Dr ESSOUSE BAMOCK, Cries Out That The Debate Which Prof MAURICE KAMTO Ignited, Has Divided And Humiliated University Dons

The university lecturer sys many colleagues, especially some law professors, have lost credibility in the eyes of their students, because of what they said in the debate on Imperative and Representative Mandates.  He has accused Prof KAMTO of having told lies and misled people in the debate. 

On the social media, many people are demanding that University dons that misled the public in the debate on Imperative and Representative Mandates, should tender an apology to the public.

  A university don, Dr Joseph Essouse Bamock, has cried out that the debate on Imperative and Representative Mandates that was ignited by the declaration that was made by Prof Maurice Kamto, has divided as well as humiliated the community of university lecturers, leaving their students in doubts about their credibility.

Dr Essouse Bamock dismissed the pretext that Prof Kamto gave at the press conference in Yaounde on Saturday, July 19, 2025, as the reason which made him decide to shelve the option to run for the presidential election on the ticket of his MRC.  Kamto claimed that they decided to give up that option, because it had become too politicized.  But Dr Essouse Bamock accused Prof Kamto that he lied in the debate on Imperative and Representative Mandates, and misled many people, by giving the false impression that his party, MRC, which boycotted the last legislative and municipal elections that were in 2020, had MPs and councilors.

Result Of The Boycott Of The 2020 Twin Elections  

It would be recalled that the MRC Party whose President was Prof Maurice Kamto, boycotted the 2020 legislative and municipal elections. After the elections, the MRC as result was neither represented in the National Assembly nor in any of the 360 municipal councils in the country. With the approach of the 2025 presidential election, things got complicated for Kamto and his MRC Party, as the Electoral Code clearly states that only a party that is represented either in the National Assembly, the Senate or municipal council, can give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election.

The postponement last year by President Biya of the legislative and municipal elections that were supposed to hold in February 2025 to February 2026, worsen the situation for Prof Kamto and his MRC.   First, it clearly meant that Prof Kamto could not run for the 2025 presidential election on the ticket of his party, MRC, as the party is neither represented at the National Assembly, nor at the Senate or in a municipal council. According to the Electoral Code, the party thus could not give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election.

The Other Two Options That Kamto Rejected

But it should be noted that many people, including the Deputy Secretary General of the Central Committee of the ruling CPDM, Gregoire Owona, Minister of Labour and Social Security, pointed out that Maurice Kamto had two options through which he could run for the  2025 presidential election. One of the options was that Kamto could negotiate with one of the 18 political parties authorized by the Electoral Code to give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election, to run on the party’s ticket. The other option was to obtain 300 signatures of some personalities, to run as an independent candidate.

Debate On Imperative And Representative Mandate

 But the then National President of MRC, Prof Maurice Kamto, who is an eminent law professor, came out and insisted that come rain or shine he would participate in the 2025 presidential election as  MRC candidate. Though MRC boycotted the last municipal and legislative elections, Prof Kamto insisted that his party had elected councilors and an MP.  He argued that based on the Imperative and Representative Mandates, some militants of the SDF, who were councilors like Barrister Joseph Lavoisier Tsapy, that were dismissed from the party and they joined MRC, had become MRC councilors. He said it was sane thing with the member of the National Assembly, Jean Michel Nintcheu, who was dismissed from the SDF, and who had become an ally of the MRC in the Political Alliance for Change, that supports Kamto’s candidature for the 2025 presidential election.

It should be noted that the Imperative and Representative Mandates in reality means for example, that when somebody, is elected as a member of Parliament (MP), on the ticket of a political party, once he enters Parliament, he becomes an MP of the nation. This means that, even if his party dismisses him, he would remain a member of the National Assembly, until the end of his mandate.  The text is meant to protect an MP, to enable him to be able to freely debate and vote for a law, based on his conviction for  the best interest of the nation, and not on party line or party discipline.

The Examples Of Hon Nintcheu And Councilor Tsapy

Meanwhile, the heated debate, over the issue of Imperative and Representative Mandates, was whether if somebody that is an MP for example, leaves his party to another party, he takes along the attributes of MP to his new party. In other words, did Hon Jean Michel Nintcheu, who revived his old party after he was dismissed by the SDF, become an MP of his party, FCC, since the law says he had become an MP of the nation after his election? Also, did Barrister Joseph Lavoisier Tsapy, Deputy Mayor or councilor of Bafoussam 1, who joined MRC after he was dismissed from SDF, become a councilor of the MRC?

The argument of the MRC leader, Prof Maurice Kamto, was that by leaving SDF to FCC, Nintcheu had become an MP of FCC. He said it was the same thing for Barrister Tsapy and a few other councilors of the SDF that joined MRC, when they were dismissed from the SDF. Prof Kamto said they had in line with the Imperative and Representative Mandates, become MRC councilors. Kamto thus insisted that MRC was represented in a council, and that the party was thus qualified to give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election.

But on the other hand, there were people who argued that a mandate is not transferable. They explained that though Hon Nintcheu for example revived his party after he was sacked from the SDF, he remains an MP, and that the party to which his parliamentary seat is officially allocated, remains the SDF on which platform he was elected MP. It was the same thing for Councilor Tsapy. He remains councilor to the end of his mandate, but the councilor seat remains that of the SDF, on whose ticket he was elected councilor.

Heated Debate By University Dons  

Meanwhile the debate on Imperative and Representative Mandates became so heated, as several law professors and other university dons, got involved, attracting also the university students’ community. Prof Aba’a Oyono, a law professor of the Yaounde II (Soa), supported Prof Kamto’s position on the Imperative and Representative Mandates, while s constitutional law expert, Prof Magloire Ondoa, Rector of University of Douala, as we as the political scientist, Prof Louison Essomba, argued against Kamto’s position.

On the social media, the debate became so heated between MRC militants and sympathizers on the one hand, that were staunchly in support of Prof Kamto, against those who disagreed with Prof Kamto on the issue. The situation often degenerated into the use of invectives. MRC militants and sympathizers would not tolerate any form of criticisms against Prof Kamto on the issue of Imperative and Representative Mandates, insisting that Prof Kamto whom they fondly call, Grand Prof or “Pape du Droit’, that is, the Pope of Law, was infallible in matters of Law.

Grand Prof (Pape du Droit) Finally Goes For An Obscure Party, MANIDEM

But while people were all anxiously waiting to see Prof Maurice Kamto file his candidacy as MRC presidential candidate, and then see how the debate on Imperative and Representative Mandate will play out at the Constitutional Council. But to the embarrassment of his supporters, Kamto instead filed his candidacy as a militant of an obscure political party, MANIDEM, which had just 1 councilor (not council) at the Dibombari Municipal Council in the Mungo Division, during the last municipal elections on February 9, 2020. Worthy It should be noted that the National President of MANIDEM, Ekane Anicet, headed the list of his party for the 2020 municipal election in Douala 1, and came out without a single seat.

Kamto Himself Seemingly Did Not In Reality Believe In The Debate

Meanwhile the decision by Prof Maurice Kamto to instead go for another political party, than push ahead with MRC,  based on his argument on the Imperative and Representative Mandates, has embarrassed many of the university dons that supported him in the debate, as it  has come out that Kamto himself did not believe in that debate. Rather, he was playing politics.  At the same time that he was insisting that MRC has elected members like councilors, that he claimed qualified the party to give investiture to a candidate, he and his men were secretly approaching a number of political parties on the list of 18, to negotiate to get investiture.

Demand For An Apology To The People

Meanwhile, on the social media, many people have in reaction asked Prof Maurice Kamto and all the other university dons that supported his position in the debate on Imperative and Representative Mandates, what would become of MRC militants and sympathizers, as well as some other members of the public, whom they misled into believing that it could be possible for a party to boycott the legislative and municipal election, and still later have MPs and councilors. People are asking these university dons, to tender an apology to the public.

The university don, Dr Joseph Essouse Bamock, in the programme over Canal 2 International on Sunday, July 20, 2025 said the issue had so much discredited university dons in general, in the face of their students, who are questioning whether they can continue to believe in their lecturers.