The Story Of MANIDEM That Was Legalized In 1995, And The Conflicts Of Leadership That Supporters Of One Camp Pretend Have Never Existed

 EKANE ANICET, Who ‘Voluntarily’ Stepped Down As President Of MANIDEM, Had Problems With All Presidents That Came Up After Him.

  EKANE Pushed Out Of The Party BANDA KANI, That Succeeded Him As President Of MANIDEM, And Also Had Serious Problems With DIEUDONNE YEBGA That Was Voted National President At The Party’s Congress In 2015, As  He Schemed To Make A Come Back As President.

When The Former President Of A Party Has Problems With All Presidents That Comes Up After Him, It Means He Is The Problem

It is no news that UPC has since 1992 being a party in factions, with the legalized faction belonging to former Minister Augustin Frederick Kodock, now of blessed memory.  In 1993 – 94, a group of ‘upcists’ that included names like Ekane Anicet and Henriette Ekwe (veteran journalist), created their own faction of the UPC known as UPC MANIDEM, with Ekane Anicet as President. They deposited the documents for the legalization of their faction of the UPC, as a political party.

But with  Augustin Frederick Kodock,  having joined the CPDM Government in 1992 with his legalized faction of the UPC, the Ministry of Territorial Administration, refused to register any other party with  UPC as part  as part of its name. The administration thus insisted that Ekane and his group must drop UPC from their party’s name, for it to be legalized. But they resisted, until 1995 when they gave in and made the modification, and their party was legalized as MANIDEM.  The headquarters of MANIDEM was located in a building that was owned by the Ekane family near ‘Carrefour Tiff’ at Bonadibong, Douala.

Under Ekane’s leadership, MANIDEM operated more as a group of political activists, than a political party.   MANIDEM did not take part in elections like other normal political parties do. For example, MANIDEM did not participate in the 1996 municipal elections, the 1997 legislative elections, the 2002 twin elections (legislative and municipal), and the 2007 twin  elections (legislative and municipal elections). All that MANIDEM was known for was to organize press conferences, and protest marches.

Ekane Anicet Announced His Decision To Step Down As President

Then in 2009, Ekane Anicet, the Pioneer President of MANIDEM, who had been at the helm of the party for 14 years, announced at a press conference in Douala that he had decided to step down, and handover the baton to the younger generation.  This reporter was present at that press conference. Speaking at the press conference, Ekane challenged other long serving Pioneer Presidents of opposition parties then like Ni John Fru Ndi of the SDF, and Adamou Ndam Njoya of the CDU, to emulate his example and thus do same by handing over the batons to the younger generation. Ekane was applauded by the public. The youthful Banda Kani Rene, who was very close to Ekane in MANIDEM, became the new National President of the party.

But along the line, there were indications of tension in MANIDEM between Banda Kani who was supposed to be the President, and Ekane Anicet, who was supposed to be the former President. At one point in 2010, Banda Kani told reporters that he could no longer tolerate the overbearing influence of Ekane Anicet on him. Banda Kani fumed that since he took over the post of President of MANIDEM, Ekane, that claimed to have stepped down as President, would not leave him to have a free hand to run the party. He disclosed for example that since he took over as President of MANIDEM, Ekane had not allowed him to go and present himself to the local administrative authorizes as the new President of the party. And so the administration had continued to address all correspondences, including invitations, meant for the President of MANIDEM, to Ekane Anicet.  Banda said Ekane in claiming to have stepped down as President of MANIDEM, was in reality the driver who left the driver seat to the back seat, and was trying to drive the vehicle from the backseat, while giving the public the false impression that he was no longer the driver of the vehicle.

Ekane Pushed Out Banda Kani  From MANIDEM

But in the open conflict that sparked off between Banda Kani and Ekane Anicet, the later had the upper hand, because the headquarters of MANIDEM was in the Ekane’s family house.  At one point, Ekane locked the door of the MANIDEM headquarters, and told Banda Kani to go to hell. Suffice to say Banda Kani left MANIDEM in 2010, meaning that he was President of MANIDEM just for one year. After being pushed out of MANIDEM, Banda later created his own party, NMP.

Meanwhile, Abanda Kpama replaced Banda Kani as President of MANIDEM in 2010. He was the type of person Ekane wanted. Abanda Kpama was  in reality a the President of MANIDEM just in name. The real President was Ekane Anicet, who was supposed to be the former President. As could be seen,. MANIDEM’s candidate at the 2011 presidential election was Ekane Anicet and not Abanda Kpama. In January 2014, the cold hands of death unfortunately snatched Abanda Kpama., Following Abanda Kpama’s death,  Dieudonne  Yebga served as the Interim President of MANIDEM from 2014 to 2015, when the party’s congress held in Yaounde .

First Major Congress Of MANIDEM In 2015

The first major congress of the MANIDEM held in Yaounde in 2015, with the Douala based entrepreneur and traditionalist, Dieudonne Yebga, elected National President.  The Ministry of Territorial Administration was duly informed, as well as the local administrative authorities of the Littoral Region.

At a press conference in Douala, the new President of MANIDEM, Dieudonne Yebga, presented his roadmap. He for example announced that MANIDEM will henceforth take part in elections, starting with local elections, that is, municipal and legislative elections. He could not understand, how MANIDEM that was supposed to be a political party, had never taken part in local elections since its creation. He thus stated that his team would start working to expand the base of MANIDEM, and to prepare the party for the next legislative and municipal elections, which then were expected to hold in 2018. Yebga’s criticism of MANIDEM’s irrational absences from local elections, since the party’s creation, did not go down well with Ekane Anicet, who felt Yebga had criticized his past leadership of the party.

  It should be noted that MANIDEM did not also participate in the 2013 twin elections (legislative and municipal elections), and that by 2015, the only election that MANIDEM had participated in, was the 2011 presidential election in which Ekane Anicet was the party’s candidate. Worthy of note that in the 2011 presidential election which featured 23 candidates, Edith Kah Walla was the 6^th, Albert Dzongang was the 7^th, Jean de Dieu Momo was the 8^th, Jean Jacques Ekindi was the 9^th, Ben Achuo Muna was the 10^th, Esther Dang was the 11^th, Olivier Bile was the 12^th, and Ekane Anicet occupied the 13^th position, having received 11,081 votes, which was 0.229 %.  That was certainly not a good score for Ekane.

It should be noted that the first participation of MANIDEM in local elections was in the 2020 municipal elections, which gave the party the one councilor, Ebanda Songue Isaac, at the Dibombari Council, that is today like gold to the party. It is indisputable that the participation was thanks to the change that Dieudonne Yegba brought into MANIDEM when he became President in 2015, that the party must henceforth participate in local elections in particular. At the 2020 municipal elections, Ekane Anicet headed the MANIDEM list in Douala 1, and came out with zero councilor.

Member of Stand Up For Cameroon

Meanwhile, Dieudonne Yebga as President of MANIDEM, also got the party to be part of what the administration considered as a radical opposition movement, known as Stand Up For Cameroon, which was coordinated by Edith Kah Walla, the National President of Cameroon People’s Party, CPP. MANIDEM under Yebga’s leadership actually became one of the frontline members of Stand Up For Cameroon, and that certainly put him in the ‘black book’ of the administration.

Tension Rises Between Ekane And Yebga     

Meanwhile along the line, tension started rising between the National President of MANIDEM, Mbombog Dieudonne Yebga, and the former National President, Ekane Anicet, and by 2017, an open conflict sparked off between the two.  The MANIDEM President, Dieudonne Yebga, accused the party’s former President, Ekane Anicet, of trying to control him like a child, and acting as if he was still the President of MANIDEM. Ekane was in fact trying to do to Yebga, the same thing he did to Banda Kani.

But Diuedionne Yedga resisted Ekane Anicet’s attempts to drive the vehicle from the backseat.  Ekane tried to push Yebga out of MANIDEM as he did to Banda Kani. He barred Yebga from coming to MANIDEM headquarters, which was in the Ekane’s family house. Yebga was not taken by surprise, as he had expected Ekane to do that, just as he did to Banda Kani.  But Yebga was not Banda Kani. He was an entrepreneur, and so had the financial means to do certain things. Yebga went on to rent an apartment at the high class ‘Administrative Quarter” near the Railway Station at Bessengue Quarter in Douala,  as the new headquarters of MANIDEM.

MANIDEM Split In Two Camps

Ekane Anicet’s lone strategy to apply to push out any President of MANIDEM who did not follow his instructions, had failed against Yebga, and he got furious and frustrated. Ekane reopened the ‘MANIDEM Headquarters’ in the family house. He of course had his followers or supporters.  MANIDEM was now in two camps, with one camp headed by the legal and legitimate President of the party, Dieudonne Yebga, and the other led by the former National President, Ekane Anicet.

The Ekane Anicet camp launched a smear campaign against the camp of Mbombog Dieudonne Yebga. They organized a press conference at their own ‘headquarters’ of MANIDEM, and alleged that Dieudonne Yedga had embezzled party funds, and so on.  Dieudonne Yebga dismissed Ekane and his men as clowns.  The Ekane Anicet Camp went on to organize a ‘congress’ of MANIDEM at a hotel in Douala, despite the strong protest against the holding of the holding of the congress by  the National President of the party, Diuedonne Yebga.. The Ekane congress declared Dieudonne Yebga dismissed from MANIDEM, and Ekane Anicet  designated as President of ‘Comite de  Direction du MANIDEM” Dieudonne Yebga and his camp dismissed the so called congress of MANIDEM a comedy, and Yebga insisted that he remained the legal and legitimate National President of MANIDEM. The five year mandate, following his election at the 2015 MANIDEM congress, as National President of he party, was still on.

Ekane Never Had Any Real Intention To Hand Over Power

Meanwhile, from all what happened from 2009 to 2018, it was clear that Ekane Anicet in reality never wanted to hang over  power as he claimed in 2009. He wanted to hang on as President of MANIDEM for life. Apparently what made him in 2009 to announce that he had served for long and wanted to hand over he baton to someone else, was that he was conscious of the fact that it was a group that created MANIDEM, and that for him to hang on in the post of President for too long, would not be well appreciated by the others. So he pretended that he had handed  over power, but was still very  much around, trying to drive the vehicle from the backseat.