Guibai Gatama: Northerners are fully determined…no turning back.

The declaration came a day after Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary banged the door on the Biya regime and declared to run for office of president at the forthcoming October election.

Guibai, who has been rooting for a northerner to replace Biya, 92, was blunt in his outing yesterday. 

Guibai’s comments emerged as rumour has been making the rounds on social media that Tourism and Leisure minister, Bello Maigari, is on the verge of resigning his office to join a northern political alliance to unseat Biya at the crucial October presidential election.

In his comment published on Facebook and shared widely on other social networks, Guibai Gatama, asserted that the stance of the North will significantly influence the outcome of the forthcoming election, revealing that the northern regions will soon make their political direction known. 

Speaking via his now viral Facebook message, Guibai stated that the North’s position will become clear in the days ahead.

According to Guibai, who sits atop the 10 Millions de Nordistes political movement, the decision will shape the outcome of the next presidential election. 

He was categorical “Make no mistake: Northerners are determined to play a central role in the political life of our country”.

Guibai was quick to add that: “Neither insults nor innuendos, however malicious, can’t weaken our determination. What you are seeing today is just a warm-up. The real game is starting and we will be there, today and tomorrow”.

Guibai’s unrelenting lobbying for the North

Though he has since gone mute with his presidential ambitions, Guibai Gatama, it should be said, had last year, made public his intention to run for office of president.

His declaration was no surprise, given the fact that Guibai Gatama has, for years, been advocating better representation of the Grand North (Far North, North and Adamawa Regions) in Cameroon's governing bodies. 

Guibai has also, through a movement he midwifed, known as 10 Millions de Nordistes, and his newspaper L'Oeil du Sahel, been clamouring for better conditions for the Grand North, in terms of infrastructure, health, education, potable water, energy, among other social amenities.

After Guibai’s intention to run in the 2025 presidential election was made public, the populations of the three northern regions, who are said to be fed up with the Biya regime, are reported to have thrown their weight behind him. 

In backing Guibai, they said the leader of the 10 Millions de Nordistes movement “is the only hope to redeem northerners from decades of neglect and failed promises from the CPDM government”. 

Suffering from neglect

It should be noted that though the Grand North, with its large number of voters, has always voted for the CPDM regime, and is key in the national political chessboard, the three northern Regions have remained among the most underdeveloped Regions in the country. 

Despite its support for the CPDM regime over the years, northerners say they have nothing to show for it. 

Potable water is lacking in many communities, while schools are few and far between with some pupils and students learning under trees or in ramshackle school buildings. 

Poverty is discernible in most communities and the Boko Haram insurgency has exacerbated the already-delicate economic situation in that part of the country. 

Desertification in the Far North Region, for example, has debilitated economic activities such as fishing, livestock farming and agriculture.

Feeling short-changed by the CPDM, which they have often voted for, the population of the Grand North, analysts say, will definitely vomit the Biya regime to embrace one of theirs who has often shown unflinching concern for the betterment of the lot of the Grand North. 

It should be noted that the first president of Cameroon was from the Grand North and a vast majority of the people of the three northern Regions have often expressed the desire for the position of President of the Republic to return to Grand North.

An elite of the Grand North, Aboubakar Ousmane Mey, in a press interview years back, had said northerners will go to any length to see that power returns to the Grand North after Biya.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3486 of Friday June 27, 2025