Joe Dinga Pefok (Uncle Joe)
Advices Akere Muna to ally with Biya, recalling that his father was a close ally of Biya for many years in running Cameroon
Says CPDM stabbed Augustin Frederick Kodock in the back, and by that killed the alliance that they signed in 1992
Why Hon Robert Bapooh Lipot has been having sleepless nights, since Dr Balenguel Nkot Pierre declared support for Muna’s candidature
An outspoken elite of the UPC, Prof Jean Bahebeck, has said the party’s militants at the grassroots will neither support the candidature of President Paul Biya nor that of Barrister Akere Tabeng Muna , at the 2025 presidential elections. Without calling names, Bahebeck said the UPC elite that have declared that the party will support the candidature of incumbent Paul Biya, as well as the one that have declared that the party will support the candidature of Akere Muna, are in reality not talking in the name of militants at the grassroots.
Prof Bahebeck made this declaration during the weekly panel discussion, ‘Club d’Elites” over Vision Tv in Yaounde on Sunday, October 6, 2024.
Kodock Was Stabbed On The Back”
The UPC elite, Jean Bahebeck, flared up and almost disrupted the TV programme, when the CPDM representative in the panel discussion, said Kodock’s UPC was in an alliance with the CPDM, and so will vote for the CPDM candidate, Paul Biya, at the 2025 presidential election. Without getting into details, Prof Bahebeck screamed several times, quoting the late Augustin Frederick Kodock, to have fumed on his dying bed, that the CPDM betrayed him, that the CPDM stabbed him on the back. Referring to CPDM as a party of bad people and bandits, Bahebeck strongly argued that the betrayal of Kodock by the CPDM automatically killed the alliance that was signed back in 1992. He thus stressed that as far as UPC militants of the grassroots are concern, there is no more any alliance between the party and the CPDM.
“Akere Muna’s Father Worked Closely With Biya For Many Years”
As for Barrister Akere Muna who is the presidential candidate of Prof Nkou Mvondo’s Parti UNIVERS, Prof Bahebeck suggested that it will be good for him to instead ally with President Biya for the 2025 presidential election. Bahebeck recalled that Akere Muna’s father (Hon Solomon Tandeng Muna), worked closely with President Biya for many years.
It should be noted that both Biya and Muna earlier worked closely with President Ahmadou Ahijo. The Biya later became President of the Republic. ST Muna was President of the one party National Assembly and the second personality in the country in Biya’s regime. Biya thus ran the country with ST Muna. It should be noted that ST Muna of course reaped much from his top positions in the Ahidjo and Biya regimes, and thus unlike John Ngu Foncha, left behind a lot of wealth that his children , including Akere Muna, are today benefitting from.
So Akere Muna cannot honestly distance himself from the problems into which the Ahidjo and Biya regimes have plunged the country. For example, the root cause of the Anglophone Problem which in 2016 degenerated into the Anglophone Crisis, and later escalated into an armed conflict, started many years back, when ST Muna was the No. 2 personality in the country. The Anglophone Problem started way back in 1972, with the illegal Referendum that Ahidjo organized with the support of ST Muna. So Akere Muna’s candidature is not much different from that of somebody like Franck Biya, also declaring his candidature for the presidential election.
The Fight For Leadership In Kodock’s UPC
It should be recalled as The Mentor mentioned last week, that the UPC Party has for many years been in factions, and that the legalized faction of the UPC is that of Late Augustin Frederick Kodock. As The Mentor also stated last week, Kodock’s legalized faction of the UPC has in the last couple of years also being in two factions, or better still two sub factions, with one led by Dr Balenguel Nkot Pierre and the other led Hon Robert Bapooh Lipot (former MP). The two men have been fighting over the post of Secretary General, which in the UPC is actually the post that runs the party.
The matter was taken to court, and the court ruled in favour of Balenguel Nkot Pierre. But Bapooh Lipot has refused to respect the court decision, and is instead trying to ally with the ruling CPDM Party and Government, certainly as a strategy to get Government’s backing in the fight with Balenguel Nkot over the control of Kodock’s UPC.
Bapooh Lipot In Panic
At a public event in Yaounde on Saturday, September 27, 2024, Dr Balenguel Nkot Pierre accompanied by some members of his sub faction of Kodock’s faction of the UPC, publicly declared support for the candidature of Akere Muna, who is the candidate of Prof Nkou Mvondo Prosper’s Parti UNIVERS, for the 2025 presidential election. That plunged Hon Robert Bapooh Lipot into a state of panic, and in desperation he has since been running all over the place with a group of his followers, shouting it out that the UPC is in an alliance with the CPDM that Kodock signed in 1992, and that the UPC will vote for the incumbent Paul Biya at the 2025 presidential election.
Bapooh Lipot throughput last week, had no rest. The communiqué he issued on September 27, 2024 denouncing that some unauthorized person s appeared at a public event in Yaounde, and falsely declared the support of the UPC for a candidate at the presidential election, was not enough. Last week he granted interviews to Cameroon Tribune, My Media Prime TV and some other media organs on the issue, insisting that the UPC is in alliance with the CPDM, and will vote for Biya at next year’s presidential election. He also led a delegation of his followers to meet the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atamga Nji , and handed him what was probably the copy of the alliance that Kodock signed in 1992 with the ruling CPDM, and reiterated that his claim that the UPC will vote for President Biya at the 2025 presidential election.
Controversial Visit To MINAT
The visit to the Minister Atanga Nji by Bapooh Lipot and some members his sub – faction of Kodock’s faction of the UPC, again sparked another controversy about the minister, who has become very controversial for interference in the internal affairs of political parties. Kodock’s UPC signed the alliance in 1992 with the CPDM Party, and not with the CPDM Government. So Bapooh Lipot was supposed to instead meet the Secretary General of the ruling CPDM, Jean Nkuete., to talk about the alliance, and not the Minister of Territorial Administration.
Why The Panic By Bapooh Lipot
The reason for the panic by Bapooh Lipot, is that the fear of being sacked from the post of Board Chair of a State Corporation that he occupies. It is about food. So it has to do with his personal interest. Kodock died so disappointed with the CPDM Party’s leadership, or better still, Paul Biya, whom he said betrayed him. The fact is that Kodcok was very angry that Biya dropped him from Government, and he died while out of Government. Kodock’s UPC faction thus had to stay away from the CPDM,
After Kodock’s death, the new leadership of his UPC along the line got divided. Bapooh Lipot, for personal interest, was pro – CPDM, while Balenguel Nkot wanted the UPC to regain its original status as a real opposition party. In the fight over the leadership of Kodock’s UPC faction, between Bapooh Lipot and Balenguel Nkot, the law stood with the latte, as the court ruled in his favour.
However that did not stop the CPDM from pushing ahead with Bapooh Lipot, and recognizing him as the Secretary General of the UPC, in violation of the court ruling. The Secretary General of the CPDM, Jean Nkuete, in a flagrant show of support to Bapooh Lipot, led a CPDM team that attended a so called UPC event, that was organised by him in Nyong and Kelle Division, which is the base of Kodock’s UPC faction.
Compensation And Motivation By CPDM Government
As a compensation and motivation, President Biya appointed Bapooh Lipot to the post of Board Chair of SRCC which is a State owned company in charge of debt recovery and other things. So Balenguel Nkot’s public declaration on September 27, 2024 that UPC will support the candidature of Akere Muna at the 2025 presidential , election, was like it is said the quarters, “putting sand in the garri’ of Bapooh Lipot. That is, Bapooh Lipot fears that the ruling CPDM could consider that he has failed to deliver the UPC as promised, and have him sacked from the post of Board Chair that is putting food for him on the table. That is why he man has since been having sleepless nights, and has been running all over the place, singing that UPC signed an alliance with the CPDM, and that UPC will vote for Biya at the 2025 presidential election. But as another elite of Kodock’s UPC, Prof Jean Bahebeck , claims, the said 1992 alliance was killed by the “betrayal of Kodock” by the ruling CPDM, and thus in reality the alliance no longer exist.
Augustin Frederick Kodock Too Betrayed
Meanwhile it is interesting that Augustin Frederick Kodock on his dying bed wept that he was betrayed by the ruling CPDM. This is because the faction of the UPC known as UPC Fidele of Late Dooh Michel, which is steadfast in his stand for the original ideology of the UPC, path ways with Kodock when he signed the alliance with the CPDM in 1992. UPC Fidele has since held that Kodock betrayed the party by signing an alliance with the CPDM, an offshoot of Ahidjo’s UC and later UNC, that together with colonial and later neo colonial master, France, killed leaders and militants of UPC like Um Nyobe, Ernest Ouandji and so on.
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