CPDM ruby jubilee: 40 mixed bag of fortunes!

Supporters and sympathizers of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM party, celebrated the 40th anniversary of the political outfit yesterday, March 24, with calls for the national chairman, Paul Biya, to seek re-election in the forthcoming poll. But as the party glamorously fetes four decades of its dominance, its legacy remains one that raises debates and leaves many with more questions than answers.

The Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM party, clocked 40 years yesterday.  The party’s militants and sympathizers across Cameroon and abroad marked the day with colourful activities, joyously celebrating four decades of a party that has held tight to power since its creation at the Bamenda Congress Hall on March 24, 1985. One key message came up from most of the celebrating contingents: a call for the party’s national president, Paul Biya, to seek re-election during the forthcoming 2025 Presidential Election in Cameroon.

The party’s militants and sympathisers pin the reasoning behind their choice of endorsing the 92-year-old leader for the 2025 presidentials on what they describe as compensation for the ground-breaking strides that Biya has made in the last four decade of reign as the head of the CPDM and the President of Cameroon. The multiple success stories that are being counted by the party’s militants include the democratization of the political landscape to give way for multiparty politics and the building of an overall strong social and economic landscape.

But beyond the glamorous picture that is being painted by the CPDM militants and sympathisers who spread all over the national territory and in some 17 bureaus of the party in the diaspora, questions continue to be asked in regards to what the party has achieved since its creation. As the party hits 40 years, The National Post newsroom takes a dip look at what the party has achieved since its creation during the Cameroon National Union, CNU congress in Bamenda in the North West Region on March 24, 1985 and the challenges and lapses that the party has had in the course of the journey.

These successes, challenges and losses, per the lens of The National Post, cuts across the various sectors of human life.

CPDM an iconic democracy pacesetter

The CPDM party is acclaimed in Cameroon and beyond for its crucial role in strengthening Cameroon’s democracy. This is thanks to the strides that the party’s leader, under the command of its National President, Paul Biya, has achieved. When the CPDM party was created in 1985, Cameroon was riding on a single-party political system, dominated by the Cameroon National Union, CNU party of former president, Ahmadou Ahidjo.

Barely a decade after its creation, the party’s leaders gave way for the introduction of the multiparty system in Cameroon, although a section of critics mostly credit the Social Democratic Front and its leaders for the introduction of the system. In 1992, just eight years after the creation of the CPDM party, Cameroon held its first multiparty legislative and presidential elections.

The Social Democratic Front’s Nih John Fru Ndi and the National Union for Democracy and Progress’ Bello Bouba Maigari finished second and third respectively after garnering 35.97% and 19.22% of the votes behind the CPDM’s Biya on 39.98% as five candidates challenged the CPDM’s candidates.

Although Biya’s victory in the 1992 polls remains a source of dispute in many quarters, the CPDM regime’s move to give way for the introduction of multiparty politics is counted today as one of the party’s biggest achievements four decades after its creation.

This is also despite the fact that the party continues dominating the political landscape, boosting of 152 of the overall 180 members of parliament and more than 70% of senators in addition to the party’s national president’s overall four-decade role as Head of State.

Healthcare sector endlessly drinking from CPDM’s largesse

The CPDM party and its regime at the helm of Cameroon is also credited for the massive transformations that Cameroon has had in the healthcare sector. Today, the CPDM party takes credit for the fact that almost all the 10 regions of Cameroon presently boost of owning a referral hospital in the country.

The nation also has ultramodern health centres and hospitals at the level of villages, subdivisions, divisions and regional levels. One of the ultramodern regional hospitals of the country was inaugurated in Bertoua in the East Region last year by the Prime Minister and Head of Government, Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute. The construction of these health facilities is believed to have eased local’s accessibility to healthcare in Cameroon.

Education a key component of CPDM’s success story

The CPDM party’s regime in Cameroon has also recorded outstanding successes in the educational sector. The party’s leadership has boosted the educational sector at both the basic, secondary and higher education levels. Efforts of the party and its leaders under the stewardship of its national president, Paul Biya as Cameroon’s Head of State has increased the number state universities in the country from the two that existed when the party was launched to 11 in 2025.

The last of three of the universities; the universities of Ebolowa, Bertoua and Garoua in the South, East and North regions respectively, were created in 2022. The creation of the two institutions, further strengthened a sector that had before the rise of the CPDM and its regime, had been previously dominated strenuously by the University of Yaounde and the University of Dschang which for years, existed as the lone state universities.

CDPM championing gender equality

The CPDM party also enjoys the bragging right for its efforts in promoting gender equality both within the level of the party’s immediate milieu. This drive, per the party’s supporters, is highlighted by the number of female members of government that are currently serving the nation in different capacities and several other women’s empowerment schemes initiated by the CPDM regime in a bid to boost equality among genders.

CPMD at heart of sports transformation

Sports is another major field that the CPDM party and its leaders can easily point to as a sector that the party’s regime has had a real impact in. Under the party’s leadership, Cameroon has performed decently in the world of sports in the last couple of years, with the biggest example of that outstanding success being the four Africa Cup of Nations trophies that Cameroon has won in the last four decades of the party’s reign.

It is also highlighted by the senior men’s national team’s seven appearances in the final phase of the FIFA World Cup under its stewardship. The success which is hugely credited to the quality and quantity of investments that the party’s leaders who coordinating affairs in Cameroon as the regime in power, is also highlighted through the successes that the nation’s athletes record in multi-sport events.

Notable among them is the participation of Cameroonian teams and athletes in the Olympic Games, the Commonwealth Games, La Francophonie Games, the African Games, the Islamic Solidarity Games and a host of others.

Solid relationship with rest of the world

The CPDM party and its bigwigs also take credit for the smooth bilateral and multilateral relationship that Cameroon has ensured with the rest of the world over the years. In four decades of existence and in power, the CPDM party is also comfortably swimming on the fact that its leadership has been able to make sure that Cameroon has a smooth relationship with the greater world.

This, despite the multiple disruptions that are presently happening in the world as a result of rising differences in global ideologies and other nation’s quest for outright domination, especially to the disadvantage of weaker nations.

Challenges

Despite the overall success that the CPDM party has recorded, the political institution also has its own skeletons that it is steadily fighting. The party and its leaders have been accused of overseeing what they term as arguably the worst eras of Cameroon’s existence as an entity. The party is faulted for what critics describe as the sickening water and energy sectors, road networks issues, unemployment, economic hardship and other crucial aspects of the nation’s life.

Rising hardship

The biggest challenge the CPDM and its regime is facing as the power clock 40 decades of existence and leadership in Cameroon is the endlessly rising economic hardship that is being faced by Cameroonians. Over the years, citizens have repeatedly complaints about the steadily rise in the cost of living due to the economic hardship that is affecting the nation.

The hardship has on some occasions, provoked protests in the country, including that of February 2008 which came after a strike by taxi drivers who protested an increase in fuel prices and poor working conditions.

Youth unemployment

Youth unemployment is one of the crucial headaches that the CPDM party and its leadership at the helm of Cameroon have failed to find a solution to. Despite the strengthening of the nation’s education sector with the creation of institutions of learning in all corners, the lack of a working system to boost entrepreneurship and other forms of self-employment has left a great chunk of the nation’s youth unemployment.

The backdrop of things has left hundreds of thousands of Cameroonian youths scrambling to migrate to other parts of the world in search of greener pastures. These, sometimes living some of them dead in the course of the journey like the recent case where some 10 Cameroonians were feared dead after a boat capsized in Tunisia.

Hygiene and sanitation in disastrous state

Several other aspects of the nation’s life are currently in a sickening state. The city of Yaounde, for instance, leads the race in the area of hygiene and sanitation. Under the watchful eyes of the CPDM and its regime in power, the capital city has transformed into a big symbol of national shame in the last three or so years. The nation’s streets are littered with waste, living inhabitants expressing fear about their safety and the safety of their loved ones.

The capital city, many say, is now a typical reflection of how damaged the entire country has become under the keen leadership of the CPDM party and its bigwigs. The city is regarded as a real example of a nation where the road network is nothing to ride home about despite the endless pumping in of precious state financial resources every year in a bid to improve the sector. The CPDM regime’s yaounde is equally regarded as a symbol of the nation’s overall struggling water and energy sector as well as failures in the agricultural sectors.

Insecurity

For decades, the CPDM party and its leadership cited security as one of their biggest achievements. But in the last 11 or so years, that too has eluded the party following security setbacks recorded in the Far North, East, North West and South West regions. The Anglophone crisis in particular which began in 2016 and has now prolonged to hit nine years since then, is still seen as another of the CPDM party’s biggest failures.