2025 presidentials: Grand North elite announces movement to dismantle Biya regime!.

Less than 16 months to the 2025 presidential poll, expected to hold in October next year, such political ideas have begun to animate political space.

For one thing, declarations holding strong to the commitment to end the over four decades rule of Biya, have reached different proportions in recent months.

Those who have shared their opinion in this light are unshaken that they have what it takes to provoke a national political renaissance to upset the current status quo.

What is becoming interesting is that aside the recurrent known faces and political platforms that have been in the ring positioning for a showdown, which many are apprehensive is much ado about nothing, other unique forces are threatening from the shadows to rattle the nation and send President Paul Biya on political retirement in a spectacular manner.

This is the case with Aboubakar Ousmen Mey, an elite of the Grand North political zone, comprising the North, Adamawa and Far North Regions. 

He has announced the existence of a grouping, working to dismantle the Biya regime in the next presidential poll.

Aboubakar, who is the national president of the Cameroon National Alliance and founder of the Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO, Justice Plus, made the disclosure in a recent interview he granted Douala-based Equinoxe TV. 

This was during the magazine program La Verite En Face, on Sunday July 7, 2024.

In the exchange, Aboubakar said, 42 years is more than enough for Biya and the CPDM to hold the reins of power in Cameroon. He declared that he and other persons are working on what he repeatedly referred to as “Coordination,” to put an end to the Biya regime. 

Aboubakar said they have given themselves a 15-month deadline to deliver on the agenda, as the presidential election is expected to hold in October 2025.

Putting an end to the CPDM regime, he averred, is more important than arguments over the extension of the mandates of Members of the National Assembly and municipal councillors.

 According to him, the most pressing thing is to do away with the Biya regime. He said there will be positive changes across the board. 

Quizzed on the long ties between the Grand North and the New Deal regime of Biya, Aboubakar said in the last 42 years, there is nothing the people can be proud of having benefited from the Biya regime.

He rather painted a picture of poverty, misery and insecurity reigning in the Grand North. Aboubakar argued that the time has come for the people to do an assessment of what the Biya regime has offered them in the last four decades and still counting.

“We want to finish what Ahidjo started”

Sizing up what has been cooking in the shadows, Aboubarkar said on June 18, 2024, they held a meeting at the Lac neighbourhood in Yaounde, to deepen exchanges. 

This, he said, was under the banner of the “Coordination”.

 He said they chose the date in reflection of the June 18, 1983, meeting former President, the late Ahmadou Ahidjo, held in the same neighbourhood, when he fell out with Biya. 

He recalled that at the time, Ahidho had asked some of his confidants in the Biya regime to resign.

Fast forward to now, he said the Coordination has been formed to complete what President Ahidjo started then. Aboubakar said that mission is to remove Biya from power. 

Quizzed if the grouping is pushing for a forceful takeover, Aboubakar quipped: “It is the field that determines strategy” 

“Prolongation of mandates of MPs and councillors, I don’t have a problem with that. Our interest is to remove Biya from power,” he said.

He disclosed that he has had exchanges with people such as Hon Jean Michel Nintcheu and Prof Olivier Bile, who are heading coalitions also pushing for regime change.

Despite such encounters, Aboubakar said the Coordination is different, in that it is not a grouping of political parties. He divulged that the grouping, which face would soon be unveiled, is a combination of compatriots seeking to end what he termed “the corrupt Biya regime”.

“We are a Coordination which wants to face even death. We have men and women today like you and I who follow things that are going on without getting involved. When you want to come up with a platform in the opposition, you are marginalised.  We have to explain the realities that we have a bad Electoral Code…we have to discuss to know if the elections are really credible,” Aboubarkar declared.

“The train has left the station”

 He indicated that serious actions are already on course and there are things the grouping he is referring to, has to explain to Cameroonians. That message, he said, must be delivered through a structure.

“We have serious issues to explain to Cameroonians,” he said, before insisting that: “I can’t decide for everybody. My mission is to tell you that the train has left the station. The Coordination is not an alliance. We are talking of a lot of organisations still in the shadows with same objective”. 

“Biya at origin of Cameroon’s problems”

In the thinking of Aboubakar, incumbent President Paul Biya is responsible for the nation’s challenges. He argued that at 91, the Head of State should leave the stage but regretted that, he is rather working with his cronies, to block other ambitious Cameroonians, who have the same rights as him.

“Biya is at the origin of all Cameroon’s problems. Corruption and other challenges we have are by-products of the Biya regime. He should be stopped, if not, Cameroon would disintegrate. We can’t accept that the entire country is destroyed because of one person. Does it mean there is no other reasonable person in Cameroon?  We have people who understand, we will work together,” the Grand North elite remarked.

“The Grand North has vomited Biya”

Among other claims, Aboubakar said the three Northern Regions, from where the CPDM has been having most of its votes, do not want Biya again.

“This regime has been surviving on the Grand North. We are going where we should go. 42 years is a good time to go. We don’t want him again,” he declared, before further arguing that even the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, can continue issuing warning messages as many times as he wants, but nothing will change.

“They don’t want to see him. The MINAT boss can talk of Molinex, as many times as he wants…the truth remains that the people of the Grand North don’t want to see him again…”.

Reminded that the 15-month deadline the grouping he is talking about will expire in September 2025, whereas the next presidential election will take place in October 2025, Aboubakar said: “A good driver knows the distance and knows the litres of fuel needed to cover his journey. We know we are going to”. 

“We are actively working with Diaspora”

Insisting what he claims is the work being done underground, Aboubakar gave to understanding that there are several persons behind the scenes. 

In addition, he said the Diaspora is very much involved in what the Coordination is doing. 

“I am not doing this alone. We are working together with the Diaspora that is very active. I mean very active. The Coordination is above alliances. You should understand.  We don’t want Biya again”.

“Time for Grand North to count gains”

He was categorical that if Biya and his allies want to argue, they will shut businesses to do an assessment of what the people of the Grand North have benefitted for the unflinching support he has been getting from them, for the past 42 years.

“In the Lake Chad zone, villages are empty because of insecurity but in the records of ELECAM, these villages have voters. We are going to close the boutiques and assess the accounts for 42 years,” he underscored.

He, in addition, criticised the children of the former President, the late Ahmadou Ahidjo, who he said, are working in close collaboration with the Head of State.

“Laws tailored to favour Biya”

Aboubakar also used his outing to share the view that everything in place is tailored to favour President Biya- from the Electoral Code to administrators; especially governors who have long attained retirement. He claimed that they are all working for Biya’s life presidency project.

Reminded of the late Minister Ahmadou Ali’s declarations to WikiLeaks that as long as Biya runs for an election, the Grand North will vote for him, Aboubakar averred that: “Institutional mechanisms and texts are not dogmatic. This regime is very pernicious. They have texts they manipulate the way they want. There are several bad things the regime has put in place. Public opinion is not different about this”.

Further linking the situation to a picture of the country which he painted as being in disarray, Aboubakar said the Delegate General for National Security has instituted a saluted Code of Ethics for police officers but what obtains at checkpoints nationwide is different.

Going by him, “we are in a country where embezzlement, sects and other crimes thrive”. He added that: “We don’t know what will happen tomorrow after Martinez Zogo. There are many names in the case file…we have elections coming. What will become of the protagonists of this case?”, he questioned.

“Grand North cheated in parliamentary seats”

To buttress his points, he cited the National Assembly, where according to him, the Grand North has only 51 seats, despite its huge population. 

Beyond further arguing that there are no updated statistics on the population of the three Grand North Regions, he lamented that: “When you see the geography of the Grand North and its population, we don’t even know how many we are. The sharing of parliamentary seats is simply banditry”.

“Things not working nationwide”

Besides, his focus on the Grand North, Aboubakar further claimed nothing is working in Cameroon. He said there are myriads of challenges across the nation, which can only be solved if a new era opens.

“I cry for our compatriots who are part of the regime and who are indexed in the name of the family. They should know that we are thinking about them…we have similar challenges. There are people like that whom we must explain to them that there is no discrimination,” Aboubakar explained.

On what strategy they are working on to effect change in Cameroon, come 2025, Aboubakar restated: “We have seen that things are not working in the country. We are not inventing anything new. We had our forefathers and saw how they handled things, even during the colonial period. There is nothing to worry about, we know what to do”.

“No voice too small to return power to Grand North”

Putting the Coordination side by side other movements in the Grand North, with intention to recapture power, Aboubakar said there is no voice too small to achieve what he baptised as a lofty dream.

Citing the case of Guibai Gatama, who has similar opinion under the Dix Millions des Nordists (10 million Northerners Movement), Aboubarkar said: “All of that is taken into account. I have met him several times…he is a journalist who is also into politics…I don’t know his political party. But his opinion has a lot of influence. In reality, there is no voice too small to return power to the Grand North”.

“Biya, Ahidjo worlds apart”

Aboubakar, during Sunday’s Equinoxe TV outing, also criticised Biya’s long stay in power. He explained that it is a product of disparity between the people of the Grand North and those in the South. 

Northerners, he said, have the mentality of sharing, unlike the people of the Southern part of the country, who, he said, believe in confiscating power and having everything for themselves.

He argued that Ahidjo, a Muslim from the Grand North, opted to hand over power to Biya, from the South Region, as a show of the importance of sharing.

“The mentality of the people of the North is to share. President Ahidjo and Biya are two different worlds apart. Adhidjo did that by handing over power to Biya, who is a Catholic in from the South Region. Biya has forgotten about that too soon,” he analysed.

 He expressed frustration at what he said are people from a particular tribe and Region, being given all the juicy posts in the country, while others are left with nothing or crumbs.

Aboubakar likened the development to what he termed: “Political banditry,” insisting that “…it is the same people who steal. They have taken the juicy posts…they dominate everyone in all sectors…”.

Contact with Northerners in gov’t

On what senior Grand North elite in government, especially political party leaders, think about the push for change, Aboubakar detailed his encounters with Issa Tchiroma Bakari of the National Salvation Front, FSNC; Ahmadou Mustapha of the National Alliance for Democracy and Progress, ANDP. 

He equally narrated his ordeal of trying to engage Bello Bouba Maigari of the National Union for Democracy and Progress, NUDP, on the same project.

In the words of Aboubakar, “Minister Tchiroma is very elegant and said he is with Biya till the end. Minister Moustapha also received me…we didn’t arrive at any decision. Bello Bouba did not receive me”. 

“Bello Bouba’s influence dwindling”

In the case of Bello Bouba, he said: “In the past, when one talked of Bello Bouba, people likened him to Ahidjo… but now, the consequences are there. He is alone. His party has moved from 85 MPs to just one. It is the regime that has elevated him for political colouration. UNDP supporters have revolted but we have to continue to progress because there are new POLITICAL parties coming up”. 

Admitting that dialogue is on to better sell the project of the movement, Aboubakar revisited the case of Minister Issa Tchiroma, indicating that he “was a force in yesteryears. That is why I went to exchange with him. He is supporting Biya not CPDM. We don’t have roads, he knows. He knows there is inequality in the governance process.

“Movement’s face must not be a northerner” 

He precised that “by the end of this month, we will give our Coordination a face”.

He, however indicated that “the profile of the leader has to be someone who will not retreat in the face of threats and challenges”.

The person to incarnate the movement, he also said, “is supposed to carry on with files from the Ahidjo era that have been idling”. He also clarified that such a person must not be a northerner.

Possible alliance with Anglophones

On what he thinks about power going to Anglophones, after two successive Francophones have ruled the country for over sixty years, Aboubakar was not escapist.

“It is a democratic question. If there is a person from there whom we can rally behind, why not such a person be chosen,” he said.

He disclosed that discussions are ongoing with some Anglophones. “We have had exchanges. There are things I don’t want to say. The North West and South West Regions are red zones. Those with whom we are talking have relatives and we don’t know what Amba fighters can do to them,” he stated.

 Moving forward, he declared, “We have decided to work with them in the background. We are working together…they are the ones in difficulty…”.

He also queried the Biya regime for failing to solve the armed conflict in the North  West and  South West Regions for close to  nine years. Aboubakar said the government cannot spend billions in the conflict for years and lack resources to organise elections.

On this premise, he said the postponement of some elections is a hidden agenda to stop the opposition from taking over power.

He gave to understanding that President Biya has a history of always behaving as not being in the know but in reality understands several dynamics.

“It is Biya’s method. He gives the impression that he knows nothing…but if you read through his political catalogue, he always gives the impression of innocence but he knows everything that is happening,” Aboubakar stated.

Time for inclusive dialogue, coalition gov’t

On his belief that there is need to overhaul several things in Cameroon, for peace to reign, Aboubakar proposed the need to dissolve parliament, organise an inclusive dialogue and the need for a coalition government with everyone on board.

Such a scenario with the active participation of the Diaspora, he maintained, is needed to review several things not going well in the country.

Another benefit of the proposal, Aboubakar said, will be putting an end to the killings in the North West and South West Regions. He questioned why government is only bent on the military option, when it is easy to come out of the situation through dialogue.

“…with all political actors, we can address the Anglophone crisis,” he enthused, adding that: “Bringing people together in one room is not a difficult thing”. 

He also blamed the continuation of the conflict on the lack of enough political will, on the part of the Biya regime.

“Even within CPDM, people are tired”

Exuding confidence that the grouping he is holding briefs for, is enjoying popular support, Aboubakar said event within Biya’s CPDM, there are people desiring change.

“We are in a different context. 42 years in power, even in his camp, people are tired,” he claimed.

“Difficult to defeat Biya, but no going back”

On the political architecture of the country, Aboubakar shared the view that it is very demanding to defeat Biya. 

“The mechanism put in place by ELECAM is difficult. Nobody can win an election in Cameroon, except Biya; even it is one person who votes. 

“Where we are, if he provokes us, there is no going back”, he vowed.

Asked if such is akin to MRC National President, Prof Maurice Kamto’s tough declarations of being ready for the worst, Aboubakar said they are far from taking such a path.

“Prof Kamto is a law genius, but the political terrain is difficult. It is true he has a tough-talking posture but we are far from that,” he said. 

He indicated that: “In the North West and South West Regions, we are not seeing clearly what is happening there. In the Far North Region, there are villages without people there…”.

Atanga Nji capable of effecting threats on opposition

On the repeated threats from the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, that there will be no room for chaos before, during and after the 2025 elections, Aboubakar said the minister has the gumption of making real such threats.

He said he disagrees with the method, but added tha Atanga Nji is largely counting on ordering security forces around against opposition stakeholders. 

The political actor however questioned whether “Atanga Nji is sure the forces of law and order will attack Cameroonians because of a regime approaching its end?”.

 In this era, he said “there is democracy…we should allow people express themselves. He should wait when there is threat to public peace and order. He should allow Cameroonians work for transition. We are in 2024. All the 10 governors are already on retirement. It will not be business as usual”.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3165 of Thursday July 10, 2024