Joe Dinga Pefok (Uncle Joe)
7 Out Of The 11 Presidential Candidates Of The Opposition, And Several Parties, Were Members Of The Foumban Group, That Was An Initiative Of The CDU Leader, TOMAINO NDAM NJOYA, Who Was Also In Contact With SDF And PCRN, That Were Not Yet Onboard The Platform. Unfortunately, What Happened On September 13, 2025, Killed The Foumban Group
Leaders of six opposition parties that included UDC, FSNC, MP, USDP, PAL and UMS, and some of their close collaborators, silently planned as well as participated at an important meeting which lasted six hours, in a hotel in the nation’s capital, Yaounde, on Saturday, July 5, 2025. The meeting ended with the creation of what many political observers considered as the first veritable coalition of opposition parties, for the 2025 presidential election, which later came to be commonly known as the Foumban Group. The leaders of all the six political parties, of the opposition, personally participated at the July 5 meeting in Yaounde. They included Mayor Hermine Patricia Tomaino epse Ndam Njoya of CDU, Issa Tchiroma Bakary of FSNC, Dzipan Halaire Marcaire of MP, Prince Ekosso Michael Ngwesse of USDP, Celestin Bedzigui of PAL, and Hon Pierre Kwemo of UMS.
Almost all of the six opposition parties that participated in that first meeting were parties that have a good political base, as five of them are represented in municipal councils. The five parties are Pierre Kwemo’s UMS, Celestin Bedzigui’s PAL, Issa Tchiroma Bakary’s FSNC, Hilaire Dzipan’s MP, and Patricia Tomaino Ndam Njoya’s UDC. Also, three of the six political parties are represented in the National Assembly. The parties include Patricia Ndam Njoya’s CDU that has 4 MPs, Issa Tchiroma Bakary’s FSNC that has 3 MPs, and Pierre Kwemo’s UMS that has 2 MPs. It should be noted that the Foumban Group was designed as a platform of opposition parties and candidates for the 2025 presidential election. Thus the Group was not only for opposition parties that had candidates or aspirants for the 2025 presidential election, but it was open to all serious opposition parties.
Members Of Coalition Agreed To Select Consensual Candidate
The new opposition coalition was working towards the designation of a consensual candidate for the October 12, 2025 presidential election. It should be noted that members of the new opposition coalition, were talking about a consensual candidate of the coalition, and not about a single (‘unique’) opposition candidate. The CDU leader and Mayor of Foumban, Tomaino Ndam Njoya, in her conception was realistic, considering that from all indications, the idea of a single (‘unique’) opposition candidate for the presidential election in Cameroon, is for now, more of an impossibility. This is because there are many satellite parties of the ruling CPDM, passing around for opposition parties, with one their missions being to infiltrate and disrupt or sabotage, any political project for a single opposition candidate for the presidential election.
According to Hon Adamou Koupit, a very close collaborator of the CDU leader, Mayor Patricia Tomaino Ndam Njoya, who accompanied her to the July 5 meeting in Yaounde, the newly created opposition coalition was opened to all opposition parties that were interested to come onboard the platform. He explained, as aforementioned, that the presidential candidate of the coalition would be designated by members, or better still, by political parties that were members of the coalition. One of the things that were accomplished by the July 5 meeting was that, the participants adopted the criteria that would be used to select or designate the candidate of the opposition coalition, for the 2025 presidential election. Members of the new coalition also fixed a calendar of their meetings, with the possibility of modifications whenever the need arose, considering that the country was already in the election period.
The Coalition Was In The Pipeline Since 2024
It should be noted, that then newly created opposition coalition, which was the initiative of the CDU leader and Mayor of Foumban, Patricia Tomaino Ndam Njoya, a former member of the National Assembly, was in the pipeline since 2024. In fact in 2024, the CDU leader travelled to Douala and silently convened a closed door meeting with some opposition leaders, and proposed a political project to create an opposition coalition for the 2025 presidential election. She however never talked to the media about her political project to create an opposition coalition for the 2025 presidential election. It was rather the Douala based leader of ‘Mouvement Progressites’, MP, Dzipan Hilaire, one of those that was invited to the meeting, that later made the disclosure to the media. But since then, nothing was heard again about that initiative of Mayor Patricia Tomaino Ndam Njoya. However, Madam Ndam Njoya, and a number of persons, was silently, working on the political project, until the first meeting of the new opposition coalition that held on July 5, 2025 in Yaounde.
Second Meeting In Foumban on August 2
Meanwhile, the National President of CDU, Mayor Patricia Hermine Tomaino epse Ndam Njoya, on Saturday, August 2, 2025 hosted in the historic town of Foumban, in the West Region of Cameroon, the second meeting of the new opposition coalition that had the important objective of designating a consensus candidate for the crucial October 12, 2025 presidential election. Interestingly enough, the Group which did not have any name, became commonly known as the Foumban Group. It should be noted that it was the second meeting that held in Foumban, that many Cameroonians got to know about the existence of the Group, and that is why many do erroneously think the August 2, 2025 meeting in Foumban, was the first meeting of the Foumban Group.
Meanwhile, the second meeting of the opposition coalition for the 2025 presidential election that took place in Foumban on August 2, 2025, was attended by an increased number of political leaders and opposition candidates for the October 12, 2025 presidential election. Thus the second meeting of the opposition coalition, registered new members that included: Barrister Akere Tabeng Muna, the Founder of the NOW Movement and candidate of the ‘Parti Univers’ for the October 12, 2025 presidential election. Serge Espoir Matomba, the leader of PURS and candidate for the October 12, 2025 presidential election. Jacque Hagbe Bougha, the candidate of MCNC Party for the October 12, 2025 presidential election. Some other political figures like the Dr Balenguel Nkot Pierre, Secretary General of the legalized faction of the UPC, and Celestin Bedzigui, the National President PAL, also attended the meeting.
Absentees From The Foumban Meeting
FSNC’s Issa Tchiroma Bakary was absent from the August 2, 2025 meeting in Foumban.. He however sent a representative. It should be noted that hearing on a petition against Issa Tchiroma’s candidacy for the October 12 presidential election, had to come up at the Constitutional Council in Yaounde on August 4, and so he had to stay back in Yaounde to prepare for that. As for UMS’s leader and presidential candidate, Hon Pierre Kwemo, the reason for his absence from the August 2 meeting in Foumban, was not clear, though some allegations floated.
Meanwhile, as regard the case of Dzipan Hilaire Marcaire of ‘Mouvement Progressistes’, MP, who went onboard the opposition platform from the very beginning, the Electoral Board of Elections Cameroon validated his candidacy for the October 12, 2025 presidential election. But a petition was filed against his candidacy at the Constitutional Council, and the matter had to come up on Monday August 4, 2025. So he could not travel to Foumban for the August 2 meeting. Worthy of note, that the Constitutional Council unfortunately rejected Dzipan’s candidacy for the October 12, 2025 presidential election. It was the first time that the Constitutional Council rejected a candidacy for a presidential election, validated by Elections Cameroon, ELECAM. Whatever the case, Dzipan Hilaire and his MP, remained a member of the Foumban Group.
Declaration Of August 2, 2025 Meeting In Foumban
Meanwhile, at the end of the August 2, 2025 meeting in Foumban, the new opposition coalition adopted a declaration dubbed, the Foumban Declaration. The declaration asserted that the then upcoming October 12, 2025 presidential election would not be just another election, for it would be a decisive moment for the survival of the country.
Considering the stakes involved as regard the country, the Foumban Group declared unity in action, a new vision for Cameroon, as well as the determination to mobilize all Cameroonian youths, women, men, civil society, and the diaspora to rise or stand up as one, for change. “Aware of the people’s expressed will for change, we commit ourselves to the choice of a consensual candidate, around a common programme, and we invite the people to play the role of citizens by voting massively. A people that is united will always win”, the one page declaration concluded.
Meeting At Muna Foundation, Yaounde
Meanwhile, a few days after the Foumban meeting, the Foumban Group had a marathon meeting at the Muna Foundation in Yaounde. The principal objective of the meeting that dragged on for three days was, to try to get a consensual candidate of the Foumban Group, before the deadline for presidential candidates to submit required information to ELECAM, for the printing of ballot papers. This was bearing in mind that once the printing of the ballot papers started, the deposit of 30 million francs CFA that each candidate had paid into the State Treasury, would not be refunded.
Unfortunately, the marathon meeting at the Muna Foundation in Yaounde which dragged on for three days, ended with members of the Foumban Group having failed to agree on the choice of a consensual candidate, or better still, on who should be a consensual candidate. The fact of the matter was that each of the presidential candidates wanted, or tacitly insisted, to be the consensus candidate of the Group.
Presidential Candidates: 7 Out Of The 11 Opposition Candidates
Meanwhile, it would be recalled that on July 26, 2025, the Electoral Board of Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, validated a total of 13 candidacies for the October 12, 2025 presidential elections, while as aforementioned, the Constitutional Council rejected one of the candidacies, Dzipan Hilaire,, thus leaving 12 presidential candidates that included the incumbent, Paul Biya. There were thus 11 opposition candidates to face Biya., and 7 out of the 11 candidates were members of the Foumban Group. They included: 1) ATEKI SETA CAXTON of PAL. 2) JACQUES HAGBE BOUGHA of MCNC. 3) ISSA TCHIROMA BAKARY of FSNC. 4) KWEMO PIERRE of UMS. 5) SERGE ESPOIR MATOMBA of PURS. 6) AKERE TABENG MUNA of ‘Parti Univers’. 7) HERMINE PATRICIA TOMAINO NDAM NJOYA of CDU.
It should be noted that after the marathon meeting of the Foumban Group at the Muna Foundation in Yaounde failed to get a consensual presidential candidate of the Group, the Group did not fall apart. There was still hope that the Foumban Group would end up getting a consensual candidate, or even a consensus candidate, perhaps barely a few days to the October 12, 2025 presidential election, as happened in neighbouring Gabon at the August 26, 2023 presidential election.
Meanwhile the four presidential candidates of the opposition that were not part of the Foumbam Group, were: Bello Bouba Maigari of UNDP, Hon Joshua Osih of the SDF, Hon Cabral Libii Ngue of PCRN, and the youngest candidate in the race, Iyodi Hiram Samuel of FDC, whose real party is MP3, that was legalized in 2023. However discussion lines were opened between MayorTomaino Ndam Njoya and the leader and presidential candidate of SDF, Hon Joshua Osih, as well as between the Mayor Tomaino Ndam Njoya and leader and presidential candidate of PCRN, Hon Cabral Libii Ngue, on the possibility of them and their parties either joining the Foumban Group, or collaborating with the Group like in the fight against electoral fraud.
The Creation of Union for Change
What really knocked down the Foumban Group was the Union for Change platform led by Anicet Georges Ekane (now of blessed memory), and Djeukam Tchameni, precisely the platform’s controversial declaration in Yaounde on September 13, 2025, that Issa Tchiroma Bakary (member of the Foumban Group), had been designated as the single or ‘unique’ candidate of the opposition for the October 12, 2025 presidential election. The National President of the CDU, Tomaino Ndam Njoya, who was then on a campaign visit in France, came out and denounced the declaration by the platform, Union for Change, and insisted that there was no single candidate of the opposition for the October 12, 2025 presidential election. The parties of other opposition presidential candidates like Bello Bouba Maigari’s UNDP, also came out, and denounced the September 13 controversial declaration by the Union for Change Platform.
But members of Union for Change pressed on with their false claim that Issa Tchiroma Bakary was the consensus or single candidate of the opposition for the October 12 presidential election, and Tchiroma himself went along with that false claim. MRC officials and militants, that had massively decided to support the candidacy of Issa Tchiroma Bakary at the October 12, 2025 presidential election, following the rejection of Prof Maurice Kamto’s candidacy by the Constitutional Council on August 5, jammed the social media with the false propaganda that Issa Tchiroma was the single candidate of the opposition for the October 12 presidential election. Many Facebook supporters of Issa Tchiroma at home and abroad, also joined in propagating the fake news on the social media.
A Divided Opposition
Sufice to say what happened was that opposition candidates went in for the October 12, 2025 presidential election very divided, and that played to the advantage of the ruling CPDM and its candidate, the incumbent Paul Biya, who then was 92 years old. The situation was worsen by the fact that fanatical supporters of Issa Tciroma Bakary, resorted to a campaign of blackmail, defamation and the throwing of invectives on the social media, against other opposition candidates in the presidential election, especially candidates of major opposition parties, as well as the parties themselves.
These fanatical supporters failed to understand that in a country like Cameroon, for an opposition candidate to win the presidential election is one thing, and to get the CPDM regime to accept the verdict of the poll, is even a more difficult task, which needs a united opposition front to fight the situation. That was why even though the SDF and PCRN were not, or were not yet members of the Foumban Group, the initiator of the political platform, Tomaino Ndam Njoya, established an open communication line with the two major opposition parties, to try to establish a working collaboration between the Group and those parties, in case at the end they still refused to join the Group.
The Consequences Of a Divided Opposition
Meanwhile, less than 48 hours after the October 12 presidential election, the FSNC leader and presidential candidate, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, declared himself, winner of the election.
The issue here is not whether Issa Tchiroma actually won the October 12 presidential election or not, but rather the fact that the division in the opposition ranks, left him alone, as no major other opposition party, came out to support his declaration, or to even show solidarity with him. The presidential candidates like Akere Muna, Iyodi Hiram Samuel and Ateki Seta Caxton who congratulated Issa Tchiroma for allegedly wining the October 12, 2025 presidential election, were all persons who ran for the presidential election on the ticket of some ‘Yango Parties’, and thus had no political force behind them, especially as the ‘Yango Parties’ distanced themselves from their declarations.
One of the lessons of the 2025 presidential election to the Cameroon opposition is thus that, a united opposition front is not only necessary to be able to win the presidential election, but also to protect the victory. Imagine that Issa Tchiroma was the consensus candidate of the Foumban Group, and he declared victory with the backing of the Group and allies of the Group, the story would have been different, because the regime would have had to confront a group comprised of a number of major opposition parties in the country, over the election result.
