AKERE MUNA Calls On Gov’t To Immediately Rectify The Wrong That Was Done To ISSA TCHIROMA BAKARY, At The Yaounde Airport On July 31

ISSA TCHIROMA Says He Wanted To Travel To Dakar, Senegal, To Pay Homage To The Late First President of Cameroon, Ahmadou Ahidjo, Whose Corpse Is Still Lying Out There

“Do They Want To Silence Me? Do They Want To Humiliate Me?  Do They Think That They Can Use Fear To Divide Us? Let Me Tell You That Genuine (opposition) Candidates, Those That Incarnates Change, Are Always, Prosecuted”, TCHIROMA

TCHIROMA Calla On The Opposition, Civil Society, Diaspora And Lucid Patriots To Unite, And Say, STOP, To The Confiscation Of Power. “They Have The Forces, We Have The People”

 “This morning, while  I going to Senegal for a visit whose objective was to pay homage to the first President of Cameroon, His Excellency Ahmadou Ahidjo, whose corpse still lies in Senegal, and by this gesture also pay homage to the founding fathers of the nation for all the sacrifices that they made to enable our country to recover its liberty, dignity and its independence, I was arbitrary stopped from boarding the plane at the Yaounde Airport, by the decision of a Police Commissioner, who confirmed that he was acting on direct instruction of the Presidency of the Republic”.

This is a loose translation from French to English, of a declaration that the National President of FSNC Party and a candidate of the October 12, 2025 presidential election, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, made after he was blocked at the Yaounde – Nsimalen International Airport on Thursday, July 31, 2025, as he was about to board a flight to Senegal. Worthy of note that Issa Tchiroma who was a member of the Biya Government for several years, resigned from the Government on June 24, 2025, pulled his party  out of the alliance with the ruling CPDM, and declared his candidacy was for the  2025 presidential election. His candidacy was validated by the Electoral Board of Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, for the October 12, 2025 presidential election, on July 26, 2025. It should be noted that since resigning from Government a little over a month ago, Issa Tchiroma has been a strong critic of the Biya regime, and there is no doubt that the regime is very angry with him.

“Do They Want To Silence Me?”

Meanwhile Issa Tchiroma said in the declaration that what happened to him at the Yaounde Airport yesterday was a terrible thing, for when a candidate at a presidential election is stopped from travelling, it is, all the people that have been blocked from breathing. He questioned whether the regime wants to silence him, whether the regime wants to humiliate him, or whether the regime thinks that they use fear to divide the people. He asserted that genuine opposition candidates for a presidential election are always persecuted. He told the Cameroonian people that the persecution that he is facing is proof, that the fight for change has touched the right area that makes the regime feel pains.

  “They Have The Forces, We Have The People” 

Tchiroma reiterated that it is a terrible thing when a presidential candidate is obstructed from travelling, but assured that he remains determine to fight for Cameroon to restore its dignity. “The transition that we are proposing will not be done against anybody, but rather for you, for all, for our children”, he explained. Tchiroma stressed that: “It is the moment for us all to unite – the opposition, civil society, diaspora, lucid patriots, let’s united to say stop to the confiscation of power. I call on you to stay mobilize”. In concluding his declaration, Issa Tchiroma  called on the Cameroonian people to make their voices heard, and that they should all be part of preparations for the transition that Cameroon has been waiting for a longtime. “They have the forces, we have the people. And history on our side”, he assured the opposition and civil society.

Mixed Feelings

Meanwhile there have been mixed feelings to what happened to the National President of FSNC and Presidential Candidate, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, at the Yaounde International Airport on July 31.  He was stopped from leaving the country. Tchiroma said he wanted to go to Dakar, Senegal to pay homage to the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo.

While some Cameroonians appreciate the gesture that Issa Tchiroma says he wanted to make with the visit to Senegal, some people are questioning why it is only now that that he wants to go and pay respect to the late former President, or why he did not think of travelling to Senegal to pay homage to the late President, during the 20 long years that he was in the Biya Government? They think the presidential candidate, Issa Tchiroma, wanted to make political capital from the visit.

Aminatou Ahidjo, the daughter of the late former President (Ahmadou Ahidjo), who President Biya appointed Board Chair of the Yaounde Conference Centre, has denounced Issa Tchiroma for what she terms “L’escroquerie politique et morale”, that is, political and moral fraud, for having said that he was blocked at the Yaounde Airport from leaving the country to Senegal to pay homage to the late President.

It should be noted that the first President of Cameroon, Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo, died in Dakar, Senegal on November 30, 1989, that is, over 35 years ago.  In 2018, the current President of PCRN, Hon Cabral Libii Ngue, during a visit to Dakar, Senegal before his first participation at the presidential election in Cameroon which held on October 7, 2018, took time off to visit the grave of Cameroon’s first Head of State, Ahmadou Ahidjo. He won some political points back in the country, especially in the Grand North.

Another presidential candidate, Barrister Akere Muna of the NOW Movement, has also visited the grave of late former President Ahmadou Ahidjo in Dakar, Senegal, to pay homage to the departed former President. It looks like when a Cameroonian has to run in the presidential election, especially for the first time, it is then that the persons thinks of going to pay homage to the first President of Cameroon, Ahmadou Ahidjo, who died in Dakar, Senegal since  1989.      

 Muna Says Tchiroma Had Handed Over His Service Passport

Meanwhile in his reaction to the incident that Issa Tchiroma suffered at the Yaounde International Airport on July 31, when he was stopped from boarding a plane to travel to Senegal, Barrister Akere Muna, who is one of the candidates for the October 12, 2025 presidential election, insisted that Issa Tchiroma who was accompanied by his daughter, Dr Rohaya Tchiroma, wanted to travel to Senegal to pay homage to the late first President of Cameroon, Ahmadou Ahidjo, whose corpse lies in Dakar, as well as the corpses of  the late former First Lady, and the first daughter of Ahidjo.

Barrister Akere Muna who is also a human rights crusader, strongly condemned the decision to block Issa Tchiroma from travelling out of the country, when he had committed no crime, as an abuse of his human rights.  Akere Muna said that on resigning from Government in June, Issa Tchiroma handed over his diplomatic passport and as well vacated the residence that he was allocated by the Government as minister. Muna did not however say to whom Tchiroma handed over the service passport, when he resigned from Government.

Meanwhile, Akere Muna in his release exhorted the competent authorities to immediately rectify the wrong that was done to Issa Tchiroma at the Yaounde International Airport on July 31, and respect right to free movement and free participation in the political process in Cameroon, as a citizen.

No Government Reaction So Far   

Meanwhile the Cameroon Government has so far not officially made any statement on what happened to the National President of FSNC and presidential candidate, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, former member of Government, at the Yaounde –Nsimalen International Airport on July 31, 2025, or say why what happened, happened. A two page ‘Government Communiqué’ dated August 1, 2025, and purportedly signed by the Minister of Communication and Government Spokesperson, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, and said to be Government’s purported reaction to the declaration that was made by Issa Tchiroma Bakary on July 31,  has been circulating on the social media since yesterday, August 1. But, the Chief of Media Observatory, in the Ministry of Communication, has come out and disassociated his minister from the communiqué which he terms fake news.

The former member of Government and  candidate at the October 12, 2025 presidential election, Issa Tchiroma Bakary,  has also dismissed as fake news, information that has been circulating on social media, that he has been summoned to appear at the Special Criminal Court in Yaounde, on August 8, 2025,