October 12, 202 Presidential Election: SDF’s Leader And Presidential Candidate, JOSHUA OSIH, Says He Has No Problem That There Are 12 Candidates

“Let’s Leave It To The 8 Million Cameroonians That Have Registered, To Make The Choice”. Osih Says SDF Has Just One Opponent In The Election, That Is, Paul Biya.

Like MAURICE KAMTO  Said At The 2018 Presidential Election, JOSHUA OSIH  Recalls That He Was Designated Candidate For 2025 Presidential Election By SDF’S National Convention, And So Cannot On  His Own Decide To Change The Party’s Decision    

 “There Are Presidential Candidates That Were Beaten By SDF Militants In Local Elections, And Today Some People Want Me To Ask These Militants To Line Up Behind Those Candidates”

The National Chairman and presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) for the October 12, 2025 presidential election, Chief Hon Joshua  Nambangi Osih, has declared that he has no problem with the fact that there are 12 candidates for the election, and argues that the 12 candidates do not have the same programmes.  He says more so, one of the 12 candidates is a photo, definitely referring to 92 year old President Biya, who is not being seen physically in the field by Cameroonians.

Osih was speaking in the programme, ‘A Vous La Parole” over Info Tv in Yaounde, coordinated by a senior journalist, Jean Jacques Ndzie. The programme is in the form of a no nonsense interview, in line with the spirit of a programme like “Hard Facts” over BBC.

 The SDF And PCRN Shares Some Common Views

Meanwhile, Hon Joshua Osih, like his colleague and friend, Hon Cabral Libii Ngue, the leader and presidential candidate of PCRN, who appeared earlier on the programme over Info Tv, disagreed with the view being raised by some Cameroonians that only a single opposition candidate, or a consensus candidate of a big opposition alliance, can beat the candidate of the ruling CPDM, Paul Biya, at the presidential election.  Osih said the SDF, with 35 years of existence as a major political party, and thus a long experience, has the capacity to beat the CPDM candidate. It should be noted that SDF and PCRN Parties are both of the view that  the high voters’ abstention rate in presidential elections in Cameroon, is in reality the enemy No.1  of the opposition, as that is what they consider as a major obstacle to an opposition victory at the presidential election. The other enemy is electoral fraud by the ruling CPDM.

From separate interviews or declarations in the programme, ‘A Vous La Parole’ over Info Tv,   the PCRN and SDF leaders, who are also candidates for the October 12, 2025 presidential election, do think in line with their parties’ views, that people are misleading the Cameroonian people with a propaganda that only a single or consensus candidate of the opposition can beat the candidate of the ruling CPDM at the presidential election. The SDF and PCRN think that if those people propagating such views truly want change,  they should instead campaign for a high voters’ turnout at the polls on October 12, 2025 election.  As for electoral fraud, both the SDF and PCRN think that opposition parties can handle this issue, by adopting a programme for a united front to share responsibility across the country, land ensure for example that the opposition have  polling agents at all polling stations across the country.

  “SDF Is For A Complete Rupture With The Current System”

Meanwhile in the programme over Info Tv, the National Chairman and presidential candidate of the SDF, Hon Joshua Osih, said that the party has in the long period of its existence suffered several cases of betrayals and disappointments over the issue of opposition coalition, and is not prepared to continue to waste time on the talk of opposition coalition. However Osih reiterated what he has been saying for several months now, that the SDF is open to any party that wants to join it in the fight for real change. He asserted that SDF is out for real change in Cameroon, which is a total rupture. That is, a complete change of the system, and not a cosmetic change which is the change of a person, while leaving the system that has ruined the country for decades, in place.

When the journalist, Jean Jacques Ndzie, insisted on the question as to why Osih is not part of the opposition coalition commonly known as Foumban Group, that is for a consensus presidential candidate, Osih fired back with a question, asking what has become of the group. He said he was not surprised with has happened, because over the years things have always turned out that way, and that is why the SDF does not want to waste time on such an issue.

Osih however explained that it does not mean that the SDF is not open to working with other opposition parties. He explained that what he rather meant was that the SDF is not prepared to continue to waste time on any issue, that, the party from its long experience considers will not work.   Osih insinuated that there were many ‘opposition leaders’ or parties that were not serous, and that the SDF from its long experience knows those parties or leaders that are serious, and those that are not to be taken seriously. “We know ourselves”, he said about party leaders in the opposition.

“SDF’s Lone Opponent Is Biya”

Hon Joshua Osih reiterated that he has no problem that there are 12 candidates for the October 12, 2025 presidential election, adding that as far as the SDF is concern,  the only opponent in the election is the  incumbent candidate, Paul Biya. He said that the SDF simply considers the other 10 as candidates.  To Osih, it is even undemocratic for some people to insist that there should be only one candidate from the opposition, as that is depriving the Cameroonian people of their democratic right to choose or to decide. He once more argued that all the 11 candidates from the opposition do not have the same programmes, and that their different parties do not also have the same capacities.

Osih insisted that the democratic path to follow is that all persons, whose candidacies for the October 12 presidential election were validated, should go in for elections. He said the candidates should present their difference programmes to the Cameroonian people, and led the 8 million Cameroonians that have registered to vote, make their choice of the person they want to lead them as President of the Republic.

Osih as well noted that in the history of world politics, there is no country the world over, where all opposition parties have ever come together and designate a single candidate for the presidential election.  So he said the call for a single opposition candidate in Cameroon is very unrealistic, and thus is more of a waste of time, or a distraction.

Was Designated Candidate By National Convention Of The SDF

The SDF leader and presidential candidate, Hon Joshua Osih, also pointed out that one of the things that those demanding that presidential candidates from the opposition should withdraw and leave only one candidate, seem to ignore, is that  that all the 11 persons did not become presidential candidates in the same way. He pointed out that all political parties are not structured the same way. There are parties like the SDF that is structured in a way that power belongs to the militants, while there are some that power belongs to the National President.

Osih recalled that an Extraordinary National Convention of the SDF was convened in Yaounde a couple of months ago, to designate or select the party’s candidate for the 2025 presidential election. He said this was done in line with the party’s ideology that power belongs to the people in a country, and that in the SDF power belongs to the militants. He said in the SDF it is the militants that give the National Chairman of the party and other officials, the power to lead the party, and that it is also the militants that decide through internal election or primary, who should be the party’s flag bearer at the presidential election.

Hon Osih stated in the interview over Info Tv, that he had the honour to be designated or chosen by militants of the SDF, represented by delegates at the Extraordinary National Convention of the party, to be the party’s candidate at the 2025 presidential election.

Does Not Have The Power To Decide On Withdrawal

Hon Osih argued that he does not have the power as the SDF presidential candidate, to go and sit down with other presidential candidates to discuss on the withdrawal of some candidates to support one candidate. He explained that if he were to go and sit down in such a meeting of an opposition group, and a different candidate is designated by the group to be the presidential candidate, he will not have the power to announce his withdrawal from the election, to support another candidate.  He said for such a thing to happen, another Extra-Ordinary National Convention of the SDF would have to be convened, for him to present the situation, and then the party decides whether or not to give him the authorization to withdraw from the presidential election, to support the candidate of another party.

Osih said more so,  the idea that an Extraordinary Convention of the SDF can be convened today to decide on the issue is not feasible, for it takes at least four months to prepare for the holding of  the party’s National Convention, with delegates having to come from across the country and beyond.

It would be recalled that when the MRC leader and the party’s candidate at the 2018 presidential election, Prof Maurice Kamto, visited Douala during the official campaign period and was interviewed in a programme over Equinoxe Tv, a question came up as to whether he could accept to withdraw from the election to support another opposition candidate. Kamto gave a similar response, pointing out that unlike some of the presidential candidates from the opposition, he was, designated by the National Congress of the MRC to be the party’s presidential candidate. He explained that for him to withdraw from the election to support another candidate, it would require that the National Congress of MRC should hold, for him to seek an authorization to do so. Of course he said it was simply not possible that the party’s congress could hold before the presidential election took place.

Political Parties Are Not All Structured Or Run The Same Way

Meanwhile as the SDF leader and presidential candidate, Hon Osih, remarked, political parties are not all structured or run the same way. He was or course right. Limiting ourselves here to the issue of presidential candidates, it should be noted that out of the 11 candidates supposedly all from the opposition, only four of the candidates were designated as presidential candidates by the National Conventions or Congresses of their different parties. The four include Joshua Osih of the SDF, Cabral Libii Ngue of PCRN, Kwemo Pierre of UMS, and Bello Bouba Maigari of UNDP.  Some of the leaders of opposition parties like Issa Tchiroma Bakary of FSNC, Patricia Tomaino Ndam Njoya of CDU, and Matomba Serges Espoir of PURS, simply declared their candidacies for the 2025 presidential election.

The remaining four other  presidential candidates from the opposition, are  candidates of some small opposition parties commonly known as YANGO Parties, meaning that they are in reality not militants of the parties on whose tickets they are candidates for the October 12, 2025 presidential election. These are persons who were not militants of the four parties before, but who came in close to the presidential election to negotiate and hire the parties from their different leaders, for use in the presidential election. They will of course leave after the election.  The four include Bougha Hagbe Jacques of MCRN, Ateki Seta Caxton of PAL, Iyodi Hiram Samuel of FDC,  and Akere Tabeng Muna of UNIVERS Party.

Negotiations Supposed To Be Between Political Parties

Meanwhile, Hon Joshua Osih, the National President and the October 12, 2025 presidential candidate of the SDF, in the programme over Info Tv, also argued, that the issue of a coalition of opposition parties at the presidential election, is supposed to be an affair for political parties to discuss, and not presidential candidates. Thus such discussions are supposed to be between delegations of different political parties including the presidential candidates, and not between presidential candidates.   There is the question as to whether the presidential candidate of a political party, has the power to take a decision to commit the party to support the decision of an alliance or coalition?

The issue even becomes more complicated with the YANGO Parties. Can Akere Muna or Bougha Hagbe Jacques for example, take a decision that commits militants of UNIVERS or MCNC Party, to support a decision adopted by a coalition of opposition candidates?  This is the problem.

Presidential Candidates That Were Beaten In Local Elections

Meanwhile, the SDF leader and presidential candidate, Joshua Osih, while responding to a question in the programme over Info Tv, explained that this issue of an opposition coalition is more complicated than even those people that are shouting for a coalition, do see. Without calling names, Osih said for example that there are some candidates for  the October 12, 2025 presidential election, that were beaten by SDF militants in local elections, and today some people  want him to ask the SDF, including the comrades that beat these candidates in local elections, to line up behind these same candidates at the presidential election. Osih said that was an insult to the SDF, and especially to his comrades that beat these candidates in local elections.

It should be noted that though Osih did not mention any name, there is no doubt that one of the presidential candidates he was referring to, is Matomba Serge Espoir, who is also the leader of PURS. The headquarters of PURS is in Douala IV popularly known as Bonaberi. The SDF list in municipal elections in Douala IV or Bonaberi, has always floored the PURS list headed by the party’s leader, Matomba Serge Espoir, who is a presidential candidate for the October 12, 2025 presidential election. As is common in politics, the SDF militants in Bonaberi or Douala IV thus do look at PURS and its leader, with an air of superiority.