the CNU in control. Ahidjo resigned from the presidency in 1982 and named Paul Biya as his successor.
Biya established an authoritarian rule and implemented conservative fiscal policies. Opposition to his regime endured after a failed coup attempt in 1984, and his critics called for more substantive democratic reform. An increase in oil revenues resulted in greater investment in agriculture and education, but the collapse of world oil prices in 1986 prompted a variety of austerity measures. In 1985 the CNU changed its name to the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM). Following a prolonged nationwide strike in 1990, Biya ended one-party rule and initiated a multiparty system. In the nation's first democratic elections, held in 1992, Biya again won the presidency, but the result was tainted by widespread charges of fraud, and violent protests followed.
Various IMF and World Bank programs initiated in the 1990s to spur the economy met with mixed results, and privatization of state industry lagged. Critics accused the government of mismanagement and corruption. In recent years the English-speaking inhabitants of the former British provinces have sought autonomy or a return to federal government. In the 1990s, tensions increased between Cameroon and Nigeria over competing claims to the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula in the Gulf of Guinea. Biya was reelected in 1997; however, his refusal to allow an independent board to organize the vote prompted the country's three main opposition parties to boycott the elections. In 2002 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) awarded the Bakassi peninsula and certain areas in the Lake Chad region to Cameroon. The judgment was largely based on the 1913 Anglo-German agreement that defined the borders of the colonies at that time. Many Nigerians called for the rejection of the ICJ decision, and in 2003 Nigeria stated that it would not withdraw its troops from the peninsula for at least three years.
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