Ahead of October election: Civil society activist, Bibiana Dighambong, pens emotional letter to Biya.

Bibiana Dighambong who is Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of Bihndumlem Association of Peace and Hope, BIHAPH, told President Biya to step aside and protect his legacy.

The civil society actor who holds a BA in Social Science, told Biya that having ruled the country for 42 long years, the time to take a deserved rest was now.

Bibiana Dighambong who in 2021 won the prestigious Canada’sIrwin Cotler Award  said it was: “with unbearable pain and heavy tears that I write these words. These are not ordinary words; they are the cries of a bleeding nation”.

The serial author said her words were “…the cries of children who have watched their parents slaughtered before their eyes by men sworn to protect them”.

“They are the cries of parents who have buried their children with trembling hands and broken hearts. They are the silent tears of women who have watched their husbands executed, of daughters and mothers whose bodies have been turned into battlefields through rape and humiliation,” she said, adding that: “They are the groanings of countless men and women languishing behind bars, whose only crime was daring to speak for justice, for equality, for dignity, and for a land they could truly call their own”.

The rights advocate told Biya that her words are the cries of thousands living in exile not because they sought greener pastures, but because home turned into a place of fear, pain, and rejection. 

“They are the cries of families scattered across borders, shattered beyond repair, their bonds torn apart by the violence of a war they never chose,” she added.

The humanitarian and peace advocate told the Head of State that youths of the country, stripped of hope “now take the deadliest and most desperate journeys across seas and deserts, seeking life in foreign lands because they no longer see a future in the country of their birth”.

She reminded him that “when you ascended to power, I was still a child in Primary Two. I remember vividly the joy, the music, the celebrations. Cameroon was hailed as the ‘Africa in Miniature,’ a land of peace, beauty, and promise. Our villages were playgrounds where children laughed freely, even when they had nothing, because peace was everything”.

She then regretted that: “But today, those playgrounds have become graveyards. The rivers that once gave life now carry the stains of blood. Towns like Bamenda where the New Deal was born in jubilations now resemble Gaza or Baghdad: ruins filled with a people walking like shadows of themselves, ‘The Walking Dead,’ as Aristotle once described”.

Bibiana Dighambong said she was writing the letter not only as a citizen, but as one who has sacrificed, fought, and bled to stop the impending calamity that now consumes Cameroonians.

“I gave my life to rebuild, to heal, to prevent tragedy. Yet, even my own family was not spared. I too became a casualty of this war. Coming from one of the controversial mediation talks, life seemed to leave me but I rose again to fight for the children, for the voiceless, for those who cannot fight for themselves,” she stated.

Darker days than ever, time for the needful

In her emotion-packed epistle to the Head of State, Bibiana Dighambong noted that: “As I write to you today, the days ahead look darker than ever. Danger looms. Our children have risen to say they can no longer endure this suffering. Yet, they are being silenced, repressed, and locked behind prison walls. You alone hold the key to save this nation from a complete collapse. History has placed this burden on your shoulders”.

“We know you may feel powerless in many ways, but you still have the power of choice to send your emissaries, to speak your message of resignation, and to allow for free and fair elections,” she continued, noting that “one act can give this nation a chance at redemption, a path away from the looming bloodbath”.

She pleaded with Biya whom she said came to power as a “symbol of hope” not to “leave as the author of destruction”.

“Do not let Cameroon, this beautiful triangle, drown completely in blood. Let your legacy be the gift of peace, the handing over of a nation’s future to its children,” she pleaded. 

“These are not just my tears. They are the tears of millions. The tears of blood that stain the soil of our beloved land. History will remember you, Papa. May it remember you as the man who, even at the sunset of his reign, chose peace over war, life over blood, and hope over despair,” Bibiana Dighambong concluded.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3541 of Friday August 22, 2025