Joe Dinga Pefok (Uncle Joe)
Just Like MAURICE KAMTO Did, IISSA TCHIROMA BAKARY, While In The BIYA Gov’t, Supported The Bad Electoral Law Imposed By The Regime. They Even Told Opposition Leaders Who Criticized The Law, To Shut Up. But No Sooner Did They Leave Gov’t, Or The Dining Table, And Return To The Opposition, That They Flagrantly Violated The Same Law.
Just like at the 2018 presidential election, we saw another display of a serious case of inconsistency by another Cameroonian political leader that, once again raised the issue of Trust at the national level, and Credibility in the eyes of the international community, of somebody who wants to be the 3rd President of Cameroon. Somebody who claims he wants to bring genuine change to this country, or wants to rebuild this once prosperous country, that has been ruined by 43 years of bad governance by the Biya regime, of which he was part and parcel for several years.
After the October 11, 2004 presidential election, a prominent Law Professor, Maurice Kamto, who campaigned for the opposition leader and candidate, Ni John Fru Ndi of the SDF, at the 1992 presidential election, joined the Biya Government, as Minister Delegate to the Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals. This was in the December 8, 2004 change of Government, when President Biya replaced Peter Mafany Musonge as Prime Minister, with Chief Inoni Ephraim.
Meanwhile the Law Professor (Kamto), was a member of the Biya Government, that for example in 2008, used brute force to smash protesting Cameroonians, and modify the Electoral Law to scrap the limitation to the mandate of the President of the Republic, that was adopted just a few years earlier. This is however not the issue here.
Defense Of The Bad Electoral Law
Rather, the issue is that when prominent opposition party leaders and candidates at the 2004 presidential election, who included Ni John Fru Ndi of the SDF, Dr Adamu Ndam Njoya of the CDU, Jean Jacques Ekindi of MP among others, continued to criticize the so called election victory of the incumbent Paul Biya of the CPDM, Minister Kamto took upon himself to respond to the opposition leaders and candidates, in defense of the bad Electoral Law.
Minister Kamto gave Fru Ndi, Ndam Njoya, Ekindi and the other opposition leaders and candidates, a little lecture on the Law, by bluntly telling them that according to the Electoral Law, once the Supreme Court which then was sitting for the Constitutional Council, proclaimed the official result of the presidential election, it was final. He thus told the opposition leaders to shut up, for Paul Biya was officially and legally proclaimed winner of the 2004 presidential election, and that was it. He told the opposition leaders to respect the Electoral Law, by not continuing to agitate in relation to the result of the election, after the Supreme Court siting in for the Constitutional Council, had already proclaimed the official result of the presidential election, with incumbent, Paul Biya, as winner.
But Kamto Refused To Accept Official Result Of 2018 Presidential Election
After the 2011 presidential election, Prof Maurice Kamto left the Government a few days to December 9, 2011 cabinet reshuffle. In 2017 Kamto became the National President of the MRC Party. As expected, he went on to be the MRC presidential candidate, at the October 7, 2018 president election. The very next day after the presidential election, that is, on October 8, 2018 to be precise, Maurice Kamto declared that he had won the election, and thus was the President – Elect of Cameroon. He went on to file a petition at the Constitutional Council which went operational early that 2018. The Constitutional Council rejected his claims. But then even after the Constitutional Council officially proclaimed Paul Biya as the winner of the October 7, 2018 presidential election, Maurice Kamto and his men refused to accept the result, and continued to insist that he was the President –elect.
In late January 2019, Prof Maurice Kamto and militants of his MRC Party went on to stage a protest against his ‘Stolen Victory’ in some cities in the country, including the nation’s economic capital, Douala. The Yaounde based MRC leader (Kamto) decided to travel to Douala to participate in the protest march, together with his Douala based Special Adviser and veteran politician, Hon Albert Dzongang. That protest demonstration landed him and some of his close collaborators then like Albert Dzongang, Celestin Djamen, Barrister Michelle Ndoki, among others, as well as a political ally, Paul Eric Kingue, in detention for nine months at the Yaounde Central Prison commonly known as Kondengui Prison.
Lecturer Rejects His Own Lectures
The issue here is not about the credibility of the Constitutional Council headed by the retired senior magistrate of the Supreme Court, Clement Atangana, which is indisputable pro- Biya regime. The issue rather, is that when Maurice Kamto was in Government, or on Paul Biya’s Dining Table as CPDM militants put it, he gave a ‘lecture’ to opposition leaders and presidential candidates, that the official result of the presidential election in Cameroon is proclaimed by the Constitutional Council, and once hat is done, it is over, and that all Cameroonians have an obligation to respect the Law. But then in gross contradiction of what Kamto said while in Government, no sooner did he become an opposition leader and presidential candidate, than he refused to respect the same bad Electoral Law that he asked opposition leaders some years back to respect it, as it is. He would not accept the same lecture he gave others yesterday, when he was in government.
The Case Of Issa Tchiroma Bakary
Issa Tchiroma Bakary who initially was one of the leaders of the UNDP Party, first joined the Biya Government after the first multiparty presidential election in October 1992, when he struck a secret deal with the regime behind the back of the National President of UNDP, Bello Bouba Maigari, for him and Hamadou Mustapha, to enter the government. Tchiroma was appointed Minister of Transport. He was dropped from Government a few years later. After Tchiroma ‘smartly’ played his cards’ again, President Biya brought him back to government in 2009, as Minister of Communications, who doubled as Government Spokesperson, or better still, Government Propaganda Secretary. That was in the June 30, 2009 change of government, when President Biya dropped Chief Inoni Ephraim as Prime Minister, and replaced him with Philemon Yang.
Tchiroma Takes On Kamto
As earlier mentioned, barely 24 hours after the October 7, 2018 presidential election, the National President of MRC, Prof Maurice Kamto, who was also his party’s presidential candidate, declared himself winner of the presidential election, in violation of the provisions of the Electoral Code, which states that only the Constitutional Council has the power to officially proclaim the result of the presidential election.
Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who then was the Minister of Communication and Government Spokesperson, took his turn to give Kamto some lessons on the need for people to respect of the Law. Tchiroma reminded the Law Professor, that the Cameroon Electoral Code is clear that only the Constitutional Council had the power to proclaim the official result of the October 7, 2018 presidential election, and that it was rather disgusting that somebody who ought to know better, was the one involved in the flagrant violation of the Electoral Law, by self- proclaiming himself President –elect. Minister Tchiroma said it was not a matter of liking or not liking the Electoral Code the way it was, but that it was a matter of respecting the current Electoral Code or Law that is in force, until perhaps the day there will be some changes to satisfy the demand of some politicians.
Talking about the October 7, 2018 presidential election, it should be noted that Minister Issa Tchiroma and his FSNC Party, supported the candidature of incumbent Paul Biya, at the election.
Issa Tchiroma Bakary Resigned From Gov’t On June 24, 2025
Meanwhile in the new government that was created on January 4, 2019 by President Biya after the October 7, 2018 presidential election, Issa Tchiroma Bakary was moved from the post of Minister of Communication, to the post of Minister of Employment and Vocational Training. He occupied that post until June 24, 2025, when he formally handed over his resignation letter from Government, to the Prime Minister and Head of Government, Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute, for onward transmission to the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, who appointed him. Tchiroma left Yaounde for his native Garoua in the North Region the next day (Tuesday, February 25)., On Wednesday, June 26, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, the National President of FSNC, who had spent a total of about 20 years in the Biya regime, or better still, he had spent 20 years with Biya on the dining table as the CPDM people like to put it, formally declared his candidacy for the 2025 presidential election, which held on October 12.
Tchiroma Declares Himself Winner Of The Presidential Election.
Fast forward to the October 12, presidential election. Less than 48 hours after the October 12, presidential election, the FSNC leader and presidential candidate, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who was also the candidate of a political platform, Union for Change, declared on social media that he was the winner of the presidential election. Here, he behaved just as one of Biya’s former minister, Maurice Kamto, did after the October 7, 2018 presidential election. And just like Maurice Kamto who failed to accept the lecture that, he, while in government, gave to opposition leaders and presidential candidates after the 2004 presidential election, Tchiroma also failed to accept the lessons he gave the MRC leader and presidential candidate, Maurice Kamto, after the 2018 presidential election, on the importance to respect the Law the way it is. The lecture being that it is only the Constitutional Council that has the power to proclaim the official result of the presidential election, and thus the winner of the election, and that the current Electoral Law has to be respected the way it is, for the Law is the Law.
It should be noted that when Minister Tchiroma criticized Kamto after the 2018 presidential election, for having claimed that he declared himself winner of the election based on results from polling stations (return reports or PVs), there was already Article 113 in the Electoral Code, that he and his supporters hung on after the October 12, 2025 presidential election. Article 113 has been in the Electoral Code since the 2012 so called electoral reforms.
The Issue Of Credibility Of Some Of Political Leaders
This issue once more brings to the lime light the problem of credibility of several political leaders in Cameroon, including some of those who want to lead this country. You cannot say one thing when you are in the opposition, tomorrow when you and join the Biya Government, or better still, when you join Biya’s dining table, you say a different thing or defend an anti–democratic position, then after making money you cross back to the opposition to say or do a different thing. Where is your credibility! While on Biya’s dining table, you strongly defended Cameroon’s bad Electoral Code imposed by the regime, and even chastised opposition leaders and presidential candidates who rightly criticized it. Then when you cross back the opposition, you denounce the same Electoral Code. So it is only when you are in the opposition that you see what is bad or good for the country! And if you are President of the Republic tomorrow, what type of leader will you be!
Longfellow wrote that while we judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, others judge us by what we have already done. And that is it. It is embarrassing to hear some of Tchiroma’s supporters sink so low, to the point of trying to argue that he was merely performing his duty as Minister of Communication and Government’s Spokesperson, when he spoke in defense of the current bad Electoral Law. The Electoral Law which states that it is only the Constitutional Council that has to power to proclaim the official result of the presidential election, and thus declare the winner.
The International Community Pays Attention To Issue Of Credibility
But if in Cameroon, people do not care about the credibility of politicians, the international community does. Just like happened with the MRC leader and presidential candidate, Maurice Kamto, when he declared himself winner of the 2018 presidential election, no country across the world is so far known to have officially recognized Issa Tchiroma Bakary as winner of the 2025 presidential election, despite all the propaganda that was made by his campaign team and spin doctors, that several Governments were about to recognize his alleged victory.
The issue is not whether the international community does believe or not, that Issa Tchiroma actually won the October 12 presidential election. The problem is that just like Maurice Kamto, when Issa Tchiroma Bakary was in Government, he insisted to the international community that in line with Cameroon’s Electoral Law, only the Constitutional Council has the power or competence, to proclaim the official result of the presidential election, and thus to declare the winner of the election. He insisted that the Electoral Law must be respected the way it is.
Issa Tchiroma thus could not after leaving the government and running in the presidential election, violates the same Electoral Law by self- proclaiming himself as winner of the presidential election, and expects the same international community to recognize his self –declared victory, even if he in reality won the election. The international community does not operate that way.
