Shattered political alliances: Biya picking up broken pieces!.

At the weekend from the Yaounde Conference Centre, Bello Bouba Maïgari, president of National Union for Democracy and Progress, NUDP, who doubles as Minister of State, Minister of Tourism and Leisure, ruined its historic alliance with the ruling party and announced his candidacy for the presidential race, thus upsetting the electoral balance in the country's geopolitical scene.

Two days early, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, president of the National Salvation Front, FSNC, who was also Minister of Employment and Vocational Training, had abrogated his pact with the ruling party and followed it up with a resignation, which is the same action political commentators expect Bouba Bello to do in the days or hours ahead.

The complex problematic socio-political structure of the regime in power for over four decades has been broken. 

Given his "experience", President Biya, who is also National President of the ruling party, has started to pick up the broken pieces.

Just before Bello Bouba and his party slammed the door of their own 18-year alliance, the President reinforced the portfolio of one of the sons of the Grand North, Mounouna Foutsou. 
He was appointed to oversee the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training, cumulatively with his duties as Minister of Youth and Civic Education. He is charged with running the affairs of the ministry until a new minister is appointed.

A 58-year-old civil engineer from the Far North Region, Mounouna Foutsou, also a staunched Biya supporter, now finds himself at the helm of two strategic ministries, involving youth and employment.

A former Secretary of State for Secondary Education from 2009 to 2015, Foutsou will now have to juggle between promoting civic education and developing vocational training, which would facilitate the harmonisation of policies in favour of youth and employment- major problematic issues in the country.

According to government insiders, the acceptance of Tchiroma's resignation by the Head of State and the appointment of an interim minister at the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training, are part of a phase of “transitional management,” pending “new government orientations,” given that there are already five vacancies in the government team.

This provisional appointment does not only aim to ensure administrative continuity in a key ministerial department during a period of political realignments, but to appease a key constituency in the Grand North and the youth, who, as future leaders, are not in terms with the gerontocracy in place.

Foutsou, at 58, could be considered a ‘youth’ in such a government by the elders. It is left to be seen if the light political weight of the Grand North, will appease the young people yearning for change and the whole electoral block, some of whom have been hankering that "power should be returned" to them.

As The Guardian Post predicted and advised in this same column before the NUDP Congress, Bello Bouba made no ‘erreur’. 

But he has not finished his mission, if truly he wants change, which appears to be the aspirations of numerous Cameroonians who, in the words of Tchiroma, have been living in "misery for more than 42 years".

Although Bello Bouba and Tchiroma have announced their candidatures, we understand such gymnastics are often a bargaining strategy for an intended alliance of credible opposition parties.

What the two heavyweight politicians with a clout in the Grand North need to do is to form an alliance with the leading candidates who are Prof Maurice Kamto, Cabral Libii and Akere Muna, who have established some following and credibility among the electorate.

Both Bello Bouba and Tchiroma were for several years in a system which they have dumped for causing "miseries" to the population and inadequate and inefficient social amenities and infrastructure. They can't overnight succeed to appeal to the sentiments of voters to replace Biya.

Given their experience, and the soft underbelly of the ruling party they know so well, they can, and should be influential in helping to build a powerful alliance that will bring the change the people are yearning for.

The two bigwigs from the Grand North and other opposition party leaders gunning for the presidency should not however rest on the jubilation within their circle that breaking the alliance with the party in power is the end of the Biya regime.

Unpredictable and "experienced" Biya is not crying over spilled milk, instead he is picking up the broken pieces for support and the only thing that can threaten his party is for Bouba Bello and Issa Tchiroma to unite the opposition for a single candidate.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3489 of Monday June 30, 2025