2025 Presidential Election: How A Secret Deal Between Prof Nkou Mvondo And Barrister Akere Muna, Crippled The Alliance For A Peaceful Transition In Cameroon

The alliance was the first real opportunity since 1992, to have an opposition coalition with the main objective being to create a transitional gov’t, if the coalition wins the 2025 presidential election

What happened to the alliance that was commonly known as ATP, is another evidence of the self-centeredness of most of those passing around for opposition leaders fighting for change

Early last year many Cameroonians hailed the creation of the opposition alliance for the 2025 presidential election, known as the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon. The name was soon modified to become the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition in Cameroon. The alliance which was created and led by Prof Olivier Bile, National President of ‘Les Liberateurs’ Party (former UFP), was popularly known by the French abbreviation, ATP , that is, ‘Alliance pour une  Transition Pacifique au Cameroun”.

Why many Cameroonians were happy with the creation of the ATP, was that it was the first opposition alliance since 1992, to be effectively created with the main objective being to create  a transitional government in the country for a period of four years, if  the alliance or opposition platform was to win the 2025 presidential election. It should be noted that the first of such opposition alliances since the rebirth of multiparty politics in Cameroon, was the Union for Change which was created for the first multiparty presidential election in 1992. The National Chairman of the SDF, Ni John Fru Ndi, was the presidential candidate of Union of Change.

Meanwhile, the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition in Cameroon was initially comprised of eight political parties as well as some 15 civil society organizations and personalities like Dr Hialire Kamga.  The initiator of ATP, Prof Olivier Bile, presented a draft of the manifesto of the alliance to the group, which seriously worked on it, with each party or member making inputs. At the end of the exercise, the manifesto of the alliance was adopted by members. Also, following the will of the majority of members of the ATP, the alliance adopted a resolution, that the candidate of the alliance for the 2025 presidential election would be selected through a primary, organized for all interested members.

Manifesto Of The Alliance Is Ready

In  June last year, the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition ignored the banning order of the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji,  who controversially claimed that political alliances or coalitions are supposed to be registered  as political parties, and went ahead to  formally launch its activities at a press conference in Yaounde. The major highlight of the occasion was the presentation of the Manifesto of the alliance to the public. By then ATP had onboard a total of 8 political parties, and over a dozen civil society groups and personalities. But the only major opposition party in the alliance was the PCRN, which has as National President, Hon Cabral Libii Ngue. Though Cabral Libii was not present at the press conference, he however signed the Manifesto of  the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition, thus confirming that his party was onboard the platform.

The first eight political parties whose leaders signed the Manifesto of the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition by the time the coalition formally launched its activities, were as follows:

• Les Liberateurs of Prof Olivier Bile. 2) PCRN of Hon Cabral Libii Ngue. 3) MDI of Djeukam Tchameni. 4) APAR of Celestin Djamen. 5) LCN of Prof Minyem George. 6) Mouvement A18 / A25 of Dr Florient Ndzana Jean Marie. 7) PSC /UPS of Djemba Jean Pierre (Vice President). 8) Parti UNIVERS of Prof Nkou Mvondo Prosper.

As could be seen, it was a political alliance with many intellectuals.  Seven more political parties reportedly joined the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition after the launch, thus taking the number of political parties in the alliance to 15.

 But Only Two Parties Were Qualified To Give Investiture To A Candidate

But the one weakness of the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition was that despite the fact that it had 15 or more political parties as members, only two political parties were qualified in line with the Electoral Code, to give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election. There was of course Cabral Libii’s PCRN, one of the current major opposition parties in the country that has five MPs and runs five councils in the country, as well have a number of councilors in some other municipal councils in the country. The other party was Prof Prosper Nkou Mvondo’s ‘Parti Universe”, which has a miserable number of only two councilors in Ngaoundere III Municipal Council. However the party is qualified by the Electoral Code, to give investiture to a candidate for the presidential election, as it is represented in a municipal council.

Meanwhile the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition came to rely much on Nkou Mvondo’s ‘Parti Universe’, as  Hon Cabral Libii kept sending conflicting signals, which suggested that his party, PCRN, would only endorse his candidature for  the 2025 presidential election, and no one else. This thus meant that if the alliance selected another candidate for the presidential election, PCRN would not endorse him, and thus would not give him the investiture to run in the presidential election. On the other hand, Prof Nkou Mvondo indicated that he had no intention or ambition to run for the 2025 presidential election, and so his party, was available to give investiture to any candidate that the ATP would select.

Organizing Committee Of The Primary

Meanwhile the ATP set up an Organizing Committee to receive candidacies, and organize the primary to select the alliance’s candidate for the 2025 presidential election. Members of the Organizing Committee included Dr Florient Ndzana , Dr Ayissi Yves, Momo Brice Bienvenue, and Mvolo Hubert. The Organizing Committee of the primary, after a meeting in Yaounde, announced in a communiqué on September 23, 2024 that the deadline for the reception of candidacies for the primary was November 15, 2024 at midnight.

The Bombshell

When the Organizing Committee of the primary in the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition, on September 23 said there were 15 political parties in the alliance, Nkou Mvondo’s Parti UNIVERS was of course counted amongst the 15.  But a few days later, precisely on Saturday, September 28, Nkou Mvondo and his Parti UNIVERS appeared at an event in Yaounde, as the leader of what they said was a new opposition alliance, that has Barrister Akere Muna of the NOW Movement, as its candidate for the 2025 presidential election.  What happened was that Prof Nkou Mvondo had gotten into a deal with Barrister Akere Muna, with Nkou Mvondo accepting to instead give his party’s investiture to Muna, to run for the 2025 presidential election as ‘Parti Univers’ candidate.

This was a bombshell to the Alliance for a Peaceful Change in Cameroon, as the alliance had no other party in its ranks that could give investiture to the platform’s candidate for the 2025 presidential election. As aforementioned, ATP had relied on Nkou Mvondo’s party for the investiture. But after secretly striking a deal with Akere Muna of NOW Movement,  Nkou Mvondo that participated in preparing the manifesto of ATP, and who was also was one of the signatories of the manifesto,  quietly left the alliance in late September without even the courtesy to inform other members.  With the departure of ‘Parti Univers’, there was  no other political party in the ranks of the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition in Cameroon, that could give the alliance’s candidate investiture for  the 2025 presidential election.

The announced primary in the ATP could thus not go ahead. Suffice to say that the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition till date remains on a standstill, more dead than alive.  And so it seems that all the work that dozens of people including experts, had spent time doing from January to late 2024 for the ATP, might go in vain. Time wasted. Money wasted. Material wasted. ATP can only survive if another party with the right to give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election joins the alliance. If not, it is all over.

Akere Muna’s Controversial Role In The Situation Of The ATP

Meanwhile, it was not as if Barrister Akere Muna did not know about the situation of the Alliance for Peaceful Transition, or better still the alliance’s dependence on Nkou Mvondo’s ‘Parti  Univers’, when he secretly went behind to strike a deal with Nkou Mvondo to leave the alliance. In fact Akere Muna hung around the ATP for some months, and knew everything about the alliance.  He wanted to be the presidential candidate of ATP. He even told Dipita Tongo in an interview over STV in March 2024, that if ATP designated him as the platform’s presidential candidate, he would accept.

But the problem as regard Akere Muna, was that he wanted the ATP to designate him as candidate, without going through any selection process, especially a primary. When the ATP adopted the resolution that the presidential candidate of the alliance was to be selected through a primary, Akere Muna was disappointed. He did not want any primary and so refused to sign the manifesto of the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition, and left.  But then he did not completely leave, as he secretly engaged the National President of ‘Parti Univers’ in a  discussion that ended with the two striking a deal, that let to Nkou Mvondo unceremoniously pulling out of the alliance, to make him the the presidential candidate of “Parti Universe’. So Muna contributed to the present situation of the opposition alliance, the Alliance for a Peaceful Change in Cameroon. And ironically, he wants others to support the so called alliance that he claims supports his candidacy for the presidential election. It should be noted that only ‘Parti Univers’ with two councilors, in that Muna group, can give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election.

Clash Between Prof Bile And Prof Nkou Mvondo 

Meanwhile a clash sparked off on both the social and traditional media between Prof Olivier Bile who created ATP, and Prof Prosper Nkou Mvondo, National President of ‘Parti Univers’, over the controversial withdrawal of Nkou Mvondo and his party, from ATP. Prof Bile challenged Prof Nkou Mvondo to a Tv debate on the issue, but the latter would not accept. In a number of articles on the social media, Prof Bile blasted Prof Nkou Mvondo as somebody whose sole interest in politics and football (FECAFOOT), is for money. Many people understood this to mean that Nkou Mvondo struck a financial deal with Akere Muna, which let to him jump out of ATP.

It is also unfortunate that in Cameroon, that a University don, more so, a Law Professor, would not bother to   unceremoniously jump out of a group, whose manifesto he made inputs and above all signed, and more so propagated the mission of the ATP on the media as the best thing to have ever happened in Cameroon.