The former Cameroon Prime Minister Hon. Simon Achidi Achu died on Tuesday, May 4 at the age of 87. Simon Achidi Achu has been batling with ill health for years now before finally giving up the ghost on Tuesday at a hospital in the United States of America.
He was the first Anglophone Prime Minister of the Republic of Cameroon after his appointment on April 9, 1992 following the Parliamentary election. He held the position until September 19, 1996 when he was replaced by Peter Mafany Musonge.
A member of the Central Committee of the ruling CPDM party, Simon Achidi Achu was elected into the Senate in 2013 before failing to failing to make it through to the senate during the last legislative elections.
Achidi Achu was a state magistrate from October 1965 to October 1966.He would later serve as the Minister Delegate at the State Federal Inspectorate in late October 1971.He was subsequently appointed Minister of Justice by President Ahmadou Ahidjo on 3 July 1972, remaining in that position until 1975. Pa Simon then returned to Santa and started the Rock Farm Ranch as a farmer. On 10 October 1992, the day before the 1992 presidential election, Achidi Achu appeared on Cameroon Radio and Television and addressed the people in French, his second language. In this address, he accused the opposition, led by Social Democratic Front (SDF) candidate John Fru Ndi, of having a “diabolical plan” to prosecute and execute the leading figures of the state, government, and military if it won the election, and he urged the people to reject the opposition in order to avert potential violence and instabilityHe completed primary education in Santa and then continued to Cameroon Protestant College, where he had his GCE Ordinary Level. Pa Achu later continued to the University of Yaoundé, where he participated in the creation of the Student Association, which still exists. He continued his studies in Marseille, France. Pa Achidi Achu has been quoted by many as one of those contributed to the creation the general certificate of education examination board, the GCE.
