As time ticks away to the upcoming presidential election in October this year, the political atmosphere is thick with fear, suspicion and disabling anxiety. The ideological battle has been tough talking between the militants of neo-fascist right and defenders of the libertarian left.
From the marks of circumstantial evidence, it now seems very clear that the incumbent President will be seeking reelection. For, all the arguments about his nonagenarian status, were simply dismissed with cavalier silence. The other argument about Mr. Biya’s 42-year sojourn in power, was simply interred with a sophistry-laden rhetorical question that read as follows: “How long is too long?” The spin doctors who asked this question were right because there is no presidential term limit in Cameroon. Thus, those who are telling President Biya to quit the stage are armed only with the moral logic without any legal locus standi.
The likelihood that the incumbent will run, plus the uncertainty looming large over Prof. Maurice Kamto’s candidacy, the October electoral ritual is likely going to be, more or less, a déjà vu and deja entendu. That is why optimists of the establishment have dismissed agitations from some groups in the three northern regions as the seeking for notice by people who are famed for making empty noises of blackmail whenever it is time for presidential election.
The CPDM regime does not seem to be bothered by such agitations in anyway because the over five parties in the northern regions are satellite parties of the ruling party. Their leaders who are in government will soon mount the soapbox to campaign for the incumbent. They are virtually political Casanovas whose incestuous love affair with Yaounde, is an open secret. Their virtue is political hypocrisy and sycophancy that guarantee their access to material spoils. They do not worry much about the people’s agonising plight. Their people continue to reel under the weight of biting poverty.
Observers hold that another thing that is likely to favour the triumph of the statusquo in the upcoming elections is the fact that the institutions managing elections are run by thinly-veiled pro-regime fanatics who can only ask how high when the central committee barons order them to jump. In the circumstances, the waters of a thousand rivers cannot wash them clean of abetting electoral malpractices in favour of the ruling party. Such malpractices, as indicated by former Governor Abakar Ahamat in his book recently, washes ashore the emptiness of our claim to free and fair elections. The foul saga of rigged elections is what is reducing this country to a mere pretender to multiparty democracy.
Another setback that could easily cheer the incumbent to victory, is the inability of the opposition to invest a single candidate. Due to individualism and rivalry among the opposition leaders, they seem to be all prepared to go to the political battle field in dispersed ranks instead of uniting against the common enemy. Apart of the 1992 during which the candidate of the union of change, Ni John Fru Ndi, reportedly emerged as the true winner of the presidential election, the opposition has been reduced to a whimpering dwarf. In other words, it is more or less the proverbial “ngong dog” that does not even bark let alone biting its enemy during such elections.
Besides, there are some overzealous officials who are behaving as if Cameroon will no longer exist if the Biya regime is voted out of power. They have the proclivity of putting their fingers in every pie. They are the ones who condone Cameroon’s myriad of injustices and destructive contradictions in favour of the ruling party to which they belong. They intimidate opposition and civil society leaders, forcing some of them to take an oath of silence when the odds are high. Although, such people are very few, they seem to own the place. Otherwise the rest of the leaders would not just sit and watch how a few people are turning the country to a cesspool of the most barbaric dictatorship and human misery. For, the country is becoming a seething cauldron of malcontents. Whatever the case, the majority of Cameroonians who are yearning for change, will have their say and government will have its way in the upcoming election.
From the look of things, it no longer really matters whether it is the conservative bunch or the radical fraternity that will carry the day. What matters is that losers and winners should close ranks to ensure that peace reigns after the election. The winners should make history by refusing to put their privileges over principles and the aspirations of the Cameroonian people. And any citizen of voting age who does not register to vote will have no moral authority to complain about what is not going on well in the country. Even though the environment seems to be quite enabling for the triumph of the statusquo, there is no need for anyone to be pessimistic about the outcome of the election. For, change is one thing is permanent in the human society. The time for electoral fortunes that a majority of Cameroonians have been yearning for, for close to four decades, may just be just few a few months ahead. God is still on the throne!