Laurent Esso

Early life and education

Laurent Esso was born on 10 August 1942 in Douala, Cameroon. He studied law and later went to the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM), where he was trained to become a senior government official.

Biography

An ethnic Sawa, Esso was born at Douala. He was a magistrate and subsequently worked as Chancellor of the University of Yaoundé.

Esso left his post at the University of Yaoundé when President Paul Biya appointed him as Deputy Secretary-General of the Presidency on 16 May 1988. Considered a "reform-minded technocrat", Esso spent less than a year as Deputy Secretary-General of the Presidency before Biya instead appointed him as Director of the Civil Cabinet of the Presidency on 13 April 1989. Esso remained Director of the Civil Cabinet for seven years; he was then appointed Minister of Justice in the government named on 19 September 1996. On 18 March 2000, he was moved from his position as Justice Minister to that of Minister of Public Health; after one year in the latter position, he was appointed Minister-Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defense on 27 April 2001. In the government named on 8 December 2004, he was instead appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, in which position he remained until he was appointed Minister of State and Secretary-General of the Presidency on 22 September 2006.

Noted for his quiet discretion and firm loyalty to Paul Biya, Esso is considered to be one of Biya's most trusted and powerful associates. According to one analysis, Esso had "a reputation for technocratic competence and integrity" that distinguished him in the Biya regime. He is a member of the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement and was a member of the National Commission for the coordination of Biya's election campaign in the October 2004 presidential election.

After holding the key post of Secretary-General of the Presidency for five years, Esso was instead appointed to his former post as Minister of Justice on 9 December 2011.

On 14 February 2023, the government commissioner of the military tribunal requested an additional investigation from the State Secretariat for Defense (SED), in the case of Martinez Zogo, a journalist kidnapped on 17 January 2023 and whose lifeless body was found five days later, on the outskirts of Yaoundé. The military court requested the hearing of Laurent Esso in this case.