Questions were increasingly being raised in the opposition and civil society circles in Cameroon about the real agenda of Prof Olivier Bile, the initiator of the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon, for the 2025 presidential election. This follows a rather embarrassing and disgusting disclosure that Prof Bile made on what he termed the “Plan A” of the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon commonly known by the French abbreviation, ATP. He first made the shocking disclosure while a guest in the flagship programme of STV Douala, ‘Cartes Sur Table’.
Prof Bile disclosed over STV that the group’s Plan A was that a unitary government for a political transition be set up in the country, with Paul Biya, who has been President of Cameroon for over 40 years today, staying on as President of the Government of Transition. The Prime Minister and Head of Government would come from the opposition, and Members of the Government would be appointed from the opposition, the CPDM party and the civil society. The mission of the Government of Transition would be to carry out important reforms in the country like the reform of the Electoral Code, to prepare the country for a free, fair and transparent presidential election at the end of the period of transition. After the election, President Biya would then go on retirement.
2025 Presidential Election Would Have Been Annulled, If …
Meanwhile, what was supposed to happen was that if the Plan A programme was adopted by a majority of members of the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameron, the alliance would then have formally presented it to President Biya. If President Biya accepted the proposal, there would then have be discussions, ending with the putting in place of a Government of Transition. This would have also meant the annulment of the 2025 presidential election. There is no doubt that the Political Alliance for Change that supports the candidature of Prof Maurice Kamto (National President of MRC) for the 2025 presidential election, would have strongly protested against this cancellation of the election. That is however another issue.
Meanwhile, according to Prof Olivier Bile’s original plan, in a case where President Biya rejected the proposal (Plan A) made by the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon, the alliance would immediately turn to its “Plan B” and adopt it as its main programme.
Claims President Biya Is Considered A “Patriarch” The World Over
Prof Olivier Bile claimed that President Biya is considered today in Africa and the world at large as a ‘Patriarch’, and that it will be good to give him the opportunity to leave power in an honourable way. He said he is somebody who has respect for all elders, and, thus, has respect for President Biya.
Asked if he thought that President Biya would accept the proposal of the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon to be President of the Government of Transition, Olivier Bile sounded optimistic. Tacitly raising doubts on the possibility that the Cameroon opposition can remove Biya from power by election, Prof Bile said the opposition has been unable to dislodge the CPDM or Biya regime from power through elections, since the rebirth of multiparty politics in the country over 30 years ago.
Bile Olivier Continued To Talk About The Plan A Of The Alliance
Worth noting that despite the controversial communique that the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, issued on March 12, 2024, banning the two newly created opposition collations in the country, the Political Alliance for Change and the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon, these two coalitions or political alliances have continued with the activities, insisting the Minister’s decision was illegal or unconstitutional.
The creator of the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon, Prof Olivier Bile, had been busy honouring invitations by media houses to talk about the programme of his alliance. In early April, Olivier Bile was at Balafon Radio (Douala) as well as Sky One Radio, among others, where he reiterated that the Plan A of the Alliance was that President Biya should form and Head a Government of Transition.
As for the composition of the Government of Transition to be headed by Biya Prof Bile said the Members of the Government would come from the ruling CPDM party, the opposition and the civil society. It would be a form of government of national unity.
Bile said if the Biya regime rejected the Plan A of the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon, there would be a strong reaction by the alliance, which would turn to their Plan B in full force, by mobilising the Cameroonian people for the 2025 presidential election. He said if the alliance won the election as they hope, they would then go on to form a Government of Transition, in which the CPDM would not be included.
Clestine Djamen Supported Proposal For Biya To Head Gov’t Of Transition
Meanwhile the National President of APAR Party, Celestin Djamen, who is an ex-senior member of the both the SDF and MRC Parties, and whose party is one of the seven parties onboard Oliver Bile’s Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon, had, without mincing words, said that he supported the Plan A of the alliance that President Biya heads a Government of Transition. Djamen termed it the Government of National Unity for a Political Transition in Cameroon.
Djamen’s problem is finance or money. He complained in a programme over Canal 2 International, that election campaigns especially for presidential elections are very expensive, and that opposition parties in general do not have much finances, while the ruling CPDM has much funds because it has access to the State coffer. As regard the issue of a unique opposition candidate for the presidential election, Djamen said it is possible to have a unique opposition candidate, but added that it is a very complicated issue in Cameroon. To Djamen, the best way forward for Cameroon would be for President Biya to form a government of national unity for a political transition in the country. In such a case, the 2025 presidential election would be annulled.
Plan B Of The Alliance
Meanwhile it turned out that what many Cameroonians initially thought was the main plan or programme of Prof Olivier Bile’s Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon, was instead the Plan B of the alliance. That is, what the alliance would do if President Biya rejected the controversial proposal (Plan A) to form and head the Government of Political Transition in Cameroon.
The Plan B, which is what many members of the public have in mind, is to bring onboard the platform of the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon, as many opposition parties and civil society organisations as possible, to adopt a programme to have one candidate at the 2025 presidential election. If the candidate of the alliance wins the presidential election, he will then announce a Government of Transition to last for a specific period of time adopted by the alliance, and the Government of Transition will then be put in place. The principal mission of the Government of Transition will be to carry out reforms. For example, the reform of the Electoral Code and the creation of a truly independent National Electoral Commission, to lay a solid foundation for the organization of free, fair and transparent elections (democratic elections) in Cameroon. At the end of the period of transition, a credible presidential election will be organised, and the Government of Transition will hand over power to the new President and leave the stage.
Cabral Libii Never Said Anything About “Plan A” Of The Alliance
The reason why many people did not initially know about the controversial Plan A in the programme of the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon was because the political figure that first drew much attention of the public to the alliance, was the National President of PCRN, Hon Cabral Libii Ngue, who said nothing about the Plan A of the alliance.
Cabral Libii disclosed at the end of January 2024 that he was contacted by Prof Olivier Bile with the political project, the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon. Hon Libiii said he and Bile met, and that Bile presented to him the programme of the alliance. He said the PCRN was inclined to joining the alliance, because of the programme, which states that there will be a Government of Transition if the alliance wins the presidential election.
Hon Cabral Libii did not disclose the fact that alliance had a Plan A and a Plan B. He however said that he made it clear to Prof Bile during their meeting, that there were certain things in the original parogramme which PCRN cannot accept, and that PCRN would also present to the alliance its own package of proposals. It is thus certain that Cabral Libii and his PCRN from the very beginning were aware of the controversial Plan A of the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon, were strongly against it, but decided not to talk about it in public, probably to avoid discouraging Cameroonians about the alliance.
President Biya Has Long Been Due Retirement
Many political observers will agree that the so-called Plan A of Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon was a real insult to the Cameroonian people. A large majority of Cameroonians, especially members of the opposition and civil society organisations, have been crying out that the country is no longer being governed.
That the ship is now without a captain, because the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, like any human being, has been greatly weakened by age. That is definitely why no member of Government or senior State official has so far been sanction for both the COVIDGATE and OLEMBEGATE, for example. President Biya’s official age today is 91, meaning that he will be 92 next year (2025) when the next presidential election is scheduled to hold. A large majority of Cameroonians have thus been demanding and praying that President Biya takes his long overdue retirement at the end of his current mandate in office next year, for the interest of the country and people.
Plan A Of ATP Was Full Of Controversies
That is why it was so shocking, controversial, embarrassing and highly contradictory that the Plan A of the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon, supposed to be the main opposition coalition for the 2025 presidential election, was that the same President Biya who will be 92 years old next year (official age), should head a Government of Transition for a period of four or five years.
By coming up with such an irrational proposal, Olivier Bile and those like Celestin Djamen who supported the disgustful Plan A of the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon, were also playing into the hands of conservative members of the CPDM, who for their selfish interests, are controversially calling on President Biya to again be the CPDM candidate at the 2025 presidential election, despite his age and physique.
The opposition and civil society have been strongly arguing that President Biya at his age, naturally can no longer effectively carryout the much demanding functions of the President of the Republic, as everybody should have observed. But then is it not ironical or contradictory that part of the same opposition and civil society should propose that the same Paul Bya should head a Government of Transition for a period of four or five years. More so, the job of the President of the Government of Transition is more demanding or challenging, because such a government has so much to do within a short period of time.
The question then will be that if part of the opposition and civil society want President Biya to form and head a so-called Government of National Unity for a Political Transition in Cameroon for four or five years, then why blame CPDM elite? What is wrong then with CPDM elite calling on President Biya who as the party’s National President is their party’s statutory candidate for the presidential election, to run for another seven year mandate at the 2025 presidential election. By proposing that Biya should head the Government of Transition for another couple of years, that part of the opposition and civil society are contradicting themselves by giving the impression that Paul Biya who is over 90 years today, still has the mental and physical capacity to continue to be President of Cameroon, which is FALLE.
Is It The Role Of The Opposition To Give President Biya An Honourable Exit?
The creator of the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon, Olivier Bile, said the alliance, in its Plan A, wanted to give President Biya an honourable exit from power. The simple question is whether that is the role or responsibility of the opposition.
An honourable exit from power by the President of a country depends on the legacy that the person is leaving behind. Biya has been President of Cameroon since November 6, 1982, which is over 40 years today.
What he has done during this very long period as President of the Republic constitute his legacy, and he has to take responsibility for his legacy.
Paul Biya took over power from Ahmadou Ahidjo in November 1982. He,for example, took over a country with a buoyant economy, and what the country has become is a clear reflection of what the President’s legacy is. For example, during President Biya’s rule, the Bretton Woods Institutions declared Cameroon, a once a buoyant economy, as a highly indebted poor country.
The Cameroon Government accepted the status, and the country benefitted from debt cancellation. That is the legacy – Cameroon having become a heavily indebted poor country! Also, during President Biya’s long stay in power, Cameroon has twice been declared by the index of Transparence International as the most corrupt country on earth. That is the legacy. Then, the seven-year-old unresolved Anglophone Crisis that has taken away thousands of lives. Hmmmmmmmm! What a legacy!
Resistance To Change
Meanwhile, opposition parties and civil society organisations in Cameroon know so well how President Biya has, since the forceful rebirth of multiparty politics in the country in 1990, been so resistant to the persisted, rightful and legitimate demand for the creation of an Independent Electoral Commission, and the reform of the Electoral Code, to make it possible for the holding of free, fair, transparent and thus credible elections in Cameroon. It, thus, beats one’s imagination that Olivier Bile, Celestin Djamen and others who pass for opposition and civil society leaders in Cameroon, do think that the same Paul Biya would suddenly accept to carry out these reforms when he becomes President of the so-called Unity Government for a Political Transition in Cameroon.
Majority of Members Of The Alliance Have Rejected Bile’s Plan A
Meanwhile, Prof Olivier Bile has disclosed that the Plan A of the programme of the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon has been dropped, following a strong opposition to it by a majority of members of the alliance.
He said, as a democrat, he has accepted the decision of the majority, and that members of the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon have now adopted the alliance’s Plan B as its main plan or prigramme.
The Plan B is that the alliance will send in a candidate for the 2025 presidential election, and if their candidate wins as they hope, they will then form a Government of Transition to run the country for a specific period of time. As to how the alliance will select its presidential candidate, Prof Bile says it would be done democratically, without giving any details.
Meanwhile, the former President of the Cameroon Bar Council and a renowned member of the civil society, Barrister Akere Muna, who is a member of the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon, has disclosed that if the other members of the alliance make the proposal for him to be the alliance’s candidate for the 2025 presidential election, he will accept.
This means that Akere Muna will, in such a case, be the candidate of the alliance at the 2025 presidential election, and if they win, he will become the President of the Government of Transition. As to how long he thinks the Government of Transition should last, Barrister Akere Muna says four or five years will be enough for him as President to clean up the country, and then pack his bag at the presidency and return to his house
SDF And CDU Not Yet Onboard The Alliance
Meanwhile, contrary to the impression that Prof Olivier Bile initially gave, the SDF and CDU, which are among the major political parties in Cameroon, are not yet members of the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon. When Rodrigue Tonge of Canal 2 International recently pressed Prof Bile to come out clear on whether SDF was a member of the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon, he hesitated and finally said that “some finishing touches” were being put in the discussions with SDF and a number of other opposition parties, for them to come onboard the platform of alliance.
From the look of things, what Olivier Bile presented as the Plan A of the alliance seemed to have held back these two major opposition parties and others from joining the alliance.
Late last month, the National President of the CPP, Edith Kahbang Walla, who is also the leader of the civil society group, Stand Up For Cameroon, disclosed in an interview over STV in Douala that Olivier Bile contacted them to talk about the political project, Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon. But she said, when Bile told them that Plan A of the alliance was that Paul Biya would be the President of the Transition, they frankly told him that they can never be part of such a project.
The National Chairman of the SDF, Hon Joshua Nambangi Osih, was in Bamenda recently, where he among other things held meetings with local party officials and militants. But he reportedly said nothing about the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon. At the same period, the National President of the CDU, Hermine Patricia Tomaino epse Ndam Njoya, who is also the Mayor of Foumban, was in Douala where she among other things held a meeting with the leaders of some political parties.
The meeting was related to the 2025 presidential election. But she said nothing about the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon. So there is actually uncertainty as to whether SDF and CDU will join the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon as Olivier Bile suggest.
Olivier Bile – Party President And Moderate Politician
Before he came up in January 2024 with the political programme or project, the Alliance for a Political Transition in Cameroon, Prof Olivier Bile was not a well-known name in Cameroon politics, even though he has been around for quite sometimes. In fact, he had before now never been at the frontline of the Cameroon opposition.
Bile is a moderate, and had a number of times in the past left political observers wondering whether he was of the opposition or if he was pro–regime. Olivier Bile, who hails from the East Region of Cameroon, is the Founding President of the political party, UFP. Bile was candidate at the 2011 presidential election, and occupied the 12th position out of the 23 candidates, scoring 0.314 % of the votes (15,202 votes).
At the 2013 Municipal Elections in Cameroon, a group of disgruntled CPDM militants in Yabassi, Nkam Division of the Littoral Region led by Mabouda Mboya Jacques, strongly objected to the list of candidates for the election in Yabassi, that was imposed by the General Secretariat of the Central Committee of the CPDM in Yaounde.
The group of disgruntled CPDM militants that had strong local support, decided to negotiate with the National President of UFP, and put up a list for the 2013 municipal elections in Yabassi, using the name of his party. They won the municipal election, and the name of UFP appeared for the first time on the list of political parties in Cameroon that have run a Municipal Council.
Meanwhile before the next municipal election which was in 2020, there had been reconciliation in the CPDM family in Yabassi, and so the ‘UFP’ Councilors of the Yabassi Municipal Council returned to the ‘house’, abandoning Olivier Bile’s UFP that could not even put up a list for the Yabassi Council at the 2020 municipal elections. UFP put up a few lists at the 2020 Municipal Elections in Olivier Bile’s East Region, but did win a single Council. Worth noting, that Olivier Bile has changed the name of his party, to ‘Parti des Liberateurs’.
By Joe Dinga Pefok (Uncle Joe)
Originally published by The Mentor
