Ahmadou ahidjo biography channel 7

Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo was the first President of Cameroon. He was born to a Muslim chieftain and one of his slave wives. Encouraged by his mother at a young age, Ahidjo attended a local religious school and taught himself to read and write French. After completing his education, Ahidjo secured himself a job with the colonial postal service.

His job duties required him to operate and repair telegraph and radio transmitters, and he was often on the road, crisscrossing his country, where he began to build up a network of contacts in all of the big cities. His experiences during his travel fostered his sense of national identity and provided him the necessary intelligence and erudition to govern a multi-ethnic country like Cameroon.

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As France relinquished its hold on its former territories, Ahidjo guided Cameroon through its first two turbulent decades of independence. Known today for his surprise exit from politics near the end of his life, Ahidjo's iron clampdown on his nation for a quarter century in the name of national unity continues to echo through modern Cameroonian society.

He was born on August 24, in the village of Nassarao near Garoua in Cameroon. His father was a Fulani village chief but his mother was a Fulani slave. Ahidjo's mother, who was Muslim, sent him to Quranic school.

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When he failed an important school exam at the age of 14, he quit school and started working as a veterinary assistant. After graduating from the school at age of 18, Ahidjo joined the postal service where he worked as a radio and telegraph operator. His job required him to travel extensively throughout the country, as a result of which he made important contacts in key cities.

In , at the tender age of 22, he entered politics and was elected to the Cameroon territorial assembly. He served as Deputy Prime Minister and minister of the interior in the first Cameroon government in