2025 Presidential Election: An Enlarged Meeting Of The Central Committee Of UNDP, To Decide Whether Or Not, The Party Should End Alliance With CPDM

There have been a number of such meetings before, but each ended with a decision for continuity 

 But this time around, the meeting will be holding within the backdrop of increasing sense of awareness by youths of the Grand North. Many no longer want to see the ruling CPDM

 Why many UNDP militants at the base, especially youths, today want an end to the alliance that their party signed with the ruling CPDM, in 1997  

Late last week a number of French language newspapers like Le Messager, Innovation, La Meteo among others, either speculated or questioned whether ‘Union Nationale pour la Democratic et le Progres’, UNDP, that is, the National Union for Democracy and Progress, NUDP, which has since January 1992 been led by Bello Bouba Maigari,  Minister of State for Tourism and Leisure, is about to break up the alliance with ruling CPDM party, and designate its leader as candidate for the 2025 presidential election.

It should be noted that the CPDM and UNDP signed an alliance after the 1997 presidential election, and in line with the terms of the alliance, the UNDP has been supporting the candidate of the CPDM (Paul Biya), at all presidential elections. This was the case with the 2004, 2011 and 2018 presidential elections.

An Enlarged Meeting Of UNDP’s Central Committee

Meanwhile all  the speculations and questions on the social and traditional media,  follow Decision No.2025 / 05/ D/ PN/ UNDP that was signed by the National President of UNDP, Bello Bouba Maigari, on June 6, 2025, convening an enlarged meeting of the Central Committee of the party on June 28, 2025, at the Yaounde Conference Centre. The Central Committee meeting of the UNDP, will according to the release, be exceptionally enlarged to include members the National Advisory Council,  as well as members of the Permanent Secretariat of the Committee of Directors, and annex organs.

The agenda of the meeting was not disclosed in the communiqué. Rather it was said that the agenda will be disclosed or made known at the meeting. However dependable sources in the Central Committee of UNDP, have confirmed to The Mentor News that the main item on the agenda of the June 28, 2025 enlarged meeting of the Central Committee of the UNDP, will be to decide whether the party should terminate the alliance with the CPDM, or continue with it. To continue with the alliance will mean that the party will again support the CPDM candidate, at the 2025 presidential election. If the majority of members at the June 28 meeting decide that enough is enough, and that UNDP pulls out of the alliance with the CPDM, then the party will unlike in the last three presidential elections, not support the CPDM candidate at the 2025 presidential election.

  The Timing Of The UNDP Central Committee Meeting

The June 6, 2025 release issued by the National President  of UNDP, Bello Bouba  Maigari, has sparked quite some anxiety in the public, especially on the social media as well as the in the traditional media, leading to a lot of speculations as well as questions being posed. There have been speculations that the UNDP is about to put an end to  the alliance it signed  with the CPDM way back in 1997, and that the party wants its leader, Bello Bouba Maigari, to be a candidate at the 2025 presidential election. Those that have been exercising some prudence, have instead of speculating, been raising questions as to whether the UNDP is about to pull out of the alliance with the CPDM, and if the party is about to designate its leader, Bello Bouba, as candidate for the 2025 presidential election.

There is no doubt that these speculations and questions are coming up because of the timing of the enlarged meeting of the Central Committee of the UNDP, as the country is already in the period of the presidential election. In fact the President of the Republic will soon convene Cameroonians or electorates to the poll for the 2025 presidential election, expected to hold in the month of October. The President of the Republic may even do that before June 28 that the UNDP meeting has been scheduled.

But This Is Not The First Of Such Meetings

But it should be noted that contrary to what many people think, this is not the first time that a meeting of the Central Committee of the UNDP has been convened to hold during the period of presidential election in the country. In fact since the UNDP signed the alliance with the CPDM, a meeting of the Central Committee of the UNDP also holds close to a presidential election. It happened during the periods of the 2004, 2011, and 2018 presidential elections.  The Central Committee of the UNDP meets and members assess or make an evaluation of the alliance between the party and the CPDM, and decide whether the party should continue with the alliance or not.

At the 2004, 2011 and 2018 meetings, a majority of members of the UNDP Central Committee ended up supporting the position that the alliance should continue. And so the UNDP did not put up a candidate at the 2004, 2011 and 2018 presidential elections, but rather supported the candidacy of the incumbent Paul Biya, or better still, the candidate of the CPDM, at the elections.

The Difference This Time Around

So in reality, such meetings are more of a tradition in the UNDP.  However the difference between the meetings of the UNDP Central Committee in the past, and the one billed for June 28, 2025, is that the National President of the UNDP, Bello Bouba Maigari, in the past convened such Central Committee meetings after the President of the Republic announced the date of the presidential election, or better still, convenes Cameroonians to the polls for the presidential election. But this time around, the UNDP leader has convened the meeting, before the President of the Republic convenes electorates to the polls.

Increasing Discontent In The UNDP Over The Alliance With CPDM

One of the major reasons why there is this anxiety on the social media as well as in the traditional media, as regard the outcome of the enlarged meeting of the Central Committee of the UNDP scheduled for June 28, 2025, is that the meeting will be holding within the backdrop of increasing discontent in the UNDP, over the alliance with the CPDM.  Many UNDP militants especially at the base or grass root, are questioning what the party has been benefitting from the alliance with the ruling CPDM. In order words, UNDP militants at the base complain or feel that, they or their party, have not been benefitting anything from the alliance.  And they thus see no reason why the alliance should continue, or why they should continue to vote for President Paul Biya or the CPDM candidate, at the presidential election.

Many senior members and officials of the UNDP have also been blaming the CPDM for not respecting the terms of the alliance. They say while the UNDP on its part has been doing everything, to effectively and totally respect the terms of the alliance that was signed with the CPDM in 1997, the CPDM on its part has for quite sometimes now not been respecting the terms of the alliance. Even the CPDM – UNDP Platform is more death than alive, as meetings that were supposed to be holding between the two parties to discuss issues about the functioning of the alliance, rarely holds.

As regard appointments into Government, it should be noted that at the beginning of the alliance, four members of the UNDP were appointed into Government. It has since been reduced to barely two; a Minister and a Secretary of State.  There has been no concrete explanation for this situation by the CPDM or President Biya.

In 2018, Some Members Of The Central Committee Of UNDP, Wanted An End To The Alliance

It should be noted that it is not only now, that voices have started rising in the UNDP, calling for an end  of the alliance with the ruling CPDM, or better still, that the party should no longer support the CPDM candidate at the presidential election. The Mentor News learnt that the meeting of the Central Committee of the UNDP that held at the Yaounde Conference Centre in 2018 to evaluate the partnership between the party and the CPDM, ahead of the October 7 presidential election, was really stormy. There were some members that wanted an immediate end to the alliance. T

However at the end of the day, the majority of the members of the Central Committee of UNDP, were in favour of the continuation of the alliance with the CPDM, and so those against were in the minority and had to respect the will of the majority. And so contrary to what some people think, it is not the National President of UNDP, Bello Bouba Maigari, to decide on whether the party should continue in the alliance with the CPDM, or not.

An Increasing Sense Of Awareness By Youths Of The Grand North

The Central Committee of the UNDP is comprised mostly of people of the old generation and conservatives, who are generally the category of people who want to maintain the status quo. But political observers wonder whether the Central Committee of the UNDP, will at the June 28, 2025 still be able to take the type of decision they took at the last presidential election in 2018, which was that the party should maintain the alliance with the CPDM.

It should be noted that the UNDP Central Committee meeting this year, will be holding within a backdrop of an increasing sense of awareness  by youths of the Grand North, whose eyes are now  opening to the stark reality of the situation of their three regions. High unemployment rate, high rate of poverty, high rate of illiteracy in the Far North Region, bad state of roads, absence of portable water in most parts of  the Grand North, and so on and so forth.  In fact, the Grand North, especially the Far North Region, suffers from underdevelopment. The increasing sense of awareness of youths of the Grand North is thanks among things to the sensitization campaigns being carried out by some political activists like Guibal Gatama and Abdouraman Baba, as well as by an increasing number of civil society organizations.  The political activists, the civil society organizations and the youths of the Grand North are blaming the situation (misery and underdevelopment) of the Grand North, to the ruling CPDM party and Government, including the CPDM elites of the Grand North.  An increasing number of youths of the Grand North, who include UNDP youths in the Grand North, no longer want to see anything associated with the CPDM.

That is why some members of the Central Committee of the UNDP who hail from the Grand North, are reportedly cautioning the party’s leadership behind the scene, that if the party does not put an end to the alliance with the ruling CPDM, the party runs the serious risk of losing many militants as well as becoming the target of attacks by activists in the Grand North, that many locals now consider as illustrious sons and daughters, fighting for the interest of the Grand North.