1, March 2017
Francophone political party leaders call on Biya to reject federalism 2
Several Francophone opposition political parties that attended the 6th Ordinary Congress of the National Union for Democracy and Progress (UNDP) on February the 25th, 2017 in Yaoundé have rejected the idea of federalism currently being championed by some Southern Cameroonians including the leadership of the Social Democratic Front, SDF. The parties currently in the government under an obscure organization known as the Presidential Majority made a mockery of the Anglophone problem and echoed their opposition to federalism.
The Secretary General of the Union des Populations du Cameroon (UPC), Basile Louka, opined that there was need for Cameroon to remain united, democratic, decentralized through dialogue. For his part, Henri Hogbe Nlend, Chairman of the General Council of the same party and a former cabinet minister of the Biya regime painted federalism as divisive. He observed that: “We have not fought for Cameroon to be united and to come now and be fighting for it to be disunited.” Both UPC leaders had in the 1990s condemned the modus operandi of the unitary state, when the party’s Secretary General Augustine Federick Kodock singlehandedly dismissed six parliamentarians from the National Assembly and from the party.
The position of the Progressive Movement was also identical to that of the UPC. According to its coordinator, Jean Jacques Ekindi, “the unitary form of government remains the only tool capable of saving Cameroon.” Another speaker was the leader of the Front for the National Salvation of Cameroon (FSNC), Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who also moonlights as Minister of Communication and government spokesman. He failed to state the position of his party but urged “the President of the Republic not to shrink from any difficulty in his search for solutions to the problems threatening Cameroon. The UNDP leader, Maigari Bello Bouba in his speech also pointed out that federalism was not the solution to the problem.
By Rita Akana
1, March 2017
CPDMization of Cameroon’s political parties: Bello Bouba gets another mandate 0
The National Chairman of the National Union for Democracy and Progress (NUDP) Bello Bouba Maigari has won a vote of confidence from members of his party. He was re-elected at the 6th ordinary congress of the party that held in Yaounde on 25th February 2017. Bello Bouba Maigari has been National Chairman of the party since 1992 and has been given the mandate to serve the NUDP for the next five years.
The vote of confidence was given by members during the congress that brought together party members from the ten Regions of the Country. The meeting that took place at the Congress Hall in Yaounde was attended by representatives from friendly political parties including the CPDM, SDF, UPC, FSNC, UPF, MP, MDP.
Apart from the election, party members also evaluated the activities of the NUDP during the last five years. They also drafted a road-map for the forth coming Municipal, Legislative and Presidential Elections to be organized in 2018.
Chairman, Bello Bouba Maigari during the event, called on government to improve the electoral system in the country. He suggested that the biometric system be extended to the polling stations; that government institute a single ballot paper system and that the voting age be brought down to 18 years.
He also said that the present appointed Government Delegates be replaced by elected Mayors. Discussing the current security, socio-political and economic situation of the country, Bello Bouba Maigari lauded President Biya’s engagement in fighting Boko Haram on the one hand.
He encouraged government to resort to dialogue in dealing with the Anglophone Crisis on the other hand. He hailed the creation of the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism urging President Biya to appoint its members as soon as possible to uphold Cameroon’s unity in diversity.
CRTV