October 12 poll: Osih face-to-face with Cameroonians whose relatives he petitioned US to deport!.

At its March 2021, National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting in Yaounde, the SDF frowned at the petition to the US Congress. 

In doing so, NEC tasked the majority CPDM Parliamentarians, including their own Hon Joshua Osih, to, with the same vigour, “cause Parliament, with the CPDM obsessed majority and the Head of State, to bring the Anglophone problem to the floor for discussion...otherwise the SDF MP's signature to the petition be withdrawn".

As was expected, NEC's demands were trashed in a bin. Notwithstanding, Osih did not bulge. And just as his candidature for President of the Republic has been endorsed by ELECAM, the Trump Administration and the US courts have finalised an arrangement to end the protection, from August 4, 2025, as he and his CPDM peers had demanded.

As is trending on the international media, a US Federal Appeals Court decision has cleared the path for the Trump Administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for over 5,000 Cameroonians currently living in the United States of America.

The ruling allows the Trump Administration to proceed with plans to terminate deportation protections and work permits for Cameroonian citizens and Afghanistan, despite ongoing legal challenges.

The US Court of Appeal for the 4th Circuit found that their appeal by an immigration advocacy group challenging the decision presented a plausible case. 

However, the court determined there was not enough evidence to block the Trump Administration from phasing out TPS while litigation continues. TPS for Cameroonians is set to expire on August 4, 2025.

Approximately 5,200 Cameroonians are enrolled on the programme, though an estimated 200 have green cards and will not be affected. Those losing TPS protections may apply for asylum or other legal relief, or otherwise face deportation.

The Trump Administration argues that conditions in Cameroon, despite persistent violence from separatist and extremist groups, have improved enough to justify ending protection and offering jobs to Cameroonians who they say are sending millions back home to support their families.

The advocacy groups have strongly disagreed, citing ongoing humanitarian crises and unsafe conditions, particularly in the two Regions affected by the armed conflict.

The decision comes at a time Hon Osih is banking on majority votes from the two affected Anglophone Regions, which are the backbone of the SDF; to have a shot at the presidency. He is hoping to improve from his score of less than 4 percent at the 2018 presidential election.

When ELECAM announced the success of his candidature last week, in a speech evidently referring to the two English-speaking Regions, formerly SDF's fief, but where the party has lost support in recent years amid accusations of inaction during the escalating crisis, he said: “I hear you. I see you”, in what commentators said was a deliberate departure from past political ambivalence. 

“Let this moment mark the beginning of a new era-where we do not need to fight with guns, but with ballots. Let us rise - from Bamenda to Maroua, from Buea to Bertoua. Let us march not in fear, but with hope,” he said. 

The rhetoric may be designed to revive grassroots enthusiasm, especially among youth, unemployed graduates, and disenfranchised rural populations.

Cameroonians, mainly the youth, who will likely to be deported from the US, as from August 4, 2025, to swell the unemployed market in the country, will likely put Osih to task, over his role in their deportation. 

In addition, political analysts say Osih's previous public speeches have been "unstable, incoherent and contradicting both himself and the SDF".

Before his investiture, he was not interested in alliance with other political parties but with labour unions. 

Faced with a climate of uncertainty and deportation of fellow compatriots he petitioned for and high stakes, his message of "unity and change," may resonate only if he converts words into a mobilisation machine, overcoming decades of electoral inertia and institutional skepticism.

Above all, how will Osih handle his decision to write to the American Congress, not to protect his compatriots? How will Hon Osih, a representative of the people, convince those in the North West and South West Regions, to vote for him, when he endorsed the petition to have their relatives deported from the US?

At The Guardian Post, we make bold to say that Osih will have an uphill task reconciling himself with those whose relatives will be deported from the US, because of the petition he joined CPDM MPs to sign.

In addition, thousands of Anglophones who escaped the armed conflict in the North West and South West Regions, are still languishing in refugee camps in neighbouring Nigeria. We are told Anglophones still bear a grudge against Osih, a prominent SDF Member of Parliament, because he did not as much as table the crisis in the North West and South West Regions, in Parliament, before it was rejected.

The Guardian Post, however, wishes him good luck as he navigates his way to the Unity Palace. 

To Osih's advantage, though, is his rich manifesto; considered the best among those being brandished by the 13 aspirants retained by ELECAM.

Among other things, his manifesto focuses on ending the more than eight years armed- conflict in the North West and South West Regions; which used to be the bastion of the SDF.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3519 of Wednesday July 30, 2025