President of the Constitutional Council
ATANGANA Clément
ATANGANA Clément, a Magistrate of the First Group, Out of Hierarchy (retired), was born on August 20, 1941, in Ekouméyek, Ngomedzap Subdivision, Nyong and So’o Division, Centre Region.
He completed his primary education at the Regional School of Yaoundé, where he obtained the Primary School Certificate (CEPE) in 1954. Continuing his secondary education, he earned the first part of the Baccalaureate at François Xavier Vogt College in Mvolyé, Yaoundé, in 1962, and the second part of the Baccalaureate (Experimental Sciences stream) at the Manengouba High School in Nkongsamba in 1964.
He then enrolled at the Faculty of Law and Economic Sciences of the Federal University of Cameroon, where he obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Private Law in 1967. He later joined the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM), Magistracy Division, and subsequently pursued further training at the International Institute of Public Administration in Paris.
After joining the Magistracy on December 20, 1968, Clément ATANGANA served as Examining Magistrate at the Court of First Instance of Nkongsamba (1969–1971). He subsequently held the position of President of the Courts of First Instance, in charge of Public Prosecution, in Eséka (1971), Bafia (1972), Mora (1975), and Sangmélima; Judge at the High Courts of Douala and Yaoundé (1974); President of the High Court of Yaoundé (1980); Deputy Director of Judicial Affairs and the Seal at the Ministry of Justice (1982); Attorney General at the Court of Appeal of the North and later President of the Court of Appeal of the Centre (1989); and finally Counsellor and President of the Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court (2004).
From 1997 to 2013, he also served as President of the National Commission for the General Census of Votes for the legislative, senatorial, and presidential elections. In addition, he was a member of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for five consecutive terms; a full member of the Higher Judicial Council; and Vice-President of the Conference of African Constitutional Jurisdictions. He is also President of the Association of Patriarchs of the Ngomedzap Subdivision.
After reaching the statutory retirement age on December 18, 2014, he enrolled at the Cameroon Bar Association. It was in the exercise of this new role as Lawyer that he was appointed, on February 7, 2018, as the first President of the Constitutional Council of Cameroon.
He is a Grand Officer of the National Order of Valour and was awarded, on November 16, 2020, the Managerial Excellence Award by the Collective of Investigative Journalists (CIJ).
He is married and the father of eight children.