CAMEROONIAN OPPOSITION LEADERSHIPS: Myths and the Future of their Parties:

Cameroon is not  a  country of slaves that no man can free. All we need……

Just before the last masquerade called the 2004 presidential elections, I decided to profile the prominent so-called opposition leaders (Fru Ndi, Ndam Njoya, Bello Bouba) in the best unbiased manner possible. The befitting title I came up for their profiles was; "THE LAST GASP OF CAMEROON'S POLITICAL MEGALOMANIACS. I decided not to publish those profiles.

The biggest mistake made during the last phase of the struggle was to invest overwhelmingly in individuals rather than the ideal of the struggle. It was the easiest route to power, but a disaster in waiting when those individuals become powerful and lose their heads (by having delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence). That is what happened to the above figures while in the opposition, a condition already suffered by Biya after he was given power and survived coups.

Leaders for a cause are promoted, like products. And the image makers in the early days of the SDF did a good job. Fru Ndi, Ndam Njoya and Bello were not the smartest in their parties, they did not confront danger more than everybody, they did not pay the highest price (lives, property, family etc) more than everybody, and they were not the major brains in the scheme for the successful expansion of their parties or the biggest contributors to the party’s' ideologies. Dedicated people to the cause pushed their names to easily sell the party and to win popular support in order to assume power. The populace, unfortunately, buys the myth of the leader. It is however the responsibility of the new leader to balance the myth built through expectations and publicity, with reality.

But then, often in history, the leaders come to believe that the image projected of them is the reality of their true selves. And it becomes a disaster when these projected leaders are made to see and think that way by those close to them who have a vested interest in keeping them delusional. Nero, Caligula, Idi Amin, etc suffered those fates. Initially blessed with overwhelming public support that arose from the situation at the time, these leaders often fall to the psychopathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power or omnipotence in their later rule.

Those who oppose these pathological egoists become targets to be rid of because they spoke contrary to the leader's wishes. In the blind quest to leave a legacy based on the myths, these political megalomaniacs end up destroying the forces (party, country, army, organization)that gave them power, wealth and omnipotence. So, is there a future for CDU? No. there is no future. It would die with Ndam Njoya. Is there a future for NUDP? No. It would die with Bello Bouba. Is there a future for SDF? The best that can come out of it after Fru Ndi is that it would be a pale shadow of its former self.And the CPDM? It would be wrecked by havoc after Biya and it is going to die the day it loses its ruling party status.

So, what is the future? Many will ask. The future is a new force built around tested advocates of change who never folded under the last phase of the struggle, and advanced representatives of the embracing ideology for the new Cameroon that embodies its union nationalism and revolutionary path.

Janvier Tchouteu      13^th  of  February 2006