2025 Presidential Election: Many Persons That Have Declared Their Candidacies, In Reality Have No Intention To Run In The Election

They are out for something else.

Many  Cameroonians that yean for genuine change in  the country, have been expressing their concern that an increasing number of  ‘opposition’ have in the last year been declaring their candidacies for the crucial 2025 presidential elections, whereas the opposition ought to close ranks  and come up with a unique candidate.

There are two things here. Firstly, The Mentor News must say without mincing words, that drawing lessons from all what has happened in Cameroon opposition in particular, and Cameroon politics in general, since the rebirth of multiparty politics, and what continues to happen, the idea of a unique opposition candidate at the 2025 presidential election is an ideal situation, which is thus not a realistic situation. In other words, Cameroon has never had a unique opposition since the first multiparty presidential election in 1992, and it will not happen at the 2025 presidential election. That unfortunately, is the bitter fact.

They Played The Same Game For 2018 Presidential Election, And Are Back Again

The issue of unique opposition candidate aside, what has been happening in the last one year as regard the increasing declaration of candidacies for the 2025 presidential election by presumed members of the opposition, is not new. We witnessed the same scenario with the 2018 presidential election. The reality is that most of these persons that have in the last one year or more, hastily declared their candidatures for the 2025 presidential election, will at the end of the day not be candidates, and they know it so well. In fact, these are guys that have declared their candidatures for the 2025 presidential election without any real intention to run in the election proper.

Some of these so called leaders of opposition parties, or presumed opposition members, that have declared their candidacies for the 2025 presidential election, without any intention to end up as  presidential candidates, played the same game at the 2018 presidential election. After that they went into political oblivion, as they or their parties could not even participate in the legislative or municipal elections.

The same party leaders had since re-appeared and declared their candidatures for the 2025 presidential election, just as they did for the 2018 presidential election. Some other party leaders have now joined in to also declare their candidacies.  But the logical question that follows then is why some persons declare their candidatures for the 2025 presidential election, when they know so well that they will not be candidates.

Putting Themselves In The Limelight

The 2012 reform of the Electoral Code came and made things very difficult for adventurers and opportunists passing around as leaders of opposition parties, to put themselves in the political limelight or spotlight by being presidential candidates. Some have devised a new strategy, which is to declare their candidacies for the presidential election, even though they know so well that they will not be candidates. They know so well that they cannot meet up with the laid down conditions to be a presidential candidate in Cameroon.  First of all, the parties of most of these guys do not qualify to give investitures to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election. Then they go to declare their candidacies, when they in reality have not negotiated with any of the 18 parities authorized to give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election. No serious person can declare his candidature for the presidential election, when he does not have a political party on whose ticket he will run.

Meanwhile, by declaring ‘free – of – charge’ their candidatures for the next presidential election, these so called party leaders put themselves in the limelight. There is a temporal change in the status of these different individuals that declare their candidatures for presidential elections in the media, in their quarters, in their communities, at their job sites, in their business sectors, in their professions, among their friends, and even in political circles. They now have easy access to the media. The media even goes towards them. They become small stars or are even treated as important personalities by some people who naively see them as persons that might soon become the President of the Republic.

Some Members Of The Civil Society Are Also In The Game

It is not only politicians who play this game. There are some members of civil society who do this. In fact some of the  persons that have declared  their candidacies for the 2025 presidential election, and who from all indications know so well that they will not meet the laid down conditions to be presidential candidates, are some members of the civil society. Interestingly enough, one of them (a Francophone), who writes regularly on the social media, and who is noted for often writing open correspondences  and petitions to national and international institutions, has for more than a year today been signing all his correspondences, as a personality that has declared his his candidacy for the 2025 presidential election. So having declared his candidacy for the 2025 presidential election has become to him like a big title. It is clear that to him, he declared his candidature for the 2025 presidential election in a bid to raise his status.  No serious presidential aspirant will do things this way.

Meanwhile if you ask this man which political party will give him investiture for the presidential election, he will not tell you.  Some of these persons that have declared their candidacies for the 2025 presidential election, just o seek for popularity or to raise their status in society, have now adopted a common lie to say that they are collecting signatures to run as independent candidates.

But again, no serious person declares his candidacy for presidential election, when he is not sure that he has gotten a party that will give him investiture. We saw that with Barrister Akere Muna, a member of the civil society. It was an open secret for months that Akere Muna intended to be a candidate in the 2025 presidential election. But it was only after Barrister Muna succeeded to strike a deal with Prof Nkou Mvondo, that Parti UNIVERS will give him investiture to be candidate for the 2025 presidential election, that he formally declared his candidacy.

Some Stars Out To Make A Buzz

It should be noted as well that some stars in Cameroon, especially artists or musicians, have taken the presidential election as an opportunity to make buzz. So it not surprising or new when a star comes out to say that he is thinking of running in the 2025 presidential election in Cameroon. When any such statements is made, is sparks a buzz, which is actually what the star wants.  The person just wants to make a buzz, as he actually has no real intention to run in the presidential election.

The makossa star, whose artistic name is Papillon, was probably the first to start this game in Cameroon, back in early 2004. He made a big buzz in the country when he declared that he would be a candidate at the 2004 presidential election.
In that early 2004, a press conference was organized in Douala for Papillon to launch the promotion of his new album. At the beginning of his presentation at the press conference, Papillon created an atmosphere of suspense in the hall, when he announced that there will be breaking news or scoop towards the end of his presentation.  Towards the end of his presentation, Papillon switched from music to politics, by announcing that he would be a candidate at the 2004 presidential election that was expected to hold towards the end of the year.  Papillon looked so serious in his declaration. That was also probably the first time that a star in Cameroon had made such a declaration, and so many journalists at the press conference took Papillon’s declaration serious.  Papillon was in the news for several weeks. But then after that, nothing was heard from Papillon again about his participation in the presidential election.

Flimsy Excuses Or Complaints At The End.

 Meanwhile what will happen is that, when the President of the Republic will officially announced the date for the 2025 presidential election, and serious candidates start running around to compile their documents or to prepare their complete files to handover to Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, most of those persons that declare candidacies without a real intention to run in the presidential election, will just go silent. It’s game over for them.  But if you ask any of them in the quarter or wherever, as to what happened, the person will come up with flimsy excuses or complaints that purportedly got him discouraged. He might bring up the issue of the Electoral Code as if he did not know about it before, and complain that the code was deliberately designed to favour the incumbent or the candidate of the ruling party. He would claim that after much reflection, he came to the conclusion that it would be waste of time and resources to participate in the presidential election.

Meanwhile, there are some of these guys that when the President of the Republic officially announces the date of the presidential election, they will still hang on for a while. They will run around town in the name compiling their dossiers, and at the end handover incomplete files to ELECAM, knowing so well that their files will be rejected. They would not have paid the caution of 30 million francs CFA, some would not have received the investiture of any of the 18 political parties that are authorized to give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election, and so on.  Their game will end with the rejection of their incomplete files by ELECAM.   But if  any of them is asked in the quarter as to what happened, he would claimed that the CPDM or Bya regime was behind the decision by ELECAM to reject his  file, and that his file was complete, but that they are scared of him.