Cameroon: Former Secretary of State Jean Baptiste Bokam dies at 78

His death was confirmed by a source close to his family and reported by Actu Cameroun, a local news outlet. Bokam was a prominent figure in the Cameroonian government and administration, having held several ministerial positions between 1988 and 2006, and then serving as the Secretary of State for Defense in charge of the national gendarmerie from 2009 to 2018.

Bokam was born on October 10, 1951, in Bagbeze I, a village in the East region of Cameroon. He attended primary school at Saint Jean Bosco in Esseng, where he obtained his CEPE in 1965. He continued his secondary education at the Libermann seminary in Doumé, while also taking classes at the De La Salle college in the same city. He obtained his BEPC in June 1969, his probatoire in 1970, and his baccalaureate in June 1971. He then studied law and economics at the University of Yaoundé, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1976.{loadmoduleid 377}

In November 1976, he was recruited by the CNPS, the national social security fund, as a director’s assistant with the rank of service chief. In 1978, he obtained a scholarship from this organization to pursue his studies at the National Center for Higher Studies in Social Security in Saint-Étienne, France, where he obtained a DES in Social Security and a DEA in Economics. In 1980, he rejoined the CNPS, where he assumed several responsibilities until 1988.

He entered the Cameroonian government in 1988. He was successively Minister of Labor and Social Security (from May 16, 1988, to April 9, 1992), Minister of Public Works and Transport (from April 9 to November 27, 1992), Minister of Public Works (from November 27, 1997, to December 7, 1997). In 2011, he was appointed Secretary of State to the Minister of Defense in charge of war veterans and war victims. In 2015, he was appointed Secretary of State to the Minister of Defense in charge of the national gendarmerie. He held this position until 2018, when he was replaced by Gallas Yves Landry Etoga. He was also the chairman of the board of directors of the Cameroonian bank BICEC since 1990. Jean-Baptiste Bokam was a militant of the RDPC, the ruling party, where he was a member of the central committee, a mission officer, and a delegation leader during the electoral events.{loadmoduleid 378}