Election in Cameroon 2025, and so what?
- A Brand New Cameroon
- Jun 14, 2022
- 3 min read
Part 1: Here is what you need to know as a Cameroonian
So here is the deal, Cameroon had her independence in a myriad of ways before becoming the country it is today. We need not exclude the facts and truths surrounding where we are coming from, lest we loose all bearing on where we are and most especially, where we want to be.
As a nation, we went through post colonialism in one of the most spectacular fashions; considerably peculiar from how other African countries did. East Cameroon got her independence in 1960, second only to Guinea in sub Saharan Africa when it comes to French colonies and southern “Kameroun” got her independence by having to make a choice in 1961; because like the UN put it, they were just that other British colony; however, their Northern Kameroun counterparts chose to part ways and joined Nigeria.
Cameroon was administered by a federal constitution at the time making Ahidjo the President and Foncha the Vice President. However due to major political turmoil (which we will educate ourselves on in a different article), the power to make political decisions was taken out of the hands of the people for a considerable number of years due to the one party system introduced by the then president as a way to maintain stability but also as a ploy to make himself unconquerable and all powerful. However his demeanor and western leaning ideologies (like Idi Amin Dada used to be), endeared him to the leaders of these developed countries he subjugated himself to; making him seem not too despondent and disruptive enough in the grand scale of things for any sort of action to be taken against him.
Enter Paul Biya, who changed the narrative; once he became, through controversial means president of the then one party political country. Once he came into power (through another technicality we will discuss on another article), it became instantly clear he was willing to allow for power to be restored to the people as he introduced multiparty politics as any normal democracy allowed. However, after an uninspiring marginal win against SDF which was very contentious (and caused a rift in the politics he wanted to build - still to be discussed in another article), he became by the admission of several scholars at the time, power infused and tripped on his own heels with his original intention fueled by a need for him to retain and keep power. This bureaucratic political genius had reneged on his proffer of power in the hands of the people by making it more and more cumbersome over the years for anyone to ever come close to what Fru Ndi and the people of Cameroon had almost done to him; he was also helped by the worsening lack of faith in the political process by people of different political leaning owing to the fact that the said election was said at the time to have been rigged by the him with no consequence. Since then there has been introduction of legislation by packed congressional and senatorial houses (mostly with legislators with CPDM leaning), that have made it almost impossible for him to be unseated as well as multiple disenfranchisement and rhetorical propaganda creating a void of knowledge as well as non believe in the power of universal suffrage of people to this day. This had led to a pattern of distrust that has churned low voter registration and turnout by people from all walks of life, making it easier for the genius to stay seated without a move for his throne.
There is then no doubt that we have come a long way as a people with regards to our democracy, but unfortunately we have been going the wrong way. To be able to change where we are now, we need to know what is wrong with the process and how it has been rigged to work against us and against anyone who tries to step up to it. The strategy has changed - it is no more and Ahidjo style repression anymore, but a more coordinated effort by a certain group of people for over 30 decades layering multiple depths of political nuance that will take only a determined people to change and instill New Democratic and governing values capable of transforming where we are now to where we want to be a long way down the road. We need to change the strategy as well, become more subtle but bold and face the reality of our fate by writing our own chapter of Cameroon today, which will stand as a testament and foundation of Cameroon of the future; this determination right now should be the past our children speak of after 2025.
Title credits go to: Markyz
ABNC
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