(Buea-Cameroon) A meeting between the National President of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, CRM, Prof Maurice Kamto, and the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, has sparked controversy among Cameroonians.
Many Cameroonians are questioning the reason behind the meeting between Cameroon’s opposition leader and the U.S. diplomat, who has been very critical of the Biya regime.
When photographs of the two personalities emerged on the social media, tongues started wagging that Kamto has begun his own diplomatic offensive and lobbying, following his recent utterances that he was the legitimate President-elect of Cameroon after the October 7, 2018 Presidential election.
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Kamto had unilaterally declared himself President-elect of Cameroon after the 2018 Presidential election before the Constitutional Council named President Paul Biya as the winner of the polls. After that, Kamto and his supporters refused to accept the verdict of the Constitutional Council, and embarked on a series of peaceful protests over what they termed “electoral holdup.”
The CRM Chair and some of his close aides were arrested and held in detention for close to eight months before a Presidential clemency freed them.
Kamto and his sympathizers vowed to take their disenchantment to other quarters to seek justice. Meanwhile, many people have viewed his meeting with Tibor Nagy as fulfilling his promise to seek other avenues to secure his ‘stolen victory.’
Apart from Nagy, Kamto also met U.S. Congress Woman, Kareen Bass and U.S. erstwhile Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Michael J. Cohen.
The Diplomats together with Kamto were smiling from jaw to jaw, while posing for the cameras.
Kamto’s tète a tète with Nagy came on the heels of a meeting between the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and Cameroon Minister Delegate in the Ministry of External Relations in charge of relations with the Commonwealth, Felix Mbayu.
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Minister Mbayu reportedly went to plead with the U.S. not to proceed with the exclusion of Cameroon from the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, AGOA.
Some Cameroonians were quick to conclude that from Nagy’s countenance, his meeting with Mbayu was not very warm like the expression he had on his face when he met with Kamto.
Nagy has on several occasions criticised the Yaoundé regime for bad governance, violation of human right and killings in the war-torn Anglophone Regions. Kamto’s U.S. visit has left political pundits speculating over his next political move, given that he pulled out of the February 9 Municipal and Legislative Elections.
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