While the crisis in Anglophone Cameroon shows no real signs of letting up, on February 9th Cameroonians will nonetheless head to the polls for legislative and municipal elections. The international community’s weak commitment to mediation, the factionalization of the Anglophone movement, and the government’s scorched earth tactics have perpetuated a slow-burning conflict that shows little signs of letting up. The most important Anglophone groups boycotted a Major National Dialogue held in October. The recent legislation of a “special status” for Northwest and Southwest regions has failed to attract support from the most prominent Anglophone groups, who now see federalism as the negotiating starting point.

Nonetheless, Paul Biya is pushing ahead. At stake are 180 seats in the National Assembly and 374 local government councils. The exercise is entirely devoid of sincere democratic meaning.  Maurice Kamto and the MRC – only recently released from lengthy detentions following the contentious events of 2018’s presidential election – have boycotted. The SDF’s decision to participate has fractured the party and led to violent threats against their candidates. The UPC’s entire legislative slate was temporarily deemed ineligible to run by the electoral management body. Other parties have lamented the severe security restrictions placed on the electoral process, while separatist groups have threatened to disrupt any attempt to hold an election.

What is the point if the outcome is not in doubt and no credible election can be held? The election will reveal very little about how popular Paul Biya is, and no international observer could sincerely believe that the election will be free and fair. 2020 will be yet another year Cameroon’s long history of authoritarianism.

Scholars increasingly identify such elections as opportunities for autocrats to replenish internal support and build a more compliant political elite. Burgeoning literature has identified legislatures as key institutions that help perpetuate authoritarian rule. Authoritarian legislatures generally lack the capacity to actually legislate and are subservient to the presidency. Therefore, rather than joining the legislature to pursuit policy aims, the legislature offers elites institutionalized access to a steady stream of formal and informal material benefits. In exchange for this access, members of parliament (MPs) are expected to mobilize electoral support and demonstrate loyalty to the regime in public forums. Nomination on the ruling party’s ticket usually means that an MP will win the general election, so all the drama occurs behind the scenes during the candidate selection process.

But, selecting people to serve in the legislature is tricky. To mobilize support, especially in poor countries like Cameroon, MPs must expend significant resources on campaigning. Once in office, MPs are also expected to divert the state budget to the benefit of their constituents, and to themselves spend money to meet constituent demands. Across Africa, this quality of elections has led to a dramatic increase in the number of business elites who have entered the legislature. In authoritarian settings, this is often referred to as “competitive clientelism.” The problem for autocrats is that business elites are not always vetted by a credible selection process. Under certain circumstances, business elites could simply be the highest bidders rather than true regime loyalists.

How do regimes cultivate a candidate base that can simultaneously mobilize electoral support while also ensuring loyalty to the regime?

In my research, I argue that Cameroon’s ruling party has banked on a steady stream of candidates from the civil service. The civil service in Cameroon has historically served as a main avenue for socioeconomic advancement. Cameroon’s first president encouraged the creation of prestigious grand ecoles, in particular a civil service training academy called ENAM, to recruit a new political class into the regime. Admission into these schools was informally based on ethnic quotas, and graduation generally ensured a promising career for aspiring elites. For an authoritarian regime like Cameroon’s, the civil service structured career paths provided a mechanism for monitoring that new elite and identifying those deserving of promotion to other institutions like the legislature. This tool was, arguably, particularly important in Cameroon, where the ruling party lacked cohesion and did not have a robust grassroots presence to recruit and vet candidates.

With the transition to multiparty election in 1992, the ruling CPDM began to use local primaries to select legislative candidates. The result was an explosion in candidacy and severe intra-party tensions over the selection process. Some of the criticisms were over the influx of cash into primaries, which benefitted the wealthiest candidates. Others claimed that local primaries helped entrench local ethnic groups in power. While the CPDM’s central committee ultimately endorsed the final candidate list, overturning local results proved equally problematic. In an effort to re-exert control, in 2013 the CPDM did away with primaries and began to adjudicate all electoral lists within the central committee. This same selection system was used at the end of 2019 to choose the 2020 legislative (and municipal) slate. In practice, local party members still have sway over the nomination process, and the CPDM at times encourages lists to merge for the sake of local solidarity.

In one of my research projects in Cameroon I track how the occupational backgrounds of MPs has evolved between 1972 and present day. I do this by tapping into difficult to access resumes and biographical records of over 800 MPs. Commensurate with expectations, since multipartyism the proportion of business elites has grown substantially. During the single-party era most legislative candidates came from a very narrow elite. These early MPs were primarily petty civil servants or public-school teachers. There was no business class to speak of. This changed dramatically in the 1990s with the liberalization of politics and the Cameroonian economy. By my estimate, business elites have risen from just 6% of the legislature to over 30%.

However, a second trend is the concurrent rise of MPs with government service backgrounds. This group of MPs primarily includes individuals who joined the civil service at a young age (often with degrees from ENAM) and worked in generic positions like Customs Official or Post and Telecommunications Engineer. MPs with government experience are once again the largest occupational category in the legislatures, at 48%. Notably, there was a big shift in 2013 when the CPDM changed its candidate selection process. Of the 51 regime MPs who were not renominated between 2007 and 2013, 43% were from the business community while just 29% came from government service. Their replacements were twice as likely to be former government workers than businesspeople. The below figure summarizes these trends. Note that the category “professional” includes business adjacent occupations like doctor or lawyer, while “other” is a residual category that captures occupations like “taxi driver” or “secretary.”

Why would a regime prefer candidates with civil service backgrounds? Given the historical role of the civil service in political recruitment it makes sense. As noted, civil service careers offer career ladders up which an eventual nominee must climb. Since the process is likely politicized, this provides an opportunity for aspiring elites to demonstrate their trustworthiness and partisan loyalty. Concurrently, government service provides eventual candidates with opportunities for wealth accumulation and provides them with familiarity with the bureaucratic workings of government. Consequently, once in office they can mobilize electoral support without all of the baggage that comes with a more independent business career. MPs with government service backgrounds can compete with business elites, while providing greater assurance to the regime.

The available data for 2020 reveals a similar story. While the occupational backgrounds of the new candidates are still unknown, we do know which MPs lost or retained their seats. The regime has stated that it was seeking to renew political blood in the legislature and encouraged the local party chapters to consider younger candidates. Indeed, more senior MPs were not renominated in 2019 than in 2013 (even though the overall age of the MPs retained is similar). Moreover, despite local competition, many long-serving MPs retained their seats, like the Speaker of the House Cavaye Djibril. Managing inter-generational tensions is another reason the regime has exercised more control over candidate selection, and another key function of this legislative exercise.

We also know that of the 56 regime candidates not renominated in 2019, 26% had professional backgrounds, 25% had business backgrounds, 20% had government backgrounds, 20% had educational backgrounds, and 9% came from other occupations. Once again, this indicates a slight preference for candidates with some form of government service. Categorizing the occupational backgrounds of their replacements is currently ongoing.

These legislative elections have been delayed for nearly two years. During that time the security situation in Northwest and Southwest regions have not improved.  Yet, the pressure to gain access to the resources that a legislative seat conveys have not changed. Likewise, as the regime faces greater international scrutiny of its activities during this conflict, it needs strong allies to advocate for it in the public sphere. The 2020 legislative election primarily serves this function. It allows Paul Biya to reshuffle the political elite, use his control over candidate selection to position stronger allies, and present the illusion of a legitimate democratic process.

Culled from Presidential-power.net

Cameroon’s Prime Minister, Dion Ngute, and staunch member of the ruling CPDM also known as the crime syndicate, has met with the fake pastor and conman, Nkongho Success, who might have tried hard to reinvent himself, but has failed woefully as he has never really played any major role in the crisis that is tearing the country apart.

Mr. Nkongho, who burnt his Cameroon passport on camera in Nigeria, has now become a pro-government agent who is betraying many Southern Cameroonians.

The conman, who escaped to Nigeria even before the crisis began because he deceived many people that he would grant them visas to the United States, has used the Southern Cameroons situation  to get his way back home.

He is now lodged in Yaoundé and he is being used by the country’s territorial Administration minister, Atanga Nji, himself a conman and an ex-convict, to do the government’s dirty work.

Mr. Success Nkongho, who can no longer go to his native Mamfe, is constantly being sent by the cash-strapped and barefaced government to go and negotiate the return of more Cameroonians living abroad, many of whom are not even refugees.

The doctor of fraud, also known as Failure Nkongho, had his entire family moved to Yaoundé before he landed there with a bunch of wanderers who had nothing to do with the crisis that has resulted in the killing of some 5,000 Southern Cameroonians and the displacement of one million people.

Since returning to Cameroon, conman Nkongho Success has been struggling to convince the fearless Field Marshall of the Red Dragons of Lebialem to drop down his weapons and bring his fighters to Yaoundé.

While his attempts to rope in Field Marshal into the mess he has created for himself has not been fruitful, the government is now using deputy minister of the economy, Paul Tasong, to reach out to the fighter who has remained a nightmare to the government.

Mr. Paul Tasong has promised that six council seats would be filled by Field Marshal’s protégés if he put paid to the fighting, at least during the election period.

Paul Tasong is still facing huge bumps in his way as Field Marshal is not taking the bait, including promises of money.

Paul Tasong wants Member of Parliament Forji, a CPDM stalwart, to win the upcoming parliamentary election and if the fighting continues, his wish will never come true.

The Yaoundé government is used to dealing with conmen, which makes many Cameroonians to hold that the ruling party, from where many ministers are appointed, is a crime syndicate made out of the same mold as the Sicilian Mafia.

Many analysts and observers of the Cameroon political scene hold that it won’t be long for Mr. Success Nkongho, who has been singing like a magpie, to be killed and disposed of like used tissue by the same government that is pretending to protect him after his return to Yaoundé.

Mr. Nkongho has no real value when it comes to the crisis and he will soon be discovered by a government that is desperate and in a haste to put an end to a crisis that has left it with a bloodshot eye.

By Joan Atemkeng in Yaounde

Cameroon’s ruling party, the Cameroon’s Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM), also known as the country’s crime syndicate, has been facing tough challenges across the country as its fortunes take a nosedive.

The party, which is headed by the country’s old and ailing president, Paul Biya, is considered as a terrorist organization in the two  English-speaking regions of the country and anybody seen spotting the Mafia-type organization’s uniform in those regions may not come out of the place alive.

Due to its falling popularity, the party is using the country’s military to enforce its laws in places where it is detested.

On Tuesday, January 28, 2020, soldiers in Kumbo in the northwest region compelled some civilians to wear uniforms of the corrupt and discredited party.

The civilians, who had been arrested for no reason, were held at gunpoint to wear CPDM campaign materials.

The innocent and helpless civilians were held by the military at gunpoint at the Tobin roundabout in Kumbo, obliging them to wear CPDM t-shirts.

The civilians were later asked to hold CPDM fabric for a photo shoot.

The party has fallen out of favor with the population across the country, and this is causing party officials to think up new ways just to prove that the party is in pole position in the country.

Compelling the people to wear party memorabilia is against the law, but since the CPDM and the state are one and the same, many of the ruling party’s crimes go unpunished.

It should be recalled that as the twin elections scheduled for February 9, 2020, approach, the government wants to demonstrate to the international community that it can hold elections across the country and that the ruling CPDM is still a force to reckon with.

But the international community is no dupe. The ruling party’s tricks are known and it cannot convince anybody that it is popular, especially in the two English-speaking regions of the country where thousands have been killed.

Like last year’s presidential elections, the results of the upcoming twin elections are already known and it is a foregone conclusion that the CPDM will have a landslide, though it is giving some of the seats to its satellite parties.

Cameroonians are used to this CPDM show and they are not moved by any new scenes in the CPDM movie.

By Rita Akana in Kumbo

President Biya has appointed new sub prefects in certain districts in Southern Cameroons. In the recent appointments condemned yesterday by the Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima as an “act of incessant provocation”, Biya appointed Ely Besinga Itone as Divisional Officer for Muyuka in the Fako County.

Cameroon Concord News understands DO Ely Besinga replaced Tambe Thomas Tabot reportedly called to undisclosed administrative duties.  

The French Cameroun dictator also promoted Saidou Moussa, to the position of Sub-Prefect of the district of Mbiane in the Bui County, North West Region. Mr Saidou Moussa takes over from Aimé Christian Chofor Che called to other functions.

By Rita Akana

Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Anyior, President of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, CHRDA, has in a rare outing, rubbished measures so far taken by the Biya Francophone dominated government to resolve the crisis in Southern Cameroons.

The President of the outlawed Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC) took to social media on Monday, January 27, 2020 and insisted that only a two-state federation can resolve the Ambazonia crisis.

Agbor Balla described decentralisation and the so-called special status as stop-gap measures and advised that stakeholders should return to the drawing board to address the fundamental issues.

“A two state federation is the solution to the crisis. Any other solution be it decentralization, 10 state federation or a special status are only stop-gap measures. We shall have to go back to the drawing board to address the fundamental issues.”

During the October 2019 Major National Dialogue in Yaounde, Barrister Agbor Balla was among the key players who made a final plea for Cameroon to become a federal state. Balla reported observed that the people who have taken up arms to make the North West and South West Regions an independent state they call Ambazonia may only be pacified if the form of the state is touched to accommodate federalism.

Speaking of the Decentralisation and Local Development Commission headed by ex-Forestry and Wildlife Minister Ngole Philip Ngwese, Agbor Nkongho regretted that another dialogue may be ordered by President Paul Biya not too long after the Major National Dialogue if the form of state was not discussed.

Reported by Cameroon Info.Net with additional editing from Camcordnews

Atanga Nji, Cameroon’s territorial administration minister, and the brain behind the killings in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon, will be made a minister of state after the February twin elections, a source close to the government has said.

Mr. Nji, who hails from the northwest region, has been committing atrocities to please the Yaounde government and to prove that he has no sympathy with those who have challenged the government.

The source has also disclosed that Mr. Nji is really concerned by the number people who have been killed over the last two years, but he is very much driven by his desire to gain more recognition in Yaounde and the need to amass much wealth.

The source added the Mr. Atanga Nji had just purchased a large home in Miami, Florida, where he paid down his entire mortgage; something that even bothered the American real estate agents and bankers.

Other sources hold that Mr. Nji may migrate to the USA once he gets dropped from government as he will not stand the mockery and criticism in the newspapers when he will be out of government.

Mr. Nji, whose children are a living in the USA, tells his Yaounde masters that he will never live in his native northwest as his people will never welcome him.

It should be recalled that Mr. Nji has been holding conflicting views about the crisis in Cameroon.

When the crisis started he said there was no Anglophone crisis. He later said there was a problem, but Anglophones could take solace in the fact that he had been made a minister.

He had also said that there was no humanitarian catastrophe in Cameroon, but has spent much of 2019 giving humanitarian aid to internally displaced people in Yaounde, Douala and Bafoussam.

By Linda Asonganyi in Yaounde

Southern Cameroonians both in the diaspora and in Ground Zero remain skeptical despite plea for armed Ambazonia groups to halt violence Dabney Yerima, the Ambazonia Vice President, issued his strongest call for an end to infighting among restoration forces, saying only unity could lead to the dream of an Ambazonia state.

Faced with unprecedented international pressure coming from reports made public by the much respected Human Rights Watch and almost total diplomatic isolation, Dabney Yerima said in a statement issued in Geneva yesterday that Southern Cameroonians in the diaspora should pressure leaders of the various armed groups in Ground Zero to follow the directives of the Interim Government.

Dabney Yerima warned militant groups of severe consequences if they continued their attacks on other Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces, which he said, were used by the Biya Francophone regime to defend a brutal and unjust war on Ambazonians.

“I am again making this call to all front line Southern Cameroons leaders in Europe and the USA to completely halt all activities, especially attacks against our own people which we have condemned and always condemned,” said Comrade Yerima.

It is not the first time Vice President Dabney Yerima has called for unity during this struggle, but his recent Geneva plea was the most forthright. It was issued amid reports that clashes between Southern Cameroons groups have killed at least six fighters, with one of the groups allegedly abducting close to 40 fighters of another camp.  Some of the so-called leaders reportedly blamed the clashes on infiltration by Cameroon’s military.  But the military says the clashes are an internal rivalry for power among the Ambazonia groups.

Amid the infighting, Francophone soldiers now roam freely through Southern Cameroons territories, picking up wanted men, shooting innocent women and children and burning up houses. The army killed more than 35 Southern Cameroonians in raids on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Southern Cameroons European think tank reacted skeptically to Vice President Dabney Yerima’s call for unity, saying it wanted action, not words. The leaders of the dysfunctional extremist groups responsible for the infighting and chaos in Ground Zero said the attacks would continue.

The Vice President who avoided a Cameroon Concord News question in Geneva opined that all restoration forces should only respond to French Cameroun occupation, the humiliations and the killing of Ambazonia women and children. “No Ambazonia leader should tolerate these massacres” he concluded.

By Chi Prudence Asong in Geneva, Switzerland