2025 presidentials: Of jokers, spoilers & candidates.

But many are just hiding behind their computer monitors to declare their candidatures, as if a presidential election at this critical point, which is pregnant with uncertainty in the country's history, is a circuit show.

The presidential poll of October is an event that can make or mar the nation, which should explain why the United Nations is coming in to give ELECAM, a helping hand to ensure a peaceful, free, fair and credible election; irrespective of the flaws that have been pointed out in the Electoral Code by international observers and credible opposition.

Elections in Cameroon, based on experience and critical analysis, are influenced significantly by tribal and clan sensibilities. As Jeune Afrique has pointed out "…ethnic divides have also become more prominent in Cameroon, especially since the 2018 presidential election. At the heart of these tensions are two groups laying claims to power".

The first, the Bamileke, wield significant economic authority in Cameroon. Elite from this group control much of the economy and dominate the manufacturing industry. 

People from this ethnicity mostly occupy the West of Cameroon and have strong cultural ties to one of the Anglophone Regions, despite their Francophone colonial heritage.

The second, the Bulu-Beti axis, wield significant political power. Since Biya came to power, "handpicked” by Cameroon's first President, the late Amadou Ahidjo, elite from this group have seen themselves as the country's natural rulers. 

“The rivalry between the Bamileke and Bulu-Beti axis came to a head in the run-up to the October 2018 presidential election; in which President Biya ran for a seventh term against his main challenger, Maurice Kamto, a Bamileke. In the campaign, supporters of both sides engaged in inflammatory ethnic rhetorics, with the most xenophobic attacks coming from the Bulu-owned Vision4 Television," Jeune Afrique reported.

Seven years have passed. Anti-hate speech and "living together" campaigns are being carried out regularly, especially by the Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism, to blot the clan card but it has not fizzled out in political discourse.

It is an issue those who have been announcing their intention to run for office ought to crystallise for voters to assess their seriousness. 

It requires a constitutional policy of a national character, where top government appointments, parliamentary seats and investment budgets should be shared according to the population, land mass and source of derivation of natural resources.

That policy of a national character in sharing resources and public office should significantly calm the tribal and marginalisation tension often at the nexus of national elections.

However, of all those who have declared their intention to run for the highest office of the land, only three are worth mentioning. They are the globally acclaimed anti-corruption champion, Akere Muna, Maurice Kamto and Cabral Libii. The rest are just jokers and at best, spoilers hustling for crumbs or cheap personal publicity sound bites.

The three are, however, curiously challenging each other, rather than going into a union to get a candidate that should give the ruling party a run for its money.

Judging by the results of the last presidential election, Kamto and Cabal are front runners. Cabal has jabbed at Kamto below the belt but without the temerity to call him by name. 

"If people were with Fru Ndi in 1992, they abandoned him to enter the government…those who were in the CPDM and return to the opposition, it's just because they are in difficulty...if you form a coalition with someone who worked for the regime, expect him to betray you tomorrow," Cabral had stated. 

When Cabral was fact-checked by renowned journalist and media mogul, Alex Gustave Zébazé, it emerged that: "In 1992, during the first pluralist presidential election, Maurice Kamto, like many civil actors, including the late Pius Njawe, joined the Union for Change and campaigned for Fru Ndi, the leader of the SDF and opposition candidate supported by an electoral coalition of the ARC-CNS. Prof Kamto has never been an activist of the SDF not to talk of the CPDM, despite being a senior civil servant in the higher education sector and then Minister Delegate for Justice. In fact, the MRC is the first political party for which the emeritus academic took out a membership card”.

The MRC does not have a specific platform on federalism, but it opposes current government decisions on several issues such as corruption, public financial management, justice reforms, and the protection of human rights.

Other policies proposed by Kamto include regionalisation, but he does not oppose federalism and remains a significant political force in Cameroon. He is supported by an alliance of many political parties.

For Cabral Libii, he has on television touted "...the policy of community federalism in which all Cameroonians will be called upon to settle wherever they want, to integrate wherever they want, and to work wherever they want".

He is of the opinion that "when gold or oil is mined in a community or Region, 30% of the revenue generated by the exploitation should primarily benefit the Region in question".

Cabral Libii, the youngest among the three main contenders, is also playing the youth card. 

“I am elected President of the Republic, I will do exactly the opposite of what we currently have in Cameroon, where a whole country has been taken hostage by a pacifist generation.  We think we can build Cameroon with new energy, freshness, new intelligence, but also with experience,” he said. 

Akere, an anti-corruption advocate and international legal consultant who backed Kamto in the 2018 poll, is being backed by some 20 opposition parties and civil society organisations.

Akere's endorsement underscores his appeal across various segments of Cameroonian society. 

"We are at a crossroads in our nation's history, and we believe that Akere Muna embodies the change that this country so desperately needs," Nkou Mvondo declared during the endorsement, and highlighted his track record in both national and international governance.

As Muna said after the endorsement: "The time for change is now...we must restore dignity to the Cameroonian people by building a government that is accountable, transparent, and serves the interest of all citizens, not just a select few".

With some three percent at the last presidential election, Osih Joshua, coming from the SDF, whose base in the North West and South West Regions has been shattered by a bloody conflict for eight years, could just be a spoiler if he doesn't support a single candidate, which remains the crucial issue within the opposition.

Without a united opposition to select a single candidate, a splinter opposition going into the October poll with selfish candidates could all be spoilers escorting the CPDM back to Unity Palace; in the hope of personal vaunting ambitions that they could join the government.

Will Kamto, Cabral, Akere and Osih be recorded in history as those who, for egoistic interests, refused change that resonates with the electorate who are frustrated by over four decades of entrenched political power and economic inequality, under the aegis of rigour and moralisation that have fizzled out with time? 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3452 of Thursday May 22, 2025