Paul Biya’s 41st anniversary in power: A call for national mourning

Dear brothers and sisters,
In about 715 days or about 102 weeks, the current presidential mandate of Mr. Paul Biya will come to an end. Our constitution calls for a new election at the end of that mandate or before, in case he leaves office before the end of the mandate. This constitutional provision gives us a chance to free our country that has been taken captive by Mr. Biya through electoral fraud, tribalization, corruption, dangerous international commitments such as odious debts, and questionable foreign policy.
If we do not remind ourselves of how dangerous this man’s political ambitions have been for Cameroon, we risk plunging our country into the abyss, either by allowing him to retain the presidency or by imposing one of his cronies on the sovereign people of Cameroon.
By being alert, and reminding ourselves of how bad he has been for our constitutional democracy, political stability, and development, we can ensure that two years from today, our beloved country will have a president who is chosen in accordance with the informed general will as expressed through a free, fair, and transparent election. Such an election would be preceded by competitive campaigns, contrasting political manifestos, and meaningful engagement with the demand for reforms such as federalism.

We want to remind ourselves of how bad he has been for Cameroon by reviewing electoral fraud, tribalization schemes, dangerous international positioning, and corruption of the spiritual foundations of all Cameroonians.
As we review elections in which electoral fraud was shockingly carried out, we must avoid becoming cynical about elections and constitutional democracy in general. They are the path to true liberation. Let us avoid the false promise of coups d’etat and the intoxicating drift toward Russian imperialism as a means of salvation. Nobody but Cameroonians can liberate Cameroon and no weapon is as powerful as the principled defense of constitutional democracy by all means possible. Are you disgusted by the recollection of these obviously flawed results? Clench your fist and say never again. We shall defend our constitution and our elections by all means necessary.

1. Mr. Biya has maintained himself in power through electoral fraud. The key is not just to win but to win by such margins as would demoralize any attempts at making Cameroon’s politics more competitive. The most demonstrative of this practice are the presidential elections of 2018 and 1992.

1.1. 2018 Presidential election: As reported in 2018 by Cameroon Tribune, in accordance with ELECAM Fabrications.
Paul Biya :Adamawa: 79.77 ; Centre: 71.1 ; East: 90.43 ; Far North: 89.21 ; Littoral: 35.75 ; North: 81.62 ; Northwest: 81.74 ; West: 48.19 ; South: 92.91 ; Southwest: 77.69 ; National average: 71.28.
Maurice Kamto :Adamawa: 2.61 ; Centre: 15.25 ; East: 2.63 ; Far North: 3.45 ; Littoral: 38.6 ; North: 4.12 ; Northwest: 3.6 ; West: 30.56 ; South: 2.15 ; Southwest: 3.54 ; National average: 14.23.
Cabral Nguegue Libii :Adamawa: 11.3 ; Centre: 9.66 ; East: 3.77 ; Far North: 2.81 ; Littoral: 12.79 ; North: 5.77 ; Northwest: 1.18 ; West: 1.44 ; South: 2.75 ; Southwest: 1.71 ; National average: 6.28.
Joshua Nambangi Osih :Adamawa: 1.88 ; Centre: 2.11 ; East: 0.91 ; Far North: 0.98 ; Littoral: 9.06 ; North: 2.03 ; Northwest: 10.41 ; West: 5.2 ; South: 0.99 ; Southwest: 12.72 ; National average: 3.35.
Others :Adamawa: 4.44 ; Centre: 1.88 ; East: 2.26 ; Far North: 3.55 ; Littoral: 3.8 ; North: 6.46 ; Northwest: 3.07 ; West: 14.61 ; South: 1.2 ; Southwest: 4.34 ; National average: 4.86.
The numerical scores for Mr. Biya in some opposition strongholds convince us that we are dealing with fabrications. We shall comment further on the results in West region.

1.2. 1992 Presidential election: based on information from the African election database
Paul Biya :Adamawa: 26.13 ; Centre: 71.03 ; East: 68.5 ; Far North: 47.65 ; Littoral: 14.31 ; North: 42.87 ; Northwest: 9.6 ; West: 11.86 ; South: 94.82 ; Southwest: 21.36 ; National Average: 39.98.
John Fru Ndi :Adamawa: 6.39 ; Centre: 18.57 ; East: 6.6 ; Far North: 4.24 ; Littoral: 67.6 ; North: 3.15 ; Northwest: 86.3 ; West: 67.79 ; South: 3.56 ; Southwest: 51.6 ; National Average: 35.97.
Bello Bouba Maigari :Adamawa: 64.04 ; Centre: 9.05 ; East: 21.59 ; Far North: 42.47 ; Littoral: 14.44 ; North: 50.42 ; Northwest: 3.03 ; West: 1.98 ; South: 1.23 ; Southwest: 24.13 ; National Average: 19.22.
Others :Adamawa: 3.44 ; Centre: 1.35 ; East: 3.31 ; Far North: 5.64 ; Littoral: 3.65 ; North: 3.56 ; Northwest: 1.07 ; West: 18.37 ; South: 0.39 ; Southwest: 2.91 ; National Average: 4.83.
Using Mr. Bello as an instrument, the results of various provinces were adjusted to suggest and entrench tribal attitudes in national politics. We shall comment further on the case of the then Southwest province.

2. The tribalization of Cameroon politics: Mr. Biya has used the classical method of divide and rule to weaken the fight for the liberation of Cameroon from puppets of French neo-colonialism.
   2.1. Continuing the anti-nationalist fight launched by the French against UPC, he uses every opportunity to poison national opinion against the Bamileke while using the west region to consolidate his power.

We can see an example of this from the 2018 election results fabricated by ELECAM and the current narrative of ethno-fascism propagated by Biyaists in public discourse. When it comes to fabricating popular support, Mr. Biya’s electoral fraud machine has no shame taking votes from Bamilekes to show that he had 48.19% in West region while Mr. Kamto only had 30.56%. Contrary to the common understanding that in its current configuration, CPDM cannot get up to 20% in Littoral, ELECAM still shamelessly showed that Mr. Biya had 35.75% in Littoral, a little less than the reduced vote of 38.6% given to Mr. Kamto in Littoral. According to this twisted logic of the rigging machine, Mr. Kamto the Bamileke was more popular in Littoral than in his home West region.

After such victory, Mr. Biya’s supporters, including pseudo-critics and crypto-supporters, such as Mr. Dieudonne Essomba, want us to believe that Mr. Kamto’s political movement is an ethno-fascist movement headquartered in the West region. This dangerous tribalization of our political scene ought to be repudiated as we seek to free ourselves. During electoral fraud, Bamilekes are projected as Biya supporters but when one of them seeks elected office, they are ethno-fascists.

2.2. Recognizing the role of former Southern Cameroons in the awakening of Cameroon’s spirit of liberty, he has instrumentalized differences between Northwest and Southwest to weaken many political struggles against marginalization and fraud.

In 1992, the Northwesterner, Mr. Fru Ndi, captured the support of all Cameroonians. The electoral fraud machine sought to show that he had no support in the North. Given the relative political alertness of Littoral, West, and Northwest, the election results were only mildly tempered. Anybody who knows the 1990s would attest that Mr. Fru Ndi could not have scored less than 80% in the Littoral and West region. A curious manipulation was applied to the results of the Southwest region. To give credence to the theory that Southwesterners distrust Northwest politicians, Mr. Fru Ndi’s overwhelming victory in Southwest was trimmed down to a bare 51.6%. Conscious of the fact that even the 21.36% given to Biya aroused great suspicions, they chose to give some of Fru Ndi’s votes to Mr. Bello Bouba. The subtle message was that Northerners love Bello and anglophones in Southwest are sufficiently distrustful of the clear leader of the opposition from the Northwest that they largely supported Mr. Bello. This is how dangerous the tribalization policy of Mr. Biya is.

3. Mr. Biya’s obsession with staying in power for as long as possible has led to alliances with Israel and Russia that inspired the awkward international position of Cameroon

3.1. Mr. Biya and Israel: Following the failed coup d’etat in 1984, Mr. Biya is said to have turned to the USA for security, but USA recommended Israel (USA does this often and likes using Israel for certain deniability projects). Since 1986 when this partnership was consolidated, for his security, Mr. Biya has depended on Israeli officers who are closely connected with Tel Aviv. In exchange for this alliance, Mr. Biya went against African trends during the fight against Apartheid when Israel was shunned for their close partnership with South Africa (and acting as a liaison for US transactions with unpopular South Africa).

Another dimension of this uncomfortable arrangement was increasing indifference to the plight of the people of Palestine who had been dispossessed of their land by Israel. To this day, Cameroon is one of two African dictatorships that refuse to recognize the state of Palestine. The other is Eritrea. This is a sufficient price to pay for the security Israel provides to these power-hungry dictators.
This awkward position has not even changed now during the Israel-Gaza war. While Hamas attack was horrible and criminal by standards of international law, the response by Israel is equally criminal and overlooks historical provocative injustice toward the dehumanized people of Palestine. 120 countries voted to condemn the massive assault against the people of Gaza by Israel. Cameroon abstained, in gratitude to Israel for keeping Biya in power for so long. Do we forget that the 2018 fake transparency international agents were Israeli intelligence agents sent to secure another victory for their client? What a shame for a great nation like Cameroon!

3.2. Cameroon has every reason to enjoy bonds of friendship and enhanced trade with Russia. But politically speaking, Russia has no lessons in constitutional democracy for us. In fact, the manipulation of the Russian constitution by Putin is borrowed from Biya. But the shameless attempts of Biya to position himself was demonstrated recently in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Cameroon has failed to condemn Russia but Biya rushed to St. Petersburg for a photo opportunity with Putin. He counts on the confused fascination of francophone pan-Africanists with Putin to project himself or his son as Putin allies who should be embraced by the pan-African parrots such as those on Afrique Media.
There is room for good partnership with Israel and it is in the long-term interest of Israel and long-term global stability that a two-state solution should be found to the Middle East conflict. Singapore, a country that has close military partnership with Israel has distinguished itself as a balanced defender of the international order by condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s assault on civilians in Gaza. That is how a proud independent country behaves. Cameroon has no moral compass and Biya exposes our country to the world as a mafia haven ready to go along with any form of banditry or annexation. What a shame.

4. Mr. Biya has corrupted the spiritual foundations of all Cameroonians so that nothing is left to awaken our conscience to end his grip on power.

4.1. Christians: As late Christian Cardinal Tumi told us, Mr. Biya gives large sums of money to prominent religious leaders so that they can placate their Christians and prevent them from critically examining their government. He buys their silence in the face of fraud or oppression of the opposition.
4.2. Muslims: contrary to Islamic teachings, Mr. Biya corrupts the conscience of Muslims by sending gifts to pilgrims who want to go to Mecca. He has personalized state subventions so that they see such interventions as coming from “the father of the nation” who should not be questioned.
4.3. Traditional rulers: These people command respect in traditional societies, especially those who are neither Christians nor Muslims. Mr. Biya has built alliances with traditional rulers and their families. He has introduced the scam of hierarchy in our traditional societies. He appoints children of these royal families to positions of power and fraud. This refines the comedy called motions de soutien au candidat naturel.
Dear brothers and sisters, we could go on and on. But the more we do so, the more tears flow down our cheeks. How could we allow one of us to become such a fraud and tolerate the tragedy for 41 years? After more than 40 years in the desert, the time for freedom is now. Be alert. Defend the transparency of our elections, the right of politicians to campaign freely, our constitution from the itchy hands of neo-colonial and monarchical alchemists, stand up in solidarity with the oppressed and victimized around the world, and make Cameroon a proud country. Let us pray that the almighty God will help us in our fight for a new Cameroon.

Do not celebrate this 41st anniversary of shame and fraud. Let us mourn for our beloved Cameroon and may God bless us as we prepare for the liberation of our nation from electoral fraud.
English Cameroon for a united Cameroon
November 4, 2023
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