The president of the Cameroon National Salvation Front, FSCN party has morphed from the shadows of what had notably been summoned up as one of the most useless oppositions in continental Africa into becoming a fierce force that has left the other candidates in panic mood as he storms towns and cities across the country ahead of next Sunday’s 2025 presidential poll.
Former Minister of Communication and of Employment and Vocational Training, Issa Tchiroma Bakary has left Cameroonians stunned as he tours cities and towns across the national territory campaigning ahead of next Sunday’s presidential election. The president and candidate of the Cameroon National Salvation Front, FSCN party has morphed from the shadows of what had notably been summoned up as one of the most useless oppositions in continental Africa into becoming a fierce force that has left the other candidates in panic mood.
For over two decades, Tchiroma enjoyed elite level treatment as one of the biggest allies of the now incumbent President Paul Biya of the ruling Cameroon’s People Democratic Movement, the CPDM party. The fruit of the ally with the Biya regime was his compensation as member of government where he notably globetrotted between three ministries.
He globetrotted between the Ministry of Transport where he made his debut in the government in 1992 to the Ministry of Communication where he gained wide-spread popularity to the top office of the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training where the 75-year-old shifted from coordinating government communications to handling mainly youth unemployment-oriented challenges.
Tchiroma takes campaign by storm
When Tchiroma finally shattered the link between him and Biya in June this year by resigning from his position as Minister of Employment and Vocational Training and declaring his candidacy for the October 12 poll, very few Cameroonians and political bookmakers saw in him a man who had what it takes to pose any form of challenge.
That special status was reserved for Prof Maurice Kamto, originally of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement party whose subsequent candidacy which was filed under the banner of the MANIDEM party was later rejected by the elections management body, ELECAM and the Constitutional Council. In fact, despite the storied exit of Prof Kamto who had been the opposition firebrand since ranking second in the 2018 Presidential Election, Tchiroma still failed to get the top rating.
He continued riding behind the shadows of the likes of another of Biya’s longtime allies; former Prime Minister, Bello Bouba Maigari of the National Union for Democracy and Progress, NUDP. Bello Bouba had also resigned from the Biya government in June and later declared his candidacy for the Unity Palace top job. Things however changed when the pre-campaign and campaign window for the upcoming election flagged off. Since the campaign began, Tchiroma has been taking towns and cities across the country by storm, pulling thousands of supporters and sympathizers during his meetings and campaign rallies.
The former communications boss flagged off the exercise with mega meetings in his native Far North Region before hitting the roads to other localities like Bertoua in the East Region where thousands showed up as he continued dishing out his message of a renewed Cameroon that is focused on prioritizing the interest of Cameroonians and “putting an end to the old system” as “The time has come for the current regime to step down with dignity.”
He later continued the journey across the West Region where he made his final pre-campaign outing before officially launching his campaign in Yagoua in the Mayo-Danay Division of the Far North Region last Wednesday. The candidate punctuated the launch with similar crowd-pulling outings in Kousseri in the Logone and Chari Division also of the Far North Region.
Rare eye-opening outings in Yaounde, Bamenda, Buea…
The back-to-back crowd-pulling rallies held by Tchiroma finally transformed his campaign outings from being just ignored political meetings into a nationwide fiesta. The outings particularly earned the status after he made similar groundbreaking outings in the Centre Region last Friday. In what have since been described as a never seen before approach in Cameroon, the former minister pulled thousands of supporters during his rally and attracted a similar size of crowd during his drive through the streets of Yaounde.
This, as he continued drumming his message of a new Cameroon that will cover up for the lapses that had been created by the over four-decade old Biya leadership. He made a similar outing in Bamenda in the North West Region and across Limbe and Buea, both in the Fako Division of the South West Region.
During his Bamenda outing last Saturday, one of the towns where Tchiroma easily secured thousands of haters for himself when, as Minister of Communications, he stated controversially that there was no Anglophone crisis in Cameroon, he went straight to the point and quickly apologized for the move. Tchiroma said he made the declarations on the high instructions of his hierarchy at the time.
The former member of government promised to address grievances of Anglophones if elected as Head of State during the forthcoming October 12 poll by introducing well-tailored solutions to the problems behind the grievances. Down south Tchiroma in his campaign outing across the two towns Sunday, made similar promises about resolving the problems of Anglophones and those of the larger Cameroonian people by making decisive decisions that match with the need of the population.
Enter Tchiroma’s mega rally in Douala
The candidate followed up the outing in Limbe and Buea yesterday with an even grandiose showing in next door Douala in the Littoral Region later that evening. In the economic capital, he was forced to address the population from his car after the massive crowed that had come out to receive him had overpowered the security disposition that had been put in place.
In Douala, he touched on what he described as the endlessly rising economic hardship that Cameroonians have been forced to leave with under the Biya regime. “Cameroonian youth cannot continue dying in deserts while desperately attempting to travel abroad in search of greener pastures,” Tchiroma notably stated in the country’s economic chief town.
“To those who are threatening me, I want you to stop because you cannot threaten an entire people. The people of Cameroon have created their own coalition and chosen the leader and the leader of the coalition is Issa Tchiroma Bakary,” the candidate stated amidst thunderous cheers from the thousands of fans who turned out at the campaign venue.
Biya, other candidates doing firefighting
Although incumbent Paul Biya is still to make an official outing since the campaign window flagged off, members of his party, including members of governments, have hit the ground in quest to woe voters for their national president. The CPDM foot soldiers and the other candidates in the race have particularly changed their approach since Tchiroma’s unexpected emergence changed the dynamic. The likes of Prime Minister and Head of Government, Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute has been on the ground launching multiple projects across towns and cities in what has been described as one of the indirect approaches to woe voters.
Other candidates like Cabral Libii of the Cameroon party for national reconciliation has also been on the ground, pulling crowds in Douala and Kribi in the Littoral and South regions. He was in Bamenda late last week where he promised to fix the Anglophone problem if elected president.
Joshua Osih of the Social Democratic Front and the likes of Pierre Kwemo of the Union of Socialist Movements, UMS party have also been on the field using one-on-one approach across the localities in the North West, Littoral, South West and Centre regions. Tomaino Ndam Njoya of the Cameroon Democratic Union, the lone woman candidate in the race, has been crisscrossing towns and cities and reaching out to voters across markets and other populated areas.
