Prof Simon Njumbwa shares thoughts on 2025 presidentials.

His sudden resignation and departure from office after 22 years in power stunned the entire nation and westerners familiar with Cameroon affairs. 

The peaceful and smooth transfer of power from Ahidjo to Biya was unimaginable. It was a bombshell because of its rarity in Africa. 

Since the 1960s, only Leon Mba of Gabon had, before his death, handpicked his successor, Omar Bongo. 

Similarly, prior to Ahidjo’s resignation, only Léopold Sédar Senghor of Senegal had, on December 30, 1980, willingly and peacefully relinquished power to Abdou Diouf, his Prime Minister. 

Some analysts contended that the smooth and harmonious transition in Senegal prompted President Ahidjo to quickly retire at the relatively young age and leave behind a legacy of strong leadership that his protégé would emulate, notably, a stable sociopolitical environment and a strong and growing economy that he devoted much of his entire reign and energy for a quarter of a century to develop and that Cameroonians could boast of. 

Many Cameroonians who lived under his regime and astute observers of the Cameroon economic and socio-political landscape agree that the future of the country that President Paul Biya inherited was bright and promising. 

Described as “un îlot de paix en Afrique” by Pope John Paul II, Cameroon was the envy of the world from the dawn of its independence and reunification to when former President Ahidjo left office in the early 1980s. 

Clinging to power

Although presidents come and go, many African Heads of State, particularly those in Sub-Sahara Africa, cling to power. Some of them have been at the helm of state for over three decades.  Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea and Paul Biya of Cameroon, for instance, both second presidents of their country, top the list of the longest-ruling Heads of State in the region, the former now in power for 45 years and the latter for 42.       

Cameroon has had only two presidents since independence and reunification in 1961 – Ahmadou Ahidjo, a Northern Muslim and Paul Biya, a Southern Christian. 

At 91, President Biya is not only the oldest President in Africa but also the oldest and longest-serving Head of State in the world. 

He assumed the helm of the Cameroon State when Ronald Regan was President of the United States, Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister of Britain; Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada; Francois Mitterand, French President who he met during his first official State visit abroad; Helmut Schmidt, German Chancellor; and Yuri Andropov, Soviet leader.

Since the 1980s, these countries have changed their leaders several times, notably, six in the United States, eight in Britain, and four in Russia, France and Germany, respectively. 

Neighbouring Nigeria has had nine Presidents since General Muhammadu Buhari was deposed in 1985. 

Emmanuel Macron, the current French President was seven years old and Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister was 11 when President Biya came to power.  

Biya has ruled the country uninterruptedly for 42 years, almost twice longer than his predecessor. The generation of Cameroonians under the age of 25 who were not even born when he was handpicked as successor to lead the country have known just one president in their life. 

President Biya’s longevity in office has become a topic of discussion in political and private circles in recent years with the approach of the end of his 7th mandate in 2025. 

Cameroon opposition party leaders and huge swathes of the country’s 27 million people are yearning for change. 

“Biya must ago” is the mantra of the Cameroon People’s Party, CPP, one of the vocal opposition parties in the country.

2025 crucial presidential election year                                                               

Political analysts contend that the 2025 presidential election in Cameroon could be the most consequential in the country’s history. Preparations for it are now underway. 

Concerned that the incumbent president and his CPDM ruling party which, except in1992, always wins a landslide victory, are likely to retain power as in 1997, 2004, 2011, and 2018, opposition political parties have begun formulating strategies to ensure a democratic and peaceful change of power. 

Increasing demands by opposition parties and civil society organisations for the incumbent president to step down from power have fallen on dearth ears. 

Although he has so far not declared his intention to run at the end of his current mandate, at a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Unity Palace in Yaounde on July 26, 2022, President Biya reminded the audience that his mandate expires in 2025 and that when it ends, “you will be informed whether I have decided to stay or go to the village”, a cryptic response that appears to suggest that he has not ruled out throwing his hat in the ring in 2025.  

His 2018 presidential campaign posters with his effigy and the slogan “La force de l’expérience” (The force of experience) can still be spotted in some cities in the country. 

Despite his age, some dyed-in-the wool CPDM party loyalists would like to see him remain in power for life. For instance, on the occasion of the 2004 twentieth May celebration, Mbella Moki Charles, former mayor of Buea Council, currently a Parliamentarian, prayed that “the Head of State and National Chairman of the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM, and the institutions he incarnates should continue to steer the ship of State and reign for many years as the Biblical Methuselah” (Headlines, May 24, 2004: 12). 

Eloquent attention-grabbing words indeed which get self-seeking CPDM militants and loyalists inside the corridors of power!  According to one political analyst, “handclapping and alleluia-singing” CPDM party acolytes and sycophants are all over the country extolling the virtues of their longstanding party Chairman and pledging unflinching support for him. 

In a recent article entitled “2025 presidentials: Opposition at crossroads,” The Guardian Post (February 21, 2024) reported that in anticipation of the next presidential election, the CPDM party “is already mobilizing region by region to call on the president to run for a fifth term.” 

Party militants’ calls for the reelection of President Biya in 2025 intensified nationwide during the recent celebration of the 39th anniversary of the ruling CPDM party on March 24, 2024.   

Several opposition political party leaders have also begun formulating strategies to challenge President Biya. 

To unseat him, some of them have proposed the building of a formidable coalition and the need to rally behind one candidate for the 2025 presidential elections, a call which has led to the banning of two political groups – Alliance Politique pour le Changement (APC) and Alliance Politique pour la Transition (APT). Other political parties have cried foul while Human Rights Watch has vehemently condemned the ban, referring to it as a move “to close down space for the opposition and...public debate ahead of the 2025 presidential elections.”  

Regarding the proposal to form a strong political alliance, some opposition political parties, notably, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), are still on the fence.    

Nevertheless, opposition leaders are urging eligible voters to register en masse to vote, recognizing that, as Abraham Lincoln mooted years ago, “elections belong to the people” and thus, every vote counts. 

Contrary to the view of some self-centered politicians, people rather than slogans, rallies and eloquent speeches, decide elections as the recent election of opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye as the next President of Senegal shows. 

The South African Tassa Dooms, a staunch advocate of political participation argues that since voter turnout ultimately determines the results of every election, “it is to the advantage of politicians, particularly those already in power, when fewer people show up on voting day.”  

Accordingly, good and honest citizens who boycott elections and refuse to vote only enhance the election of self-seeking despots, opportunists, and inferior politicians who end up governing them. 

The centrality of the 2025 presidential election in Cameroon cannot be overemphasized. 

Government forces and separatist fighters who have been engaged in a senseless so-called Anglophone war for over seven years, killing thousands of innocent citizens, as well as opposition party militants who plan to boycott next year’s crucial presidential election and take to the streets to vent their grievances and discontent with the aim of building momentum for popular uprising, should heed Abraham Lincoln’s voice of reason: “the ballot is stronger than the bullet.” 

The future of Cameroon is in the hands of all the country’s registered voters who, by queuing to cast their ballots on election day, can change the circumstances of their compatriots, particularly the army of unemployed school leavers and educated university graduates who hit the pavement daily hunting for jobs. 

The crucial questions each of them should ask prior to exercising their right to vote are as follows: Are Cameroonians, including they themselves, better off today than they were forty-two-years ago when the first president of Cameroon voluntarily handed over power to his protégé? 

In other words, have Cameroonians experienced, in Charles Dickens’ famous phrase, the “best of times” or the “worst of times” since the pioneer president left office? To what extent have the promises that former President Ahmadou Ahidjo’s hand-picked successor made upon taking the oath of office been fulfilled? 

What sought of country do registered voters in Cameroon who will line up to cast their votes in the 2025 presidential elections want to leave behind? The choice they make in the elections will determine the future of their country, children and grandchildren. 

As Albert Camus, the French writer and moralist noted long ago, “life is the sum of the choices that we make.” If Cameroon thrives and overall living standards improve, their descendants will know that it was they who bequeathed to them a beautiful country full of hope, peace, justice, stability and prosperity. Twenty-twenty-five will be a crucial year for Cameroon presidential election. 

In its recent well-organized, peaceful and transparent election, Senegal broke with the past and elected 44-year-old Bassirou Diomaye Faye, the country’s main opposition candidate, as its next president.  Will Cameroon follow suit just like former President Ahmadou Ahidjo resigned following the example of Léopold Sédar Senghor, Senegal’s first president?  The world will be watching.   

By Prof Simon Njumbwa*

*Dr. Simon NJUMBWA is Professor Emeritus. The Cameroon-born, lives and works in New York, United States America, USA.