Editorial: Tussle over PCRN leadership; Shame unto those pulling the strings!.

But the regime is not resting on "grand ambitions" as they are speculations and even accusations that the ruling party has put in gear the mechanism of divide and rule, despite President Biya's raison d'etre of creating numerous political parties to "enrich political debates".

When some opposition alliances were formed this year to prepare for the presidential elections, they were proscribed.

But the founders of the alliances said the ruling party has an alliance called "Presidential Majority" and "Group of 20", which supported the presidential campaign of the CPDM candidate at the 2018 poll.

This time around, there are also complaints that the CPDM is applying a divide and rule Machiavellian tactics to split the Cameroonian Party for National Reconciliation, PCRN, which has five parliamentarians and seven councils, in what has over the decades been a CPDM fief.

Such a divisive scheme comes to play in an effort to achieve goals or retain power with the exhibition of three main characteristics: the actors lack empathy, they are deliberate, and are self-confident.

The Robert Kona-led PCRN faction had no empathy for expelling Hon Cabral Libii, who in the 2018 presidential poll, brought the party to national limelight, even beating the SDF. 

His personality was also influential in the parliament and council seats formerly held by the CPDM that he defeated.

Cabral Libii is seen as a threat in the skin of the ruling party, which is why the CPDM is being implicated in the tumultuous split of a part he incarnates.

Before the party’s controversial congress last week, there were media reports that the faction leader, Robert Kona, and the CPDM are now hand-in-hand. 

In fact, Robert Kona, co-founder and First President of the Cameroonian Party for National Reconciliation, had even met Mohamadou Bayero Fadil, CPDM alternate senator.

"The audience of Robert Kona in Garoua, alongside Fadil Bayero, was in prelude to the congress announced by the PCRN.

It was scheduled for May 25 to 26, 2024, in the city of Maroua”, where Bayero Fadil and the Lamido of Mokolo gave their open and unfailing support to Robert Kona, who had earlier been sacked from the party by Cabral Libii's faction.

Kona's government support had also been consolidated by instructions, not very high, from the Minister of Territorial Administration, MINAT, to Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, to recognise only Kona as leader of the PCRN.

Such recognition of party leaders in conflict by MINAT had on two occasions been rendered null and void by the courts in the case of Union des Populations du Cameroun, UPC, and Kah Warah's Cameroon People’s Party, CPP, evoking the rule in political party disputes.  

Earlier, Cabral Libii’s lawyers had pointed out Kona's blatant disregard for justice, by continuing to proclaim himself president of the PCRN, despite a case still in court.

Barrister Roger Bebe, in a press release, expressed his certainty as to Cabral Libii’s victory in the affair and predicted humiliation for Kona in the courts.

According to officials of the faction of the opposition party, Robert Kona, did not defy the May 21 ruling of the Maroua Court of First Instance to hold the congress but acted in legality.

The faction said it had filed an appeal at the Maroua Appeal Court, through Barrister Dili Gerard, on May 22, and got a stay of execution of the judgment that prohibited the congress that was first programmed for Maroua on May 25 and 26.

The Kona-led faction argued that it was on the strength of the stay of execution that the congress of June 1, 2024, was held in all legality and respect of the laws in force. 

The congress resulted in the voting of Kona, as the National Chairman of the PCRN and expulsion of 20 others.

Why the Maroua Divisional Officer allowed the congress to take place is also explained by a report by Cabral Libii, divulging that secret meetings between Robert Kona and officials from the Ministry of Territorial Administration, had taken place. 

It is unclear if it was at such meetings that Kona's faction got the okay for the controversial congress. It is however human that in a political contest, no contestant wants to be the loser. 

It is naturally painful to be defeated in an election, but politicians in the ruling party should take it as a game, as dirty as some commentators say it is. 

The Guardian Post can only advise that the ruling party should concentrate on convincing the electorate with their achievements rather than employing divisive tactics in the opposition that could boomerang them into the nadir of ignominy in defeat.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No3133 of Thursday June 06, 2024