2025 Presidential Election: A New Jargon Enters The Dictionary Of Cameroon Politics – YANGO PARTY

YANGO Is A Political Party That Is’ Hired’ Or ‘Rented’ By Somebody Who Is Not A Real Militant Of The Party, For Use In An Election

 Minister of Territorial Administration, PAUL ATANGA NJI, Lashes Out At Party Presidents Of Yango Parties. He Says they Have Deliberately Chosen To Transform Their Parties, Into Vehicles That Are Given Out On Hire, And Have Thus Become More Of Proprietors Of Car Rental Services.   

 The crucial 2025 presidential election in Cameroon has also seen a new jargon enter into the dictionary of the country’s politics. The word is Yango, or better still, Yango Party, is a political party hired or rented by somebody who in reality is not a militant of the political party, for use in an election. To be precise, and as regard the 2025 presidential election, a Yango Party is a political party whose leader  has given investiture to somebody who was not a militant of the party, to  run in the presidential election, on the ticket of the party.

In fact the presidential candidates of the Yango Parties, only registered and bought the membership cards of those parties, after they struck deals with the Presidents of those parties, to give them investiture to run for the 2025 presidential elections, on the tickets of those parties. The party cards they bought, were just meant to fulfill one of the conditions laid set by Electoral Law, that the presidential candidate of a political party, has to be a militant of the party.

Talking about Yango Parties, there is for example the case of ‘Parti Univers’ of Prof Nkou Mvondo Prosper. The party’s President gave investiture to Barrister Akere Muna of NOW Movement, who before was not a militant of the party, to run on the ticket of the party in the 2025 presidential election. With Akere Muna’s candidacy having been validated by both the Electoral Board of Elections Cameroon and  the Constitutional Council, Muna will be the presidential candidate of ‘Parti Univers’ at the October 12, 2025 Presidential Election, when he is in reality not a militant of the party, though he now has a membership card .  After the 2025 presidential election, Akere Muna will   certainly part ways with ‘Parti Univers’, just as he did with FPD after the 2018 presidential election.

Financial Deals Are Involved, Though Non, Of The Parties Involved, Can Accept

Yango Parties in general are small political parties, and financial deals are involved. The deal is often between the National President of the party, and the person who wants to ‘hire’ the party for use in an election. But no document is signed or receipt issued for the money received by the National President of the party. The financial part of the deal, that is, the payment that is made to the party leader, is not documented or signed, because it is illegal to hire or rent a political party in Cameroon.  That is why the leader of such a party cannot accept publicly that he received money, and the person who paid the money too, cannot also accept that he paid money to be a candidate of the party.

So it is a gentleman’s agreement, between the two sides involved in the deal. Financial matters that can be discussed and signed by the two sides involved in the deal, is something like campaign funds. That is, how the campaign funds allocated by the State to the presidential candidate, through the bank account of the party, on whose ticket he is running in the presidential election, will be managed.   As aforementioned, the deal for the ‘hiring’ or ‘renting’ of the party is generally a secret discussion between the National President of the party concerned, and the person who wants to ‘hire’ or ‘rent’ the party.  The President of the party can involve some of his very close or trusted collaborators n the party, in the discussions to strike the deal. But in most cases, party leaders strike the deals alone, because they   do not want others to know about the financial deals. So, that, they can chop alone or give something only to a few persons in the party.

The Origin Of The Name, Yango

Yango is a modern and an international taxi rental service that has been operating in two of Cameroon’s cities, Yaounde and Douala, in the last few years. The management of Yango has been working on a plan to extent the service to a few other cities in Cameroon, like Bafoussam.  The international headquarters of the taxi rental or hiring service is in Russia, and there are affiliates in a number of European and African countries, and even beyond. The name Yango was adopted for the affiliates of the taxi hiring service in Africa, as the management of the Group wanted an African name for the affiliates or branches in Africa. The name Yango was adopted when the Group created an affiliate in Ghana, which was the first subsidiary in Africa

It should be noted that Yango taxis are highly digitalized, and operate only on hiring basis, and the money a client pays depends on the time spent in the vehicle.  So the amount to be paid by a passenger is not known in advance. When Mr A for example needs a Yango taxi, he calls the number of the service or office in the town, indicates where he is. The service through the apps installed in all Yango vehicles in that town, identify any of their vehicles which coincidentally at that moment, is the closest or nearest to where Mr A is, either to drop a client or has just a client, and instructs the driver to pick up Mr A immediately he drops the client in the car.  Mr A might be waiting in an office, at his business place, at a hotel, at his accessible residence, at a restaurant, or wherever that is accessible and safe. A Yango taxi will come right there to pick him up.

When the driver of the Yango taxi picks up Mr A, he puts on the payment app which starts at 200 FCFA, and is visible to Mr A. So by the time they get to the destination of Mr A, he already knows how much he has to pay. When Mr pays, he goes his way and Yango taxi goes its way. As for Yango Parties at the 2025 presidential elections, the official proclamation of the results of the election by the Constitutional Council will be the destination of the candidates. After that, the deals will end, and the candidates and parties will thus part ways.

  The Jargon Is Generally Being Used As A Mockery  

The jargon, Yango Party, which in the 2025 presidential election is generally being used as a mockery of some parties, some party leaders or presidential candidates, entered the dictionary of Cameroon politics a couple of months ago.  It all started on the social media, though it is not certain as to who first used the jargon. But the jargon, Yango Party, quickly gained popularity especially in Douala and Yaounde where people easily understood what it meant, when personalities like the Deputy Secretary General of the CPDM, Gregoire Owona, Minister of Labour and Social Security, who is very much present on the social media, started using it to mock some parties and their presidential candidates. An increasing number of traditional media organs (Francophone), have also started using the jargon, Yango Party.

It is indisputable that the use of the jargon, Yango Party, has more than double, since the National President of MRC and frontline opposition leader, Prof Maurice Kanto, left his party in late June 2025, to MANIDEM, in a bid to get investiture to run for the 2025 presidential election. CPDM elites and militants in Yaounde and Douala in particular, started calling MANIDEM, Yango Party, to mock Kamto and the MANIDEM leader, Ekane Anicet.  Even after the rejection of the candidacy of Maurice Kamto  by Elections Cameroon and the Constitutional Council, the mockery  has continued.

What Is A Political Party?

The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines a political party, as:  “An organization of people with particular political beliefs which competes in elections to try to win positions in local or national governments”. While it is true that in Africa political ideology matters little, or not at all, to most people in politics, a Yango Party completely makes nonsense of a political party being an organization of people, not to talk of people with a particular belief. Talking about political ideology or particular political belief, where is the political belief when somebody who  in reality is not a militant of a certain political party, strikes a deal with the President of the party, to become the presidential candidate of the party!

At the 2018 presidential election for example, Barrister Akere Muna ran on the ticket of FPD, and at the 2025 presidential election, he is running on the ticket of ‘Parti Univers’. Where is the political ideology in all this! For the 2025 presidential election, the President of a faction of the UPC gave investiture to Abdouraman Hamadou Babba. Not only has Abdouraman never been a UPC militant, but he is somebody who in reality does not stand for the ideology of the UPC that the founders laid down. When a group of disgruntled CPDM militants in Banka, West Region, negotiated with the National President of MCNC Party, Monthe Nkouobit Jean (former SDF MP), to use the party for the 2020 municipal elections, where was the political ideology? When the National President of MRC, Prof Maurice Kamto, and his friend, Hon Jean Michel Nintcheu, negotiated with Ekane Anicet, for Kamto to go in for the 2025 presidential election on the ticket of MANIDEM, which in reality is a faction of UPC, where was the “particular political belief” in the arrangement?

No Consultations

Now, about a political party being an organization of people. In an organization there is consultation before a major decision is taken. The leader of an organization cannot take a major decision, without consulting with members or with internal organs, as laid down in the organization’s constitution. But last month we saw the resignation from ‘Parti Univers’, of the entire executive bureau of  the Adamawa Region, in protest against  the fact that the National President of the party, Prof Nkou Mvondo, gave the party’s investiture for  the 2025 election to “somebody who is not of the party”, without consultation. It should be noted that the Adamawa is the only region where “Parti Univers” have some militants, including the three councilors of the Ngaoundere III Municipal Council, which qualified the parry to give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election.

What the President of ‘Parti Univers’ did, is how the Presidents of Yango Parties, which are all small political parties, in general function The Presidents of Yango Parties act as if the parties are their personal properties. They strike financial deals with interested persons or groups to use the parties for elections, without consulting officials of the parties.

In fact among the over half a dozen Yango Parties that gave investitures to candidates for the October 12, 2025 presidential election, only the youthful National President of FDC, Denis Emilien Atangana, showed a degree of transparency. He issued a communiqué at one point, saying that his party had received the files of four presidential aspirants, and that a committee had been set up to study the files, to select one to whom the party would give investiture for the 2025 presidential election. Whether the FDC President, Denis Atangana, was in reality the committee, himself, is another story. Worth noting, that the FDC leader, Denis Emilien Atangana, who is a Councilor of the Monatele Municipal Council in Lekie Division, Centre Region, at the end signed the investiture  for Iyodi Hiram Samuel, to be the party’s presidential candidate at the October 12, 2025 presidential election. Iyodi’s candidacy was validated by Elections Cameroon and the Constitutional Council.

Minister Atanga Nji Lashes Out   

Meanwhile, the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, recently lashed out at unscrupulous Presidents of political parties that he said have deliberately chosen to transform their parties into Yango Parties, or better still, that they have transformed their parties into vehicles that are given out on hire, and thus have become more of proprietors of car (party) rental services. This is clear evidence that the Government is aware of the existence of Yango Parties, and is worried about the situation. For one thing too, it is illegal to use a political party as a business or to make money, as the Presidents of Yango Parties are doing. This is abusing the spirit of the provision in the Electoral Law, which for example makes it possible that somebody can obtain the card of a political party, and become   the presidential candidate of the party in few weeks.

From the look of things, It is possible that the Government will eventually come up with a modification of the text, to make it such that, to become a presidential candidate of a political party, a person has to show proof that he does not only have a party card, but that he has been an active militant of the political party, for at least three years for example. The Yamgo Parties are a real disgrace to Cameroon’s elections and ‘democracy’. Imagine the case of MCNC Party of Monthe Nkouobit ean of Banka, Upper Nkam Division in the West Region.  At the 2018 presidential election, the National President of MCNC, Monthe Nkouobit Jean, gave investiture to Ndifor Afanwi Franklin (Prophet Frank), the leader of NPPC Party, to be MCNC’s presidential candidate. At the 2020 municipal election, the MCNC leader gave the party to a group of disgruntled CPDM militants in his native Banka Sub –division, to use for the election.  As for the 2025 presidential election which is scheduled for October 12, the MCNC gave investiture to a former employee of the World Bank, Bougha Hagbe Jacques, who until mid this year this year was never a militant of the party or any another party.  In fact it will be necessary for something to be done, to put an end to this phenomenon of Yango Parties in Cameroon.