Journalist, Atia Tilarious, bags PhD in Political Science.

He defended the thesis Thursday August 3, before a six-member panel, constituting of Professors and Associate Professors of Political Science, Public Administration and related fields. 

The defence took place at the conference room of the Faculty of Social and Management Sciences.

Atia's thesis, titled: “Intra-party Democracy in Cameroon: A Study of Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) and the Social Democratic Front (SDF)”, concluded that intra-party democracy was still far-fetched within Cameroon's two oldest political parties.

He found out that the administration of these parties is centralised and grassroots supporters do not have much say. Both parties, he stated, have never had a change of leadership since creation and they lack proper and independent mechanisms to handle internal conflicts. 

“If political parties are supposed to enhance democracy, they have to start from the house. Charity begins at home. But the political parties themselves appear not to be as democratic,” Dr Atia said.

“I took the example of the CPDM, which is the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, and the SDF, which is the Social Democratic Front. These political parties both have ‘democratic’ in their names, but when you go into practice, you see that there’s something lacking. The institutionalisation of democracy does not exist. Intra-party democracy remains a myth,” he argued.

The study, he said, aimed to investigate factors that affect intra-party democracy within the ruling CPDM and SDF political parties. 

The researcher disclosed that a review of the parties' activities and interviews with politicians revealed that tribalism and corruption are amongst key factors stalling intra-party politics within the CPDM and SDF.

According to Dr Atia, despite the proliferation of multiple political parties in Cameroon (329 according to Ministry of Territorial Administration), democracy remains immature and limping in the country. 

This is opposed to countries like the USA, which has a thriving democracy with just two main political parties. The researcher thus challenged the all political parties in the country to practice internal democracy. 

“We recommend that the SDF, CPDM and other political parties, should be internally democratic. They should ensure that what is in the party texts should be respected. If the party text says elections should be every five years, then it should be respected. If they say elective conventions should be every four years, they should respect it,” he recommended. 

The thesis was supervised by two political science gurus, Prof Abangma James Arrey and Associate Professor, Kiven James Kewir. 

Both noted, in their interventions during the defence, that the work was timely and relevant to Cameroon's political discourse. 

Thesis innovative & topical

Speaking to the press after the defence, the Professor of Public Administration, Abangma James, said the work was innovative and topical. 

“The work is innovative. It is also topical because the candidate went into findings that the two parties, which are considered to be the main political parties in Cameroon, that is the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement and the Social Democratic Front, all have the word democracy inscribed in their names, and so the candidate went to find out whether internally they are democratic.  So the work is actually trying to put what is assumed to be and what is actually practiced. The candidate came out with a lot of interesting findings,” he said.

He further noted that the work was “an invaluable material” for the SDF and CPDM parties. 

For three hours, jury members took turns to grill Atia Tilarious on the research and the basis on which he had reached the conclusions.

The jury members included: Prof Guy Mvelle (Chairperson), Prof Nfi Joseph and Associate Professor Peter Sakwe Masumbe (Rapporteurs), Prof John Ndefru (Member), Prof James Abangma and Prof Kiven James Kewir (Supervisors). 

They were unanimous that the work was relevant; given that the candidate had a finger-tip mastery of the subject matter. He then recommended him for a PhD in Political Science with a Grade of Excellence.