2025 Presidential Election: Akere Muna Finally Finds A Political Party, Nkou Mvondo’s Parti UNIVERS, On whose Ticket To Run

Cabral Libii ran for the 2018 presidential election on the ticket of Nkou Mvondo’s  party, but things did not end up well between Libii’s movement and Nkou Mvondo, over money.

Barrister Akere Muna, the Leader of the NOW Movement, has finally found a political party,  Parti UNIVERS of Prof Nkou Mvondo Prosper, on whose ticket he will hopefully run for the 2025 presidential election. Akere Muna was on Saturday, September 28, 2024 in Yaounde presented as the candidate of a new opposition coalition (no name) led by Parti UNIVERS of Nkou Mvondo, for the 2025 presidential election. Considering that the coalition is a political platform and not a political party, Muna in real terms will be the candidate of Parti UNIVERS, which is even the only party in the small coalition, that according to the Cameroon’s Electoral Law, is qualifies to send in a candidate for the presidential election.

It would be recalled that Barrister Akere Muna (former President of the Cameroon Bar Council), was a candidate at the last presidential election in Cameroon, which held on October 7, 2018, though he withdrew from the race  two days to the election, to support the candidature of prof Maurice Kamto of MRC.  Muna went in for the 2018 presidential election on the ticket of FPD, another party in the Adamawa Region.

The Search For A Ticket For The 2025 Presidential Election

Meanwhile it wasn’t easy this time around for the Leader of the NOW Movement, Akere Muna, to find a ticket on which he will run for the 2025 presidential elections.  He was initially close  to the Alliance for a Peaceful Transition. A few months ago, Akere Muna disclosed in Dipita Tongo’s programme, ‘Cartes Sur Table’, over STV Douala, that if the Alliance for Peaceful Change asked him to be candidate for the 2025 presidential election, he would accept. He explained that if the alliance won the election, he would be the President of Transition for four years, during which he would put back things into order, and then after a new President of the Republic is elected in a democratic election, he would pack his bag, handover power, and return to his home.

There is no doubt that Akere Muna very much wants to be candidate at the 2025 presidential election. That of course is his right.  As aforementioned, Muna had earlier said that he would accept to be presidential candidate of the Alliance for Peaceful Transition, if he was asked to do so.  That, was  certainly also a message to the alliance.  He apparently did not see any hope when the alliance instead adopted a resolution, that it will select its candidate for the presidential election, by organizing a primary for members who want to be the platform’s candidate at the election.

It should be noted that along the line, Akere Muna had also approached the National President of PAL, Celestin Bedzigui, to be the party’s presidential candidate. Unfortunately Bedzigui misbehaved by taking the news public, that his party rejected Muna’s request.  The same Bediigui turned around and declared his own candidate for the presidential election.

Akere Muna finally succeeded to strike a deal with Nkou Mvondo, to be the candidate of Parti UNIVERS for the 2025 presidential election. Nkou Mvondo’s party leads a new opposition coalition that supports Akere Muna’s candidature. Just that by leaving another opposition coalition to create another one, what Nkou Mvondo and  Akere Muna  have done, only further split, and  thus further weakens, the opposition for the  2025 presidential election, to the advantage of the ruling CPDM.

No Major Opposition Party In the New Alliance

Meanwhile, unlike the APC which has Maurice Kamto’s MRC, and ATP which has Cabral Libii’s PCRN, there is no major opposition party in the new opposition alliance that has Akere Muna as presidential candidate. In the new  and small coalition supporting  Akere Muna’s candidature, in a Cameroon with as many as 369 registered political parties, there are only two parties that can bring some votes to the table. That is, Nkou Mvondo’s Parti UNIVERS, and a UPC sub – faction led by Dr Balenguel Nkot Pierre. The others are parties that exist more only on paper or on TV.

As for Prof Nkou Mvondo Prosper’s Parti UNIVERS, that is leading the coalition, the party has only 2 councilors (not councils) in the Ngaoundere 3 Municipal Council, in the entire country. It has no MP. However the 2 councilors qualify the party to be able to send in a candidate at the 2025 presidential election, and that is what gives Nkou Mvondo’s Parti UNIVERS the power to lead the small opposition alliance. It is the only party in the alliance that has at least a Councilor, and thus the only party that can have a flag bearer at the presidential election. Officially, Akere Muna will be the candidate of Parti UNIVERS at the presidential election, because an alliance is not a political party, and thus a candidate cannot run for election on its ticket.

Prof Nkou Mvondo Prosper – National President of Parti UNIVERS

Worthy of note, that Prof Nkou Mvondo Prosper who hails from the South Region of the country, has been a lecturer at the Ngaoundere University for many years, and has adopted Ngaoundere as his second home. He is President of a football club in Ngaoundere, and a member of the National FECAFOOT, and often serves as the representative of the President of the Federation, Samuel Eto’o Fils, especially in meetings that the Federation’s President want to avoid being personally present.

Meanwhile the National President of Parti UNIVERS, Nkou Mvondo, headed the list of his party at the February 9, 2020 Municipal Elections, in Ngaoundere 3 Municipality or sub –division. Fortunately, the presence of two big northern political parties, that is, Bello Bouba’s UNDP and Issa Tchiroma Bakary’s FSNC, added to the CPDM in the election for in Ngoundere Council, made it impossible for one party to win by absolute majority. And so during the sharing of the 31 seats in the Ngoundere 3 Council, Nkou Mvondo and his Parti UNIVERS grabbed two seats, which gave the party the power to be able to have a candidate at the presidential election.

UPC  – The Legalized Faction Further Split Into Sub – factions

It should be noted that the only other party in the Nkou Mvondo – Akere Muna alliance which can bring votes to the table, is the UPC. But UPC, as is known, is in several factions. In Douala for example, there is a faction of the party known as UPC Fidele, while in Bafoussam there is another UPC faction headed by the Publisher of Ouest Echo, a French language newspaper. The legalized faction of the UPC, which has his base in Nyong and Kelle Division of the Centre Region, is Late Frederick Augustin Kodock’s faction. KodocK and his legalized UPC faction, was an ally of the ruling CPDM.

A few years after Kodock’s death, the legalized faction of the UPC split into two sub- factions; one led by Dr Balenguel Nkot Pierre, and the other by a former MP, Robert Bapooh Lipot. Both have been claiming to be the legal leader of the legalized UPC. That is, the Secretary General. It should be noted that with the UPC, the President of the party is really a figure head, while the real  leader of  the party is the Secretary General.

Meanwhile the legalized faction of  the UPC could not run at the February 9, 220 Legislative and Municipal Election, because the two sub – factions sent in two different lists, and Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, rejected both lists. The decision was upheld by the Administrative Bench of the Supreme Court for the (Municipal Election, and the Constitutional Council for the Legislative Elections.

Today the legalized UPC sub –faction led by Hon  Robert Bapooh Lipot has allied with the ruling CPDM, while the sub – faction led by Dr Balenguel Nkot Pierre, is in the new opposition coalition that supports the candidature of Akere Muna for the 2025 presidential election. So in reality the UPC votes that Muna can count on, are only the votes of militants that are behind Balenguel Nkot.

Bapooh Lipot Reacts In Cameroon Tribune

Scandalously enough, the reaction of Hon Robert Bapooh Lipot to the decision by  Dr Balenguel Nkot Pierre to give the support of his sub – faction of the UPC to the candidature of Akere Muna for the 2025 presidential election, was the lead story in the State owned daily newspaper, Cameroon Tribune, on Tuesday, October 1, 2024. The headline read: “UPC a la Presidentielle 2025: Ce Sera avec le RDPC”. That is: “UPC at the 2025 Presidential: It will be with the CPDM”.

Bapooh Lipot, whom Cameroon Tribune presents as the Secretary General of the UPC, or better still the leader of the UPC (legalized faction), insist in both a communiqué he issued on Saturday, September 28, 2024, as well as in an interview granted Cameroon Tribune, that UPC is an ally of the CPDM, and that the party will thus ally with the CPDM, and no other party, at the 2025 presidential election. Cameroon Tribune quoted Bapooh Lipot as denouncing the fact that some “persons” claiming to be the representatives of UPC, participated at a political event in Youunde, for the designation of the presidential candidate of an opposition coalition.

What Cameroon Tribune has done, is a clear indication, that the Government has taken side with Bapooh Lipot in the fight with Balenguel  Nkot over the leadership of the legalized faction of the UPC, because he has allied with the ruling CPDM,  even though  the court ruling on the matter did not go I his favour.

Cabral Libii Ran For 2018 Presidential Election, On Ticket Of Parti UNIVERS

Meanwhile, it would be recalled that Hon Cabral Libii Ngue, then leader of the ’11 Million Movement’, ran for the 2018 presidential election, on the ticket of Nkou Mvondo’s Parti UNIVERS. Nkou Mvondo and Cabral Libii before then used to have a good relation, with the former often referring to the latter as his son. So it was not surprising that Cabral Libi and Nkou Mvondo easily agreed, that Libii who was not a militant of his party, should run the presidential election on his party’s ticket.

But the Nkou Mvondo and Cabral Libii had a strained relationship after the election, and the issue was money. Cabral Libii paid the 30 million FCFA deposit for his candidature. But when it came to the campaign funds given by the State to candidates, the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, decided that the money should be paid to political parties and not directly to the candidates. So the campaign fund for Cabral Libii from the State was paid into the account of Parti UNIVERS, of which he was not a signatory.

After the presidential election, Cabral Libii and his ’11 Million Movement’, could not have access to the over 5 million francs that was left in the account of Parti JNIVERS, and trouble sparked of. Though Cabral Libii tried to played cool on the matter, his collaborators would not condone that, and insisted that they leave Nkou Mvondo’s party, which they did. It was not a secret issue, as the matter was taken to the media by Libii’s collaborators. Nkou Mvondo claimed that his party spent some money during the campaigns, while Cabral Libii’s collaborators insisted that everything was handled by the funds that the ’11 Million Movement’ raised, and part of the campaign funds from the State.

It is only hoped that such a scandalous situation would not happen between Akere Muna and Nkou Mvondo, at the end, and that after the 2025 presidential election, they will still be able to appear in a picture smiling as they did at the event of September 28, 2024 in Yaounde.