NW elite back Donga Mantung for House of Chiefs presidency.

The change is expected to align with the shifts recorded during the regional elections of Sunday, November 30, 2025, that saw North West Fons voting for new traditional rulers to run their affairs.

With the results of the exercise now known, a lot of things are being put into perspective to know which Division produces the next President of the North West House of Chiefs. 

With incumbent HRM Fon Yakum Kevin Teuvih of Bambalang, having been re-elected to the house from Ngokentunjia Division, The Guardian Post has it on good authority that the currents pushing for a change of leadership at the helm of the North West House of Chiefs presidency, will be extremely difficult to overturn.

For one thing, all seven Divisions in the North West Region is said to have its eye on the Presidency of the House of Chiefs. 

Many are those who have been projecting arguments that to effectively give meaning to the decentralisation drive of the Head State and ensure inclusion, occupants of certain positions in the Regional Assembly should serve just for one term and hand over.

While what will happen at the level of the House of Divisional Representatives maybe continuity, the political clouds and interest around the royal chamber is the point of interest. 

The Division said to be closest to producing a candidate to succeed Fon Yakum, it is said, is Donga Mantung. 

The Division, we gathered from reliable sources, is counting on the Fon of Nkambe, His Majesty Nfor Amidu Nji, to head the House of Chiefs.

Fon Amidu is coming to the House of Chiefs for the first time. His list secured 59 votes. 

Other members on the list of Fon Amidu, who will be on for a baptism of fire in the House of Chiefs are; His Majesty Fon Thomas Kibussi and His Majesty Fon Kunde Timothy. 

The trio got a majority of votes while a second list that had at the helm Fon Ngwuim Samuel of Mbem village in Nwa Subdivision, got a miserable nine votes.

It makes meaning to note that Fon Nfor Amidu of Nkambe is also concurrently serving as President of Donga Mantung Chiefs Union. He is a royal who commands a lot of respect and influence across the Division and beyond. This alone, had made his election to the House of Chiefs a forgone conclusion.

When destiny chooses Donga Mantung

While the election of the North West House of Chiefs President is still days away, unimpeachable sources hold that elite of the North West Region converged on Bamenda to equally weigh the options of where the next occupant of the House of Chiefs should come from.

The Guardian Post gathered that after heated debates, elite unanimously accepted to go for balloting on the matter. Results of the balloting, we learnt, fell on Donga Mantung as the Division to produce the next House of Chiefs President. 

It is reported that while everyone seems okay with the outcome of the results of the balloting, sources hold that some groups are working behind the scene to resist the chance of Donga Mantung to head the House of Chiefs in the North West Region.

Why Donga Mantung is enjoying huge support 

Within the corridors of power, those who matter are said to be okay that it is Donga Mantung’s time now or never. Analysts say the Division has given so much to the State without being adequately compensated.

The former Prime Minister of blessed memory, Simon Achidi Achu, remains relevant for his axiom that “Politics na njangi, scratch my back I scratch ya own.” It has continued to hold sway to this day.

Political watchers are beginning to reason in same light, arguing and overpoweringly so, that Donga Mantung Division came out from the lot, stood in the gap for the Biya regime and turned its back on the illusionary separatists’ agenda from day one, even in the face of mockery from naysayers.

Many argue that Donga Mantung Division has not only scratched the back of the entire North West Region, Cameroon and President Biya but did so at a time the cloud of separation hovered over the two English-speaking Regions, thicker than at any time in the last six decades.

It is being said that how Donga Mantung and Nkambe in particular, stood out unique from the onset, by not only rejecting anything separatists but declaring unflinching support to State institutions, remains unique.

With the chips down today and many communities breathing an air of peace, Donga Mantung Division, observers are saying, fits squarely to be compensated with the position of North West House of Chiefs President. Others posit and rightly so, that the Division deserves even more. 

In the reasoning of political observers, handing the post of North West House of Chiefs to Donga Mantung Division, is what should naturally happen. 

This, they are sustaining, is at least to show to the people of the Division, and Nkambe in particular, that one good turn deserves another.

To let Donga Mantung Division produce the next occupant of the North West House of Chiefs, it is being said, would make extra meaning in giving matchless value to the virtues of peace, living together and  unity.

Records, it is being stated, are speaking in favour of Donga Mantung Division today, not by accident but based on the hard work of its traditional rulers and elite together with the population to contribute in protecting Cameroon from a nefarious separatist project.

Elite from across the North West Region who are fronting for Donga Mantung to produce the next House of Chiefs President, are pointing to the fact that since the Anglophone crisis started, the people of Nkambe in particular, have never observed separatist-imposed drives such as ghost towns, lockdowns and other deadly moves that slowed national development.

Rather, they say, Donga Mantung has been the shining example of where many destinies, businesses, families and engagements that separatists ventured to kill sort refuge and are blossoming. 

In this perspective, those yielding to the fact that this is Donga Mantung’s time for honour, are pointing to schools that have been operating at maximum, hosting thousands of citizens from across the nation, especially Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs of the Anglophone crisis.

The story of Donga Mantung and love for peace, others are positing, can only be likened to love professed even at gunpoint. They say it is Donga Mantung that has been saying yes to peace and unity, even when many are paying lip service to decentralisation and other local development initiatives.

Over and above all, pundits are positioning and outstandingly so, that having stood the test of time as a veritable sign post of peace, national unity, living together and national integration, when no one expected, Donga Mantung deserves some encouragement. 

Donga Mantung & community dialogue example 

Given that traditional rulers of the Division have been active in working for peace, many believe that giving Donga Mantung the chance to lead the North West House of Chiefs will be synonymous to a new start for community dialogue across the North West Region.

It should be said that President Paul Biya, during his swearing-in ceremony on November 6, 2025, had asked traditional rulers and other community actors to prioritise community dialogue to further consolidate peace, national unity and living together.

To make this work at the North West Regional Assembly, Donga Mantung sees this mandate as its time to walk the presidential prerogative and feel fully involved in the decentralisation process.

Its traditional rulers, especially that of Nkambe, is said to be at the heart of the peace that has reigned in the Divisional headquarter even when many predicted doom. 

Building on such achievements, elite are also said to be seeing in the Nkambe throne, an ideal royal father to further consolidate the gains of the Special Status through community dialogue.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3644 of Wednesday December 03, 2025