October 12 poll: Foumban conference of change & money mongers!.

The opposition leaders from the four geopolitical Regions of Cameroon, who met in Foumban, last Saturday vowed to: "Solemnly affirm our unwavering determination to confront the stagnation and existential threat, posed by the regime in power, for over 43 years. For more than four decades, the Cameroonian people have suffered systemic oppression, economic marginalisation, and the stifling of democratic freedoms," they said in a declaration that sanctioned the gathering.

Other invited opposition leaders, for one reason or the other, boycotted with excuses which are understandable in politics, often a "dirty game." It is their democratic right though.

However, those present represented the five geopolitical Regions of the Grand North, Anglophones, West Region, Centre/East and South/Litoral. 

Akere Muna represents the Anglophones and draws a significant following from the French-speaking Regions, with his impeccable bilingualism. He is backed by political parties and civil society organisations that cut across the entire country.

Issa Tchiroma is a political force to be reckoned with in the Grand North and rivaled only by Bello Bouba Maigari, who was absent in Foumba but felt the meeting could have been held after the final ruling of the Constitutional Council.

Other political actors conspicuously present were Celestin Bidzigui, National President of the Liberal Alliance Party, PAL; Bougha Hagbe Jacques, presidential candidate of the Cameroon National Citizen Movement, MCNC; Prof Prosper Nkou Mvondo; National President of UNIVERS; and Serge Espoire Matomba, First Secretary of the United People for Social Renovation, PURS, also a candidate.

Others were Karamoko Soulemanou, Secretary General of the Cameroon National Salvation Front, FSNC, of Issa Tchiroma who represented the presidential candidate; Dr Pierre Balequel Nkot, Secretary General of the Union des Populations du Cameroun, UPC; and Prince Michael Ngwesse Ekosso, leader of the United Socialist Democratic Party USDP.

Prominent absentees were Cabral Libii, whose presidential investiture is being challenged at the Constitutional Council, while Prof Maurice Kamto was also concerned with the rejection of his candidature by ELECAM. 

Understandably, an alliance at that moment wasn't their priority.

Both Bello Bouba and Osih Joshua gave excuses that have been termed intangible. 

Their geopolitical zones were, however, adequately represented at the Foumban meeting whose initiator and host, Hon Tomaino Ndam Njoya, National President of the Cameroon Democratic Union, CDU, has a firm grip in the Noun Division of the West Region. Their mission, as they pledged, is "we commit ourselves to the choice of a consensual candidate around a common programme; and, we invite the people to play their role as citizens; by voting massively".

They also declared that, aware of the people's expressed will for change, "the upcoming presidential election is not just another ballot, but a decisive moment for the survival of our nation”. 

"Therefore, we declare: Unity in action, a new vision for Cameroon and the mobilisation of all Cameroonians -youth, women, men, civil society, and the Diaspora, to rise up as one, determined" to effect change.

In any democracy, change is the ultimate mission of any opposition candidate challenging the incumbent.

But in Cameroon, there are, as experience has demonstrated, pro ruling party candidates passing as "opposition," just to divide the opposition votes and facilitate the victory of the incumbent and be compensated, either by appointments or contracts after the victory.

It is therefore not strange to read in the frenetic arenas of social and conventional media phrases as "stomach politicians" and some opposition parties as "Sections of the CPDM", "Presidential Majority" or forming alliances to support the ruling party.

The Guardian Post hopes Bello Bouba Maigari, who had dined with the ruling party for over two decades, would not want to return to his vomit; after announcing his divorce with the CPDM?

As for Prof Maurice Kamto, The Guardian Post believes, whatever the decision of the Constitutional Council, he would join the Foumban group to give it the force of change.

Unlike others who see those who boycotted as "traitors", we at The Guardian Post do not think so. It is their right not to join an alliance, even when they know they can't score up to five percent in the presidential race.

In a country where poverty is at its peak, and the few rich in a maddingly competition to flaunt their illicit wealth with impunity, some of the fake opposition people take politics as a means to become overnight millionaires.

In “Electoral Capitalism”, authored by Jeffrey D. Broxmeyer, we read that: "...politics is again a place to make a fortune...politicians make themselves...millionaires."

Otherwise, how does one explain the fact that persons masquerading as opposition leaders, criticise the CPDM regime in the most virulent manner today; but the next day, they are appointed into government or given lucrative contracts and they immediately turn into praise singers of the same regime? 

At The Guardian Post, we suggest such should be labeled money politics or politics of money mongers, not traitors. Unfortunately for them, the electorate cannot be fooled by such 'opposition politicians' all the time. 

Hopefully, the continuation of the Foumban conference should expose the egoistic money mongers from the real opposition.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3524 of Tuesday August 05, 2025.