Biya wades into Cameroon Medical Council election stalemate.

Biya’s instructions for organising of elections at CMC under calm and serene atmosphere is contained in a correspondence the Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, addressed to the Secretary General at the Prime Minister’s Office, a copy of which we stumbled on.

The correspondence dated January 16 had as subject Election at the Cameroon Medical Council and was referenced 19/CF/SG/PR.

“I have the honour to pass on to you the very high instructions of Mr President of the Republic instructing you to take, in liaison with the MINSANTE, all useful and necessary measures to guarantee the organisation of the election of the Cameroon Medical Council, in conditions of serenity, objectivity and transparency,” partly read the correspondence.

The correspondence, also instructed the scribe at the PM’s office, to, in collaboration with the MINSANTE boss, render account for due diligence on how the Head of State’s instructions are being implemented.

Public Health minister’s ban

The Minister of Public Health, Dr Manaouda Malachie, had earlier on January 16, through a tweet, indefinitely postponed the elective General Assembly of the Cameroon Medical Council, which was billed for Wednesday, January 18. It followed worsening internal wranglings among aspirants and members of the body.

“I would like to inform all Medical Doctors that the elections within the organs of the Cameroon Medical Council have been postponed sine die,” partly read the tweet of Minister Manaouda.

The member of government, who has of recent come under scathing criticism and accused by some medical doctors of trying to impose a candidate on the structure, further urged all the medics to remain united.

“However, I urge everyone to remain mobilised and determined to build a strong and viable association,” the tweet from Dr Manaouda added.

Candidates for CMC top job at loggerheads

There are so far seven candidates vying for the presidency of the Cameroon Medical Council. The aspirants, it should be noted, were strongly divided over the holding of the Elective General Assembly.

We gathered that one of the aspirants to CMC presidency, Dr Theodat Hycinthe Manga, had filed a complaint, urging a Yaounde court to stop the elective General Assembly from taking place this month.    

The medic said what Dr Manaounda Malachie had presented as the Electoral College was doubtful and needed to be properly constituted. Dr Theodat Manga said the list of 1,500 potential voters contained names of doctors who are not up to date with their dues at the CMC, some of whom are no longer in the country.

We gathered that Dr Pierre Yves Basong, on his part, said the Electoral College of 1,500 was not representative enough of the country’s medical corps that is made up of over 12,000 doctors. Dr Yves Basong said many eligible voters had been put out of the list. Many other candidates accused Minister Manaouda of meddling into electoral matters of the CMC.

Minister Manaouda goes firefighting

In a bid to clear the air on the accusations and counter-accusations, Minister Manaouda, January 12 invited the seven aspirants for a meeting to lay proper groundwork for the election, but only two candidates, Dr. Pierre Yves Basong and Prof Noel Essomba, answered present.

The other five CMC presidential hopefuls, Dr Jean Berthelot Zambo, Dr Olga Basong, Dr Rudolf Fonkoua, Dr Theodat Hycinthe Manga, and Dr Claude Bernard Kamta Ngui, all boycotted the meeting.  

Dr Manaouda used the meeting to express his wish for a strong and vibrant CMC that would become a valuable consultation tool for the state and insisted on the need to respect all the steps of the electoral process.

He announced during the meeting that the elections management body, Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, would be invited to help organise the election for transparency and equity to prevail.

Many of the aspirants are reported to have rejected most of the minister’s proposal, noting that the solution of the disagreement lies on cleaning up the list of the Electoral College.

Worth recalling is the fact that the General Assembly of the CMC, which had initially been programmed for December 29, 2022, was postponed to January 18, due to same problems.