2025 presidentials: Greed, self-centeredness stalling possible opposition coalition!.

Since the late Ni John Fru Ndi exploit of 1992, which till date remains the closest the opposition has come to securing the country’s top job, the story of the opposition has rather been mired in uninspiring attempts to access power.

Thirty-two years since the Union for Change experience, the country’s opposition, pundits argue, appears more disfigured than it used to be in the past. 

What is playing out across the political chessboard now, it is being said, appears to be greed and self-centeredness, with no genuine desire to offer a new political option from the New Deal that has been calling the shots for 41 years and still counting!

On the eve of another presidential election, the political mill has started producing fireworks. 

One of the topical issues ahead of the next presidential election, which should normally take place in October 2025, is the need for an opposition coalition.

Most political analysts have in time past and even now been consistent on the view that a fragmented opposition will need more than a miracle to unseat the CPDM in any election. This, they say, is irrespective of how perfect the electoral process is.

Hope for coalition mired in greed, controversy

Even as there is a transition of sorts with respect to the top voices within the opposition, the spirit of yesteryears that spoiled the show appears to be rearing its ugly head again. 

When the opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement, MRC, party of Prof Maurice Kamto held its third convention in December last year, there was hope of the opposition building momentum to something huge!

Prof Kamto got overwhelmingly re-elected as head of the MRC on December 10, 2023, with most of those who attended the convention from other opposition parties, sending across a message of a possible opposition coalition to face Biya at the 2025 presidentials. 

Most, if not all political watchers, are mooting the idea of a veritable opposition coalition as the only way to dream of victory in the next presidential election.

It was erstwhile Social Democratic Front, SDF, supporter and Member of Parliament, Hon Jean Michel Ninchteu, who came out clear that Kamto is the choice to lead the opposition in the next presidential poll.

Close to three months after he flaunted Kamto as the man fit to lead the opposition into the election, there have been overt and covert dissenting voices within the opposition. 

The reactions, many are now saying, point to the perceived jinx holding Cameroon’s opposition is yet to be broken.

Hon Nintcheu rooting for Kamto

Hon Nintcheu had used the MRC convention to ask several questions relating to what is needed in an ideal opposition coalition candidate to challenge the CPDM in the next presidential election.

“In any case, the questions that every political leader and every Cameroonian committed to the ideals of change must ask themselves are the following: Who objectively best embodies the opposition in Cameroon today? Who gives President Biya and his regime the most sleepless nights? Which political party's public demonstrations, with a few exceptions, are systematically banned? Which political leader is a veritable nightmare to the dictatorial regime in Yaounde?,” Nintcheu had questioned, before responding in the affirmative that the ideal choice of an opposition coalition candidate is Kamto.

Sharp split hits opposition

One of the political voices many have been looking up to, to further strengthen the yet to be momentous cloud around Kamto as the candidate of the opposition, is Hon Cabral Libii.

The MP and national President of the opposition Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation, PCRN, on January 30 rather took a posture which, many are deducing, suggests he is not in support of the Kamto agenda.

Cabral Libii, who came third in the 2018 presidential election behind winner, Paul Biya, and first runner-up, Kamto, is rather calling for further reflection.

On January 30 this year, the PCRN leader is quoted as having written on his (X, formerly Twitter) handle, that “opposition political parties would have created a Coalition of Transition, which will publish a Document of the Mutualised Transitional Political Offer (DOPMT), then choose its candidate for the next presidential election in 2025”.

Through the comment, Cabral Libii has elicited what many political watchers say is a sharp contrast to the unanimity other opposition parties are trying to create around Kamto.

Nintcheu sends subtle rebuke to Cabral Libii

Meanwhile, in a statement on February 1, 2024, Hon Nintcheu made remarks based on Hon Cabral Libii’s outing. Given the words used, some have interpreted it as a subtle rebuttal to the PCRN leader.

Disclosing what he called as Political Alliance for Change, PAC, best abbreviated in French as APC, Hon Nintcheu said his reading of Cabral Libii’s outing is that he was using the social media to reply a formal letter sent to his party.

He noted that the “publication by the Honourable Cabral Libii is in fact a response to the invitation addressed to him at the beginning of January, by the APC and that he published on social media networks, but did not, to date, deigned to respond to it, even less in the same form as the invitation addressed to his party”.

Nintcheu rather called on what he said are APC, “supporters, members of allied parties and organisations, religious and traditional leaders, academics, intellectuals, women and men of culture and the People of Change to remain focused on the only worthwhile objective, namely the victory of their candidate, Prof Maurice Kamto, in 2025 or before”.

Major political parties, forces mute on coalition

Another development that has made the discussions for an opposition coalition dead on arrival, analysts say, is the absence of major political configurations in the equation. That is, at least for now. 

That key parties have remained numb, possibly working on investing their leaders for the election, many say, points to a history of disagreements in the process of repeating itself. Besides Nintcheu, it is only the Popular Action Party, PAP, of Njang Denis, that has endorsed Kamto.

The absence of parties such as; the  Social Democratic  Front, SDF of Hon Joshua Osih; Cameroon  Democratic  Union, CDU of Hermine Tomaino Ndam Njoya; Union Des Populations du Cameroun, UPC;  Alliance of Progressive forces, APF of Cyrille Sam Mbaka;  United  Socialist Movement, UMS, of Pierre Kwemo;  United Socialist  Democratic Party, USDP of Prince Micheal  Ngwesse Ekosso, Cameroon People’s Party, CPP of Edith Kah Walla among others, has left many viewing the crusade for a coalition as yet to gain its expected weight.  Even veterans still alive such as Garga Haman Adji, who heads the Alliance for Democracy and Development, has not commented on recent moves for an opposition coalition.

Where is Barrister Akere Muna?

Beyond the politicking, a major voice that is trusted and viewed across the board as a possible Biya-successor, who has not also been at the frontline of an opposition coalition, is the country’s anti-corruption crusader and international legal heavyweight, Barrister Akere Muna.

 Known for his straight positions on key national and international issues, Akere Muna, whom many affirm as a key voice within the political space, is yet to make his position clear on the call for a coalition to face Biya at the 2025 presidential election.

 Many say the respect he enjoys both within the political sphere and the civil society, makes Akere Muna a vital powerhouse who could be of use to the opposition. 

In 2018, Akere Muna was a candidate but stepped aside at the last minute in support of Kamto’s candidature.

 That historic move of the global transparency and good governance icon, analysts say, is what opposition leaders must do to beat Biya at the 2025 presidential polls.  Stepping from the front row and backing a unique candidate, many have been bemoaning for decades, remain a virtue political actors lack. 

The question now is if Akere Muna can put his credibility to use in the interest of the opposition. He is the leader of the Now Movement platform. 

Diaspora moots distraction within opposition

In the face of the visible cracks within the opposition, some Diaspora movements have been arguing that persons hired by the regime are already at work to destroy any solid opposition front.

Despite showing signs of endorsing Kamto, a statement attributed to one of such groups, carries a message urging citizens to massively enroll on the electoral register to vote for change, whenever the presidential election is announced.

New generation political leaders repeating 2004 error

The tale playing out within the opposition, some political watchers have already concluded, will end up being a repeat of the abortive 2004 coalition. 

It should be recalled that in the build up to that election, heavyweights such as the late Ni John Fru Ndi of the SDF and the late Dr Adamu Ndam Njoya of the CDU, failed to agree on a consensus candidate. 

Then, there was also the last-minute withdrawal of a one-time regime baron, former Minister, Edouard Akame Foumou. He too was among those tipped to lead the opposition but be backed out, renewing his loyalty to Biya!

The independent candidature of the late John Fru Ndi and Ndam Njoya of blessed memory, ended the dream of the Coalition for National Reconstruction and Reconciliation, CNRR. 

Like it is happening now, then, the CNRR was made public in August 2003, on the eve of the 2004 presidential election.

The opposition leaders had issued a statement on August 21, 2003, indicating that: “They had solemnly undertaken before the Cameroonian people and the friends of Cameroon, to present a single opposition candidate at the 2004 presidential election”. 

Greed, power tussle and self-centredness pushed them not to honour that promise.

Political analysts appear unanimous that the big and somewhat fresh names in the corridors of opposition, such as Kamto, Hon Cabral Libii, Hon Osih Joshua and Hon Nintcheu among others, are yet to put aside greed, power-tussle and self-centredness for a single opposition candidate to face Biya at the next presidential election. 

Hon Nintcheu’s prophecy coming to pass?

When Hon Nintcheu pitched the coalition drive at the MRC convention in Yaounde, on December 2023, he had warned about a repetition of the 2004 opposition debacle. He had blamed the situation on political leaders then for having been “driven by oversized egos”.

He had said: “We must not repeat the mistakes of that cursed year!” 

However, the happenings on the ground, many argue, show that the same curse of 2004 is already in the making within the opposition ranks.

Even in the face of the division, many say the situation is worst today, given that the opposition is more fragmented than it was 20 years ago. 

Most of those heading political parties, others argue, lack the charisma and stature of those who tried and failed decades back.

Opposition working for Biya?

Despite boasting of 369 political parties, many hold the view that in reality, Cameroon’s opposition has, in the last 41 years, been working for the Biya regime. 

This, some argue, has been knowingly and unknowingly.

With most of such parties lacking national following, pundits say any opposition move into the next presidential election without a formidable coalition will hand the CPDM regime another seven-year mandate and a possible life presidency.