After the Election Cycle, Reflections on the North West CPDM Conclave

The Ideological Beginnings of the Party

The Cameroon People Democratic Movement (CPDM) held a closed door meeting not too long ago in Bamenda to assess the results of the July 22, 2007 twin elections and chart out a new political direction for the North-West Province (NWP). The meeting was held at the Farmers’ House complex and brought together some CPDM leaders and four of the nine newly elected CPDM Members of Parliament (MP).

At the end of the meeting, Hon. Francis Bochong Nkwain, who is in charge of conflict resolution in the Central Committee of the CPDM briefed the Press. He said after ten years of domination, the Social Democratic Front (SDF) was finally disappearing. He said the NWP under the SDF has been loud in pointing fingers at individuals but very silent in recognizing the wonderful opportunities that Cameroon has under President Paul Biya.

Mr. Nkwain praised the efforts of Mr. Peter Ngufor for bringing the CPDM leaders in the NWP together to meet the newly elected CPDM MPs. He said the NWP was now joining Yaoundé and the rest of the nation by its CPDM representation in the legislature in Yaoundé.  He explained that it is in the National Assembly that important decisions in the country are made. “We are cock sure that the nine CPDM MPs will be true and courageous to do the work, not as watchdogs, but as those who know what must be done.” Hon Nkwain re-echoed President Biya’s call for all to come aboard, and for the NWP to rejoin “the nation” and play its rightful role. He said the NWP is a home for partnership and not a place for opposition, calling on the press in the NWP to help the province heal its wounds and reunite itself.

Listening to the honorable gentleman one would think that he is a genuine politician celebrating a political victory gained after a free and fair struggle at the polls. One would think that he articulated a better vision and a practical program to better the lives of the people who selected him with their secret ballots over his opponent to represent them in a real and independent legislative assembly. In fact, listening to the man one would think that Cameroon is a sovereign and independent nation. But on close examination one would realize that all of this is not any more truer in la République du Cameroun today than it was true in Côte d’Ivoire for a long time until just a few years ago when President Gbagbo and Mamadou Koulibaly, the speaker of the Ivorian House of Assembly, revealed that the Côte d’Ivoire had been a country run by the French for the French, despite its Ivorian population.

The organized CPDM meeting was reported to have as a goal to “chart out a new political direction for the North-West Province” made necessary because “the NWP, under the SDF has been loud in pointing fingers at individuals but very silent in recognizing the wonderful opportunities that Cameroon has under President Paul Biya.” It is unfortunate that Mr. Nkwain had to use his own lips to utter words in public that are not true, but that is for him to worry about.

This is not the place to go through the socio-economic calamities and moral decay that Cameroon has suffered under Mr. Paul Biya’s watch or should one say absence (because the man is hardly at home), but the idea that he is an opportunity for Cameroun is absurd and false. Howard French, the long time African bureau chief of the New York Times, writes on long serving African dictators that “it had become a point of pride, a competition almost, to see who could spend the most time outside his country without inviting a serious threat to his power.” Mr. Biya is not a working president creating opportunities for himself, let alone Cameroun. Under Biya, Cameroon has had a free fall with a goal of reaching the bottom to qualify for handouts from governments that have spent time listening to their citizens and creating opportunities for them to create wealth for them all. What could be worse? If anything, Biya is a strong contender for whatever dictators get for neglect of duty since the death of Mobutu Sese Seko. If the “wonderful opportunity” Mr. Nkwain is referring to is the opportunity to take Biya out and banish him to remain in his long vacation hideaways in Europe then he has a point, but it must be corrected that he is picking on the wrong target. This is because in a land where guns, violence and intimidation rules, the SDF has none.

The CPDM is running a racket in Cameroon and the people of the NWP know it very well. They accepted the leadership of the SDF because they wanted to challenge the CPDM, and if the type of support and amount of sacrifice they put up to see the SDF win is any indication, they really meant to banish the CPDM out of their lives and land forever. But they did not succeed and learned soon after that they are not a part of the game that controls their lives. It became clear to them that it was a lie that they could bring change to their lives through the ballot box. This is what the embassies of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, of the United States of America and the High Commissioner of Great Britain and Northern Ireland meant when they issued a joint Communiqué on August 16, 2007 (after the so-called twin elections) stating that “these elections presented a missed opportunity for Cameroon--a missed opportunity to continue building public confidence in the democratic process as Cameroon looks ahead to its next election.”

The people of the NWP known about missed opportunities very well and also know that foreign governments can do more to help them change Cameroon but choose not to do anything. The result has been that the fraud has gone on without any consequences, forcing people like Mr. Peter Ngufor, who labored day and night with the SDF to see positive change come to Cameroon to make the choice of joining the CPDM, following the dictum that if you cannot beat them join them. This choice is counter-productive but allows him to survive, for that is all the people of Cameroon have learned to do well.