Joe Dinga Pefok (Uncle Joe)
Cabral Libii and his PCRN for months were politically dishonest by sending conflicting signals for the 2025 presidential election
The National President of “Parti Camerounais pour la Reconciliation Nationale’, PCRN,, Hon Cabral Libii Ngue, has created the ‘Commission Strategique du Preparation’, that is the Strategic Commission for Preparation, for the 2025 presidential election, in the party. It is thus finally clear that Cabral Libii will be candidate at the 2025 presidential election. This also means in practical terms PCRN is no longer a member of the opposition coalition known as Alliance for a Peaceful Transition, which is still to designate its presidential candidate. PCRN was the only major opposition party of the coalition.
In fact Cabral Libii has a number of timesrepeatedly declared publicly that he will be candidate at the next presidential election. He did same in an interview with the French TV channel, TV S Monde, a month ago. Cabral Libii minced no words that he will be candidate at the 2025 presidential election. But at the same time he claimed that he has always supported the idea of the opposition coming together to form a bloc, and select single candidate for the presidential election.
. It would be recalled that during his visit to Dakar, Senegal, in April 2024 for the swearing –in ceremony of the new and youthful President of Senegal, 40 years old Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Hon Cabral Libii who was one of the foreign invitees, told the Senegalese media that the election of Diomaye Faye as President of the Republic of Senegal, was an encouragement to people like him not to give up. He said it was a confirmation that it is time for a new generation of Africans to democratically takeover the leadership of African countries. Cabral Libii recalled that he was a candidate at the 2018 presidential election in Cameroon, and minced no words that he will again run in the next presidential election in Cameroon, expected to hold next year.
But as Cabral Libii was speaking in Senegal in April 2024, his party, the PCRN, was a frontline member of the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition, which was working towards putting up a single candidate for the 2025 presidential election. And so as member of the alliance, he normally would not have declared that he would be a candidate at the 2025 presidential election, as the alliance had not yet designated a candidate.
PCRN Signed The Manifesto Of The Alliance For Peaceful Transition
In fact for several months, Cabral Libii and his PCRN were sending conflicting signals to the public. While Cabral Libii repeatedly said as indicated above that he will run in the 2025 presidential election, he and his party at the same time were in the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition in Cameroon, which was founded by Prof. Olivier Bile. Also, in his capacity as National President of PCRN,. Hon Cabral Libii signed the Manifesto of Alliance for a Peaceful Transition. He and his PCRN even made significant contributions in the modification of the Draft of the Manifesto that was presented at the beginning by Prof Bile.
The Alliance for a Peaceful Transition, adopted a resolution that the political platform’s candidate for the 2025 presidential election, would be selected by organizing a primary for interested candidates. PCRN definitely supported the proposal, as Cabral Libii made that same proposal to opposition candidates at the 2018 presidential election, and has repeatedly talks about it.
It would be recalled that the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition was formally launched at a press conference in Yaounde on June 24, 2024, By then the alliance had 8 political parties, including PCRN, as members. A copy of the Manifesto of the alliance was also presented at the press conference, and it was clearly seen that the National President of PCRN, Cabral Libii, had signed for his party. In fact PCRN was the second signatory, with the first of course being the Founder of the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition, Prof Olivier Bile, who is the National President of ‘Les Liberateurs’ (former UFP).
It should be noted that it was only in the month of September, that the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition formally announced that a committee had been created to organize the primary for the alliance to select its candidate for the 2025 presidential election. November 15, 2024 is the deadline for interested members to deposit the files of their candidatures for the primary.
The Spirit of Membership Of The Political Alliance
The spirit of being a member of the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition, required that, Cabral Libii and his PCRN wait for the primary that the alliance will organize, and Libii participate. Also, in the spirit of the alliance, Cabral Libii and his PCRN were supposed to be psychologically prepared that they would accept he result of the primary organised by the Alliance for a Peaceful Change, especially if the primary is well organised. This thus would have meant that if in case Cabral Libii did not win the primary, he and his PCRN would be prepared to accept the result, and support the candidate that won.
But then, as aforementioned, Cabral Libii and his PCRN all along were sending conflicting signals to the public. On the one hand they would say that they support the idea of an opposition alliance, with a programme for a government of transition, and that they are in the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition. On the other hand, they will say Cabral Libii will be candidate at the 2025 presidential election.
Cabral Libii Started Preparations Long Ago
It would also be recalled that a couple of weeks after the results of the February 9, 2020 Legislative and Municipal Elections results were officially published, the National President of PCRN, Cabral Libii, declared to the media that all the party’s Mayors, councilors and MPs had a very big challenge ahead of them. He explained that they, including himself as MP, would have to relentlessly work hard, or strive to live up to the expectation of the Cameroonian people, He disclosed that their achievements will be the materials that the party will use in the campaign for the next presidential election scheduled for 2025. So Cabral Libii has been constantly expressing his presidential ambition for a number of years now, and has since been preparing for that.
Political Dishonesty
No one denies the fact that Hon Cabral Libiii has the right to run in the 2025 presidential election. No one denies the fact that PCRN which has five MPs and also runs five municipal councils, is more than qualified to send in a candidate for the 2025 presidential election. But the problem here is that of political dishonesty that Cabral Libii and his PCRN have exhibited as regard0 their membership of the Alliance for a Peaceful Change in Cameroon. Today, Cabral Libii and his PCRN will give one or two flimsy excuses or reasons why they have decided to go solo in the 2025 presidential election, whereas they were in the Alliance for a Peaceful Change,.
As has been clearly stated in this article, Cabral Libii and his PCRN have since after the 2020 legislative and municipal elections, been preparing for the 2025 or the next presidential election. Cabral Libii had all along repeatedly declared that he will be candidate at the next presidential election.
But the fact of the matter is that at the same time. PCRN joined the opposition alliance, the Alliance for Peaceful Transition, when it was create last January.. Cabral Libii was one of the first opposition leaders to whom Prof Olivier Bile presented the political project, and in fact PCRN was one of the first opposition parties to go onboard the political platform. And as aforementioned, PCRN was the only major opposition party in the alliance. Also, the, PCRN signed the Manifesto of the alliance.
Yet while in the alliance, Cabral Libii and his PCRN were certain that he will be a candidate in the 2025 presidential election, even though the alliance had not yet designated its candidate. Suffice to say that Cabral Libii and his PCRN were seemingly out to give the public the false impression that unlike other major opposition parties, they supported the programme for a political alliance with a unique candidate, and a government of transition. That is political dishonesty.
PCRN Would Have Created A Coalition To Support Cabral Libil “s Candidature
Instead of pretending to be a member of the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition, it would have been better and honest for Cabral Libii and his PCRN to create a coalition to support his candidature at the 2025 presidential election. Hon Jean Michel Nintcheu and the National President of MRC, Prof Maurice Kamto, did so by creating the Political Alliance for Change to support Kamto’s candidature at the 2025 presidential election. The National Chairman of the SDF, Hon Joshua Nambangi Osih, and the party, also seem to be heading towards that direction. That is, to create a coalition to support the candidature of Hon Osih, at the 2025 presidential election. That is accepted in politics.
However it is better when a coalition created around a candidature bears the name of the candidate. It makes things clear to the public, than pretending that the coalition is something else, by for example calling it Political Alliance for Change, like Nintcheu and Kamto have done. At the last presidential election in Senegal which held on March 24, 2024, there was a coalition known as, “Coalition Dionne 2024”, which supported the candidature of Mohammed Dionne at the election. Former Senegalese President, Abdoulaye Wade, also created a coalition around his candidature, when he ran for President.
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