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Cameroon’s 92-year-old President Paul Biya faces an unexpected challenge as he runs for an eighth term in office: a viral TikTok video by his daughter Brenda Biya saying she will not vote for him.
Previously known for posting images of herself posing on top of a Rolls-Royce, flashing a diamond-studded Rolex or boarding a private jet, the 27-year-old stunned the nation with her defiant message, opens new tab in the run-up to the October 12 vote, according to Reuters.
“Do not vote for Paul Biya, not because of me, but because he has made too many people suffer,” she said, looking deeply into the camera in an oversized hoodie and pink-tinted hair.
“I hope we will have another president,” she added, saying she was renouncing her family and their financial support.
In power for 42 years, Biya has presided over economic stagnation and political repression in his nation of 30 million people. Transparency International lists his government as one of the most corrupt in the world.
The average Cameroonian lives on less than $5 a day, World Bank data shows, while GDP per capita is lower than it was at its peak in 1986.
Clashes between troops and armed separatists in Cameroon’s Anglophone region have killed over 6,500 people since 2017 but received little attention abroad.
Brenda Biya has benefited from her father’s rule.
She attended a prestigious high school in Switzerland and studied in California, where she posted about paying $400 for one-way trips to class in luxury cars.
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