...Ahidjo’s wife insists Biya must order return of mortal remains

The 25th death anniversary of Cameroon’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo will be observed on Sunday November 30. He died on exile in Dakar, Senegal on November 30 1989.

He was sentenced to death by President Biya to whom Ahidjo had voluntarily handed over power in 1982. Biya accused him of conniving in 1984 to topple his regime which was barely two years old. Coincidentally, Biya is expected to travel to Senegal on November 30 for the Francophone summit.

A few days to the anniversary, French international radio, RFI interviewed his 83-year old wife, Germaine Ahidjo who is still living in Dakar with some of their children, about the controversy surrounding the repatriation of her husband’s mortal remains.

In the interview published yesterday by a local French language newspaper, La Nouvelle Expression, she refutes allegations that she does not want the corpse which had been buried in a Muslim graveyard in Darkar, exhumed to Cameroon.

“I have never heard that Biya had granted grace to Ahidjo, because it is he, who sentenced him. He, to whom power was given. Why? He certainly holds a grudge …he must have been jealous.” She stated. Germaine insisted on RFI that her husband’s dignity must be reestablished and that his body must be officially brought back to Cameroon in the honour it deserves.

Germaine told RFI that Biya has never officially told them that he does not want the body brought back to Cameroon, but stressed that he has equally never done anything to get it retuned home. She recalled that her husband was suspected to be part of the 1984 coup simply because a majority of soldiers who were involved in it were from the northern regions. To her, the trial which led to his death sentence was a fictitious one.

She said her husband had told her never to return to Cameroon without his corpse and that being an only girl to her mother, she still feels sad that she could not take part in her funeral. She said her Cameroonian identification documents were seized by the government and that she did not deserve the exile, humiliations and abandonment by the government of her home country.

While Germaine Ahidjo gave to understanding that the late president’s mortal remains would be brought back after a decree from Biya lifting the sentence which forced him to live in Senegal, their eldest son, Mohamadou Badjika Ahidjo says it is the duty of the government to return the former president’s dead body to Cameroon and that his family is ready to collaborate with government.

The former president’s wife told RFI that she strongly believes that his corpse will be returned to Cameroon, even if it means after Biya’s death. That even if she passes on, her children, grand children or great grand children shall one day return Ahidjo’s mortal remains to Cameroon.

Biya had in an interview granted France 24 in October 2007, stated that Ahidjo’s corpse is his family business and that he has no objection and no observations to make. He had equally signed a decree in December 16, 1991 reinstating the civil status of Ahmadou Ahidjo, Um Nyobe, Ernest Oundie and Felix Moumie. Apparently Germaine does not consider the decree an official reinstatement as she still argues on that he was never given an official or state burial as a deceased former president.