Political flirtation: Minister Issa Tchiroma, others named and shamed ⁰

The Minister of Communication and government spokesman, Issa Tchiroma Bakary has been named and shamed as the greatest political opportunist in Cameroon. The Cameroon political story has all along been animated and characterized essentially by “chronic” instability. The country has no fewer than 298 political parties, and most of these movements were created after December 1990, in the aftermath of the return to multiparty politics.

The majority of Cameroon’s political leaders belonged either to the National Union of Cameroon (UNC), the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM), the Social Democratic Front (SDF), the National Union for Democracy and Democracy Progress (UNDP), or the Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC).

In a recent edition, a local newspaper L’hebdomadaire Repères painted Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Minister of Communication as a political opportunist. As one of the founding members of the UNDP, Tchiroma was dismissed from the party on the 21^st of January 1995 alongside his corrupt acolyte, Minister Hamadou Moustapha. The two then created their own party: National Alliance for Democracy and Progress (ANDP). He has held the position of Minister of Communication since the 30^th of June 2009 and is known today as a Biya loyalist.

Jean Jacques Ekindi, leader of the Progressive Movement (MP) was also named in the report. He started from a political party with links to the UPC and joined the ruling CPDM crime syndicate before creating his own party in 1991. For her part, Edith Kahbang Walla left the SDF to create The Cameroon People’s Party (CPP).  Célestin Bedzigui, abandoned the leadership of his own political formation, the Liberal Alliance Party (PAL) and became a card carrying member of Bello Bouba Maigari’s UNDP in 1997. 5 Years later, precisely in 2002, Célestin Bedzigui was sacked from his position as 1st Vice-Chairman of the Central Committee and member of the UNDP Political Bureau by Bello Bouba Maïgari.

Bernard Achuo Muna, one of the founding members of the SDF, separated from the Chairman Ni John Fru Ndi during a party congress in 2006. He joined the Alliance of Progressive Forces (AFP) a year later, and then headed by Maidadi Yaya, another defector of the SDF. He became leader of the AFP, but in February 2012, he stepped down from the presidency of his party and became a simple militant.

By Ebong Kingsley