How Bello Bouba And His Northern Brothers Shoved Aside The Southerner, Samuel Eboua, To Take Over The Leadership Of UNDP Party In January 1991

Samuel Eboua held several top posts in the Ahidjo regime, including the strategic post of Secretary General at the Presidency. He was known to have been very close to President Ahmadou Ahidjo, to the point that quite a number of people thought that if Ahidjo had to leave power, he would be the one designated to replace him.

In 1991, Samuel Eboua became the pioneer National President of the National Union for Development and Progress, NUDP party, popularly known by the abbreviation in French, UNDP. This was definitely in connection to the close relationship he had with the former President of Cameroon, Ahmadou Ahidjo. Issa Tchiroma Bakary who hails from Garoua in the North Region was the Secretary General of the party, while Hamadou Mustapha from the Far North Region was the 1^st Vice National President of UNDP. These were all people considered as Ahidjo’s s men or ‘children’.

In fact when UNDP was created, there were three northerners at the top, representing the three northern regions. There was Issa Tchiroma Bakary from the North Region, Kache from the Adamawa Region, and Hamadou Mustapha from the Far North Region. The post of National President was given to Samuel Eboua, but the post in reality was not meant for him. Even if Eboua was made to think that he was actually the National President of the party, he in realty was more of a caretaker National President. The real National President was Bello Bouba Maigari, who was then in neighbouring Nigeria.

Ahidjo’s Children

It should be noted that when President Biya handed over power to Paul Biya in November 1982, Bouba Bello Maigari was appointed Prime Minister. That was definitely Ahidjo’s proposal to Biya. Following the political crisis that erupted between the former President, Ahmadou Ahidjo, and President President Paul Biya,  Bello Bouba was dropped from Government.  He crossed to neigbouring Nigeria on self -exiled. When with the rebirth of multiparty politics, President Biya signed a general amnesty, Bello Bouba decided to return to the country later that year (1991).

The UNDP Party that was created before Bello Bouba returned to the country was not only more of a northern party, but it was being unofficially projected as the party of Amadou Ahidjo’s ‘children’. There was no doubt that the real base of the UNDP Party was Garoua.

 Eboua Was In Reality, More Of A Temporary Leader Of UNDP

It was certain to some political observers from the very beginning that Samuel Eboua, a Southerner, was just temporary put at the helm of the northern party, UNDP. He was put in that post to temporary hold it for the real National President of the Party, Bello Bouba Maigari, the former Prime Minister who had been on ‘exile’ in Nigeria, to return to Cameroon. Bello Bouba returned to Cameroon later in 1991, and Samuel Eboua immediately started sensing a serious threat to his post of National President of UNDP, even if nobody told him anything. Eboua in fact started panicking.

Though the Coordination of Opposition Parties and Civil Society Organization of which Samuel Eboua was President, had held a meeting and decided to boycott the Tripartite Talks that President Biya convened in the place of the sovereign national conference, Eboua was forced to rush to Yaounde for the event, when he heard that Bello Bouba had been invited and that he had arrived in Yaounde for the event. He was afraid that though Bello Bouba was invited to the Tripartite Talks as a former Prime Minster, the regime could along the line manipulate things to present him as UNDP representative.  Eboua’s decision to participate at the event because of Bello Bouba, was to cost him the position of leader of the opposition, and the weakening of the Coordination of Opposition Parties and Civil Society Organisations. This was because the radicals in the coalition were very disappointed with him, that he attended the Tripartite Talks.

Party Owners Bypassed National President, And Convened Congress

But the nightmare which Samuel Eboua had been trying to avoid, soon appeared, and stared him on the face.  A congress of the UNDP Party was scheduled for Garoua in January 1992. It should be noted that the congress was neither convened by the National President of the UNDP Party, Samuel Eboua, nor was it done with his approval.  Eboua was both embarrassed, shocked and disappointed. Even though he had suspected that a plot was being hatched  for Bello Bouba to takeover the leadership of  UNDP, he had expected  that things could be done that way.   He felt betrayed, bitter and humiliated..

Well, what happened was that the real proprietors of UNDP bypassed the National President of the party, and convened the party’s congress.  The National President of a party was instead invited to the congress of the party. That was a terrible situation.

It was clear that the political manipulation behind the UNDP congress was for a northerner, precisely Bello Bouba Maigari, to take over the leadership of the northern party. The handwriting was clear on the wall for Samuel Eboua to see. He wisely decided not to travel to Garoua for the congress. That however did not stop the congress from going ahead, and Bello Bouba Maigari became the new President of UNDP.  The northerners were now fully in control of their party.

Bello Bouba Starts Pulling NUDP Away From Opposition Front

Meanwhile upon taking over the leadership of UNDP in January 1992, Bello Bouba Maigari started pulling away the party from the opposition bloc. It was decided that  the opposition should boycott the first legislative and municipal elections in the new multiparty set up, which was scheduled for March 1, 1992. But while the other major opposition parties like Fru Ndi’s SDF and Ndam Njoya’s CDU for example decided to boycott  the March 1, 1992 Legislative and Municipal Elections,  Bello Bouba took UNDP into the elections. UNDP took advantage of the absence of the SDF, and won as many as 68 seats in the National Assembly. Bello Bouba and his UNDP thus after the first multiparty legislative elections, became the official opposition leader in parliament.