In open letter: Tchiroma unleashes tear-provoking misery in Grand North.

His latest thoughts are contained in an open later, addressed to the President of the National Assembly, Rt. Hon Cavaye Yeguie Djibril. 

In the letter, dated September 2, 2025, Tchiroma made a critical review of the acute underdevelopment of the Adamawa, North and Far North Regions.

The politician and former minister put the blame on the Head of State, Paul Biya, himself and all elite of the Grand North in government.

Tchiroma said his conscience has been pricking him on certain issues about the Grand North and the nation at large. He said there is no excuse the elite or Biya can give on the terrible state of the Grand North.

Statistics from national institutions and international development partners, Tchiroma said, show the Grand North is the poverty basin of Cameroon.

“…we are responsible for the poverty and underdevelopment in Grand North,” he penned in his letter, insisting that posterity will judge him and others who have served in government but did nothing to address the situation.

Wisdom, he reminded the National Assembly Speaker, demands that one sweeps his yard before looking at what is happening elsewhere.

The FSNC leader assessed the despondency in the Grand North, before touching on other development issues in the East and South Regions and the Anglophone crisis. He asked Cavaye if they will continue to convince people to vote Biya.

Northing to show in 43 years of voting Biya 

According to Tchiroma, the three Northern Regions have nothing to boast of, in 43 years of consistently supporting the Head of State, Paul Biya.

He reminded Cavaye about the economic hardship of the Grand North, its near absence from the public service and huge youthful population without a future among others. The politician, in his missive, raised more questions than provided answers. 

Despite having the highest number of voters, Tchiroma noted that the Grand North is on the fringes in terms of the sharing of the national cake.

Restating his desire to overhaul the situation, if voted into the highest office of the land on October 12, Tchiroma disclosed that the three Northern Regions make up just seven percent of those serving in the public service.

Public service recruitments, he insisted, have been limited to competitive examinations. This, he said, lives the poor and uneducated majority of the Grand North out. 

In cases where Grand North indigenes can try their luck, Tchiroma said such recruitments are opaque. 

“Menial jobs are left for people of the Grand North…our youths are not among the engineers, architects and other professionals that can build Cameroon’s emergence,” he wrote, stating that: “…our children are retirees from birth”.

He added that of 120 billion FCFA paid out as salaries, the people of the Grand North benefit a cumulative that is still less than 10 billion FCFA.

Economically, he asserted that there is no businessman in the Grand North in Biya’s 43 years in power that is worth one billion FCFA. 

“The Grand North is the most miserable by all statistics,” he added, insisting that if nothing is done to address the situation, the three administrative units are on a slow path to irreversible underdevelopment.

Grand North kids relegated to menial jobs

Further decrying how disadvantaged the Grand North is, Tchiroma lamented that most of its children have been reduced to doing menial jobs. The former minister said the reverse is true when it comes to work that requires intellect.

He said he is disturbed that while he and others have given their children a future, through good education, the majority of those in the Grand North cannot boast of the same.

He asked Cavaye why the situation is so recurrent only in the Grand North and not elsewhere. He further questioned if it is the outcome of poverty, marginalisation or bad governance.

Grand North cut off from Biya 

Insinuating of a disconnect between Biya and the Grand North, Tchiroma said members of government from the area have not been able to meet Biya for years.  

Cavaye in particular, Tchiroma noted, has been unable to have an audience with Biya in the last five years to brief him on the running of the National Assembly and challenges of the Grand North.

Investment budget of South more than that of Grand North

Another claim in Tchiroma’s letter is that the investment budget of Biya’s native South Region for successive years has always been more than that of the three Northern Regions combined.

He noted that the woes of the Grand North are compounded by the non-execution of the few projects allocated to communities.

Touches challenges of East, NW, SW, South Regions

Beyond praising the ingenuity of the people of the West Region to create wealth, Tchiroma noted that aside the Grand North, there are challenges in the seven other Regions of the country.

In the East Region, he decried the haphazard exploitation of its rich subsoil without any returns for the population. 

The crisis in the North West and South West Regions, he insisted, can only be addressed politically. The chaos in the two Regions, he said, has swallowed 20 percent of the country’s riches. 

Biya’s South Region, he also said, is a shadow of itself, despite the huge resources allocated to it annually for its development.

Concluding, Tchiroma asked Cavaye if he and others are still going to defend Biya’s bad Report Card ahead of the October 12 poll.

Tchiroma said he, Cavaye and others in government know Biya can no longer govern. He presented himself as the man with the commitment to turn things around for Cameroon to become a prosperous and united nation.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3554 of Thursday September 04, 2025