2025 Presidential Election: Factions Of Crisis –Ridden UPC Party Declare Support For Four Different Presidential Candidates

Why Minister Atanga Nji and Hon  Bapooh Lipot, are suspected to have been behind  the incident that happened at Makak last  week –  where the DO blocked the UPC event where AKERE MUNA was special guest

The crisis-ridden UPC Party which is in factions, is once more showing its ugly side to the public, with the party,  or better still the factions, having declared their support for four different aspirants for the 2025 presidential election in Cameroon.  It should be noted that the legalized UPC, is Late Frederick Augustin Kodock’s faction of the party. It was legalized as the UPC Party in 1991, with the support of the Biya regime. Kodock’s legalized faction of the UPC that has its base in Nyong and Kelle Division of the Centre Region, is currently in two sub- factions.

The sub – faction led by Hon Robert Bapooh Lipot, has since declared that the party will support the candidacy of  the incumbent, President Paul Biya of the ruling CPDM, at the 2025 presidential election, in line with the alliance between CPDM and UPC that  Frederic Augustin Kodock signed in 1992., and which till date  is still in force.

On his part, Dr Balenguel Nkot Pierre, who leads the other sub – faction of  Late Kodock’s legalized UPC faction, has on his part  declared that UPC will support the candidature of Barrister Akere Muna, the presidential candidate of ‘Parti UNIVERSE’ of Prof Nkou Mvondo Prosper, at the 2025 presidential election.  It should be noted both Bapooh Lipot and Balenguel Nkot, just like the leaders of other UPC factions, always each dishonestly insist in public, of being the leader of the whole UPC Party.

Prof Jean Bahebeck And Dr Yamb Ndimba

Meanwhile during the celebration last week of the 77th anniversary of the UPC Party, by the UPC faction in Bafoussam which has as President the Veteran journalist, Henriette Ekwe, the Secretary General of that faction, Michel Eclador Pekoua, Publisher of the French language newspaper, ‘Ouest Echo’, announced that the party’s candidate for the 2025 presidential election, is the Yaounde based Prof Jean Bahebeck, who hails from Nyong and Kelle Division in the Centre Region.

But considering that the UPC faction in Bafoussam does not have an MP or a municipal councilor, Prof Bahebeck will either have to run for the presidential election, on the ticket of one of the 18 political parties in the country that qualifies to give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election. The other alternative is that Prof Bahebeck tries to go in for the election as an independent candidate, if only he can meet up with the tough conditions.

It is the same thing for another ‘UPC Candidate’ at the 2025 presidential election, Dr YAMB NTIMBA Dominique. Another UPC faction in Yaounde which has Sylvestre Le Bell Nyeck as Secretary General, and Rose Ndje She as President, last week, precisely on April 10, 2025, issued a communiqué announcing that Dr Yamb Ntimba Dominique has been designated as the UPC Party’s candidate for the 2025 presidential election. The designation was said to have done by the Committee of Directors of the UPC (faction), which met in Yaounde on that April 10.

It should be noted that both Prof Jean Bahebeck and Dr Yamb Ntimba Dominique, are well known faces, as they regularly take part in political debates, and debates on other national issues, on several local Tv channels.

Muna Accompanies Balenguel Nkot To Makak

Meanwhile last week, the Balenguel Nkot’s sub – faction of the legalized UPC, scheduled the celebration of the 77^th anniversary of UPC that was created in 1948, at Makak, in Nyong and Kelle Division. Worthy of note, that one of the prominent leaders of UPC, Ruben Um Nyobe, hailed from Makak Sub – division. Meanwhile, the presidential aspirant, Akere Muna, accompanied Balengue Nkot to Makak for the celebration, definitely as a strategy to woo more supporters for the presidential election. But by going to Makalk for the ceremony, Akere Muna was getting himself entangled in the UPC crisis.

On arrival at Makak, Balenguel Nkot and his collaborators of the UPC discovered that their planned event had been banned by the DO, even though they were not formally notify. The event that was planned to hold in the hall of the Makak Municipal Council could not hold there, as the local authorities would not allow it. The DO of Makak said the event had been banned, because the organizers did not have an authorization.

Balenguel Nkot and his followers in the UPC, as well as his guest (Akere Muna), then moved to a private residence. But even there, the DO would not allow the event to hold. Balenguel Nkot and Akere Muna were forced to make declarations to the media on the road, as the overzealous DO, would not allow them to sit anywhere. There have been some reports on the social media, that the DO Makak, went to the extent of asking the gendarmerie commander of the locality, to arrest Dr Balenguel Nkot and Akere Muna for allegedly disrespecting administrative orders. But the local gendarmerie boss reportedly refused to do so, telling the DO that I t was not the right thing to do in such a situation.

Hon Bapooh Lipot And Minister Atanga Nji

Meanwhile, the real reason behind the hostile position that was taken by the DO of Makak, to block by all means the event that the Balenguel Nkot – led faction of the UPC scheduled for that day, was the protracted power struggle between Hon Robert Bapooh Lipot and Dr Balenguel Nkot Pierre, over the control of Augustin Kodock’s legalized faction of the UPC.  The two men have declared support for two different candidates at the 2025 presidential election.   Balenguel Nkot has declared that the UPC (Kodock’s faction) supports the candidature of Akere Muna for the 2025 presidential election. On the other hand, Bapooh Lipot has on his part declared that the UPC will support the candidature of President Biya at the 2025 presidential election, in line with the spirit of the alliance between CPDM and UPC (Kodock’s faction) that was signed in 1992, and that has not been annulled till date. Augustin Frederick Kodock signed  the alliance on behalf of the UPC.

Without any surprise, the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, supports Hon Bapooh Lipot, and has recognized him as the leader of the UPC.  Political observers are thus highly suspicious that Bpoooh Lipot and Minister Atanga Nji, were behind what the Makak DO did last week to block the event that the Balenguel Nkot’s group programmed, from holding.

It would also be recalled that less than two weeks before the incident that happened in Makak,  Nyong and Kelle Division last week, the legal leader of PCRN, Hon Cabral Libii, went to Eseka (headquarters of  Nyong and Kelle Division) to hold a public meeting under the canopy of member of parliament from Nyong and Kelle Division, which is his Division of origin. But the local administrative authorities sent a squad of police officers led by a Commissioner, to block the meeting from holding. There was no doubt hat Minister Atanga Nji who openly supports Pa Robert Kouna in the fight over the leadership or ownership of PCRN against Cabral Libii, was behind the decision of the local administrative authorities in Eseka.

Secretary General Of CPDM

It would be recalled that when Hon Bapooh Lipot organized a similar event in the same Nyong and Kelle Division a few years ago purportedly as the UPC leader, the Secretary General of the CPDM, Jean Nkuete, was the guest of honour. It was a clear indication that in the power struggle over Kodock’s UPC by Bapooh Libot and Balengulel Nkot, the ruling CPDM had recognized Bapooh Lipot as the leader of the UPC, and that the leadership of the CPDM Party thus stood by Bapooh Lipot in line with the CPDM – UPC Alliance. President Paul Biya tacitly confirmed this be appointing Bapooh Lipot as Board Chair of a State Corporation. The leadership of the ruling CPDM thus ignores a Yaounde court ruling, which in  a case on the power struggle between Balenguel Nkot and Bapooh Lipot,  declared Balenguel Nkot the legal leader of Kodock’s UPC.