Why The Resignation Of Minister ISSA TCHIROMA BAKARY Did Not Come As A Surprise, And Why He Instead Handed His Resignation Letter To The PM

Why UNDP leader, BELLO BOUBA MAIGARI, and the leader of FSNC, ISSA TCHIROMA BAKARY, have been under mounting pressure by the people of the Grand North

 Mixed feelings after TCHIROMA declared his candidature for the 2025 presidential election, barely a day after resignation from Gov’t

But MRC officials continue to hope that TCHIROMA, who they now call a political heavy weight, will support MAURICE KAMTO’S candidacy at the presidential election.  

The Minister of Employment and Vocational Training, Issa Tchiroma Bakary,  who is also the National President of FSNC Party, tendered his resignation from the Cameroon Government on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, and less than four months before the 2025 presidential election expected to hold in October.

Before tendering his resignation letter to the President of the Republic through the Prime Minister, Minister Tchiroma, accompanied by one of FSNC’s member of the National Assembly, was received in audience by the French Ambassador to Cameroon, Thierry Marchand. What they discussed has so far not filtered to the media, but it should be noted that the meeting which held at the French Embassy in Yaounde, was at the request of the French Ambassador.

Resignation Did Not Come As A Surprise 

Meanwhile, back on November 6, 2024, Minister Issa  Tchiroma Tchiroma  was  in Monatele, Lekie Division of the Centre Region, where he joined a then fellow member of Government and local coordinator of the ruling CPDM,  Eyebe Ayissi, to celebrate the 42^nd anniversary of  President Biya in power.

However, Tchiroma’s resignation from Government on June 24, 2025, did not come as a surprise. In fact the first public signal that Minister Tchiroma was about to part way with the Biya Government ahead of the 2025 presidential election, came early this year when he presided over a grand public rally of his FSNC party at Maroiua, the regional headquarter of the Far North. Reporters, that covered the rally, noticed that the National President of FSNC in his speech did not give directive to militants to vote for the candidacy of President Biya at the 2025 presidential election, as he usually did during years of presidential elections in the past.

And so at the end of the rally, reporters asked Minister Tchiroma why he did not in his speech, give directive to militants on how to vote at the 2025 presidential election, expected to hold in the month of October. In a rather surprising response, Tchiroma said a party leader who tells militants who to vote for, is a dictator, and that he was not a dictator. He said militants of FSNC will be the ones to make their individual decisions on who to vote for at the October presidential election. That of course was not true. What political observers rightly suspected, was that Tchiroma had started breaking away with his party, from the alliance with the ruling CPDM or President Biya.

And things increasing became clear recently, when at a political rally in the North Region, the President of FSNC, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who spoke in the native Fulfulde language, distanced himself from the CPDM regime that he has served for many years. He held the regime culpable for the high rate of youth unemployment and misery or poverty in the Grand North. He talked of how the regime has sacrificed the future of the youths, and how competitive entrance examinations into State owned professional schools are marred by corruption or favouritism, and so on. Tchiroma did not mention the name of the CPDM party, but told the militants: “You know the party that has stolen your dignity. The party has served you nothing but misery in the last 40 years.  To ask you to vote for your oppressor is a criminal act”.  Tchiroma said the time has come to make a courageous rupture with the regime.

Though Tchiroma spoke in the native Fulfulde dialect, what he said was rapidly translated by different interest groups into French, and it went viral on the social media.

Pressure Mounts On Tchiroma To Resign

It is not clear whether Minister Tchiroma had planned to resign from Government early this week.  But what happened after Tchiroma returned to Yaounde, after castigating the CPDM regime at a rally in his native North Region, was that pressure mounted on him from all directions, including the CPDM (militants) to resign from the Government. CPDM militants flooded the social media, as well as several traditional media organs, calling Tchiroma names, especially that of allegedly being a traitor or an ingrate, and asking him to immediately resign from the Government.

As earlier indicated, it is not clear whether Tchiroma had planned to resign from the Government early this week. But what became clear after his damming utterances against the regime while in the North Region, was that the Yaounde environment became so unfriendly, and too hot, for him to continue to hang on in the regime for a little while, before finally quitting. And as aforementioned, the Minister of Employment and Vocational Training, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, tendered his letter of resignation to the President of the Republic through the Prime Minister, on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, after a meeting with the French Ambassador on June 23.

Appointed Twice Into Government

Worth noting that Issa Tchiroma Bakary is one of the few Cameroonians that President Biya has appointed twice into Government. Tchiroma first entered the Government as Minister of Transport in December 1992, following the controversial October 1992 presidential election. He was later dropped from Government, due among other things to allegations of bad management. Tchiroma was reappointed into Government as Minster of Communication, in the cabinet shakeup of June 30, 2009. As Minister of Communication, Tchiroma also doubled as Government Spokesperson. He occupied the post of Minister of Communication for almost 10 years. In the last cabinet shakeup which occurred way back on January 4, 2019, Tchiroma was moved to head the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training. He was head of that ministry until his resignation on June 24, 2025.

Pressure By The People Of The Grand North

It is no secret that one of the main things that has pushed  the National President of FSNC Party, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, to resign from Government, is the increasing sense of awareness especially of the youths, in the Grand North, that see the CPDM or Biya regime as the source of all their misery. A staunch supporter of President Biya and at the same time critic of the CPDM, Prof Charlemange Messanga Nyamdig (a ‘Biyaist’), met with Minister Tchiroma a few days before his resignation. Prof Messanga disclosed over Vision 4 Tv on Sunday, June 22, 2025, that the FSNC leader told him that he had no hatred or malice of any sort against Biya, and that his main problem was the complaints that were being strongly raised by his people of the Grand North. Prof Messanga said he also met the National President of the UNDP, Minister Bello Bouba Maigari, two weeks earlier, and he said the same thing. Messanga explained that Bello Bouba and Issa Tchiroma were under a lot of pressure from the militants and population of the Grand North, to either get the regime to ameliorate the poor living conditions in that part of the country, or quit the Government.

Why Minister Tchiroma Instead Sent His Resignation Letter To Biya Through The Prime Minister

There have been questions as to why Issa Tchiroma Bakary, decided to send his resignation letter to the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, through the Prime Minister.  Some think it is because the Prime Minister is also referred to as Head of Government. The fact of course is that in Cameroon, the Prime Minister is not the real Head of Government. That however is another story.

Meanwhile The Mentor News garnered that one of things that further frustrated the leaders of UNDP and FSNC parties, Ministers Bello Bouba Maigari and Issa Tchiroma Bakary, whose parties were in alliance with the ruling CPDM party or President Biya, was that in the face of all the pressure that they were facing from their people of the Grand North, it was not possible for them to meet President Biya or to even communicate with him by telephone. It is no secret that due to President Biya’s much advanced age (over 92 years) that has naturally affected his physique, the President is rarely seen. There has been lots of complaints that the President has allegedly lose control of things, and that it is rather two of his close collaborators, that are running the show. That is, the Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, and the Director of Civil Cabinet, Mvondo Ayolo Samuel.

There have also been lots of complaints, that it has increasingly become very difficult even for members of Government these days, to get their correspondences addressed to the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, to reach him. The big men at the Presidency decide what gets to the President, or what they want the President to see.  Following failed attempts to try to meet President Biya in person to discuss the situation in the Grand North, the Minister of State, Minister of Tourism and Leisure, Bello Bouba Maigari, National President of UNDP, reportedly addressed a correspondence to President Biya. But he learnt latter that the correspondence did not get to the President. That only increased his frustration.

As for Minister Issa  Tchiroma Bakary, National President of FSNC, his own situation of trying to get access to the President of the Republic, was more complicated, because his relationship with Ngoh Ngoh was reportedly not good. So Tchiroma definitely knew that if he had to book for audience or a rendezvous to go the Presidency to deposit his resignation letter with the Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, he would definitely not have been received. Instruction might have even been given for him to be blocked and humiliated at the main gate into the Presidency. So Tchiroma definitely thought it wise to instead hand his resignation letter to the President of the Republic though the Prime Minister. Tchiroma certainly discussed that with the French Ambassador, when he met him a day before.

Tchiroma Declares Candidacy

Meanwhile, shortly after he arrive his native Garoua on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, that is, a day after he tendered his resignation from the Government, the National President of FSNC, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, declared his candidacy for the 2025 presidential election, expected to hold in October. It should be noted that the FSNC party has 3 MPs, runs 4 municipal councils, and has one appointed senator. So the party has no problem to give investiture to a candidate for the 2025 presidential election.

But the rather hasty declaration by Tchiroma of his candidacy for the 2025 presidential election sparked mixed feelings in the opposition. Many had though that after his resignation, the FSNC leader would do some consultations or concert with leaders of other major opposition parties, on how they can work together for the 2025 presidential election.  But no sooner did Tchiroma resign, than he declared his candidature for the presidential election, with his team also releasing a 24 page letter (document) in French addressed to the Cameroonian people, which looks like like part of his manifesto for the presidential election. .

‘North – South Coalition’ Political Project

Meanwhile, the MRC Party of Prof Maurice Kamto, from all indications remains very hopeful that Tchiroma and his FSNC party will support Kamto’s candidacy for the 2025 presidential election, in what has been termed,  a North – South Coalition.  This political project is being promoted by a few elite of the Grand North like Abdouraman Hamadou Baba, a political actor who is more of an activist, Guibal Gatama, newspaper publisher and Coordinator of a northern pressure group known as ‘10 Million Nordists’, and Haman Mana, a newspaper publisher in Cameroon, who is presently doing some work in the United States.  Abdouraman Baba and Haman Mana are known to be pro-Kamto.  Guibal Gatama on his part, tends to see a North – South Coalition as power returning to the Grand North

Meanwhile even after Tchiroma declared his candidacy for the 2025 presidential election on Wednesday, June 25, MRC officials still remain very optimistic that the FSNC leader who they now hail as a political heavy weight, a courageous leader, prominent  northern elite, and so on, will ally with Kamto in the North – South Coalition, with Kamto being the presidential candidate.  But observers think that with Tchiroma having gone ahead to declare his candidacy for the 2025 presidential election, that will be very difficult for him to withdraw his candidacy to support Kamto. There are also many activists in the Grand North who are calling for a return of power to the Grand North. Well, let’s wait and see how the situation will develop.