The seemingly fearless and assertive Buea Mayor last week rallied his partisans of the Buea Council Group and hurriedly addressed a motion of support to President Paul Biya, calling on him to stand for reelection in 2018.

But this was not before the former PM Senator Peter Mafany Musonge had convened Fako CPDM elite for an enlarged meeting in Limbe for the same purpose.

Then, as if that was not enough, Mayor Ekema made sure his support motion to Biya was broadcast on CRTV and several other news channels even before the Musonge-inspired motion was ever released. Musonge has not digested this volte-face of his former protégé, The Median can confirm.

The battle lines are now clearly drawn between the mayor of Buea, Patrick Esunge Ekema and Fako CPDM heavy-weight, Senator Peter Mafany Musonge.

Patrick Ekema under the umbrella of the Buea Council Group last week hastened and addressed a motion of support to President Biya, calling on the latter to stand as the candidate of the CPDM in the 2018 presidential election. But this was not before Senator Mafany Musonge had summoned Fako elite to meet in Limbe for the same purpose.

Sources in Buea and Limbe confirmed that Patrick Ekema’s motion of support to Biya was broadcast on state radio CRTV and was also put on CRTV’s news bar.

Several other news channels including private radios and TV also announced the motion even before Musonge and his partisans had really settled down for business in Limbe. Newspapers that came out the following Monday said the Buea Council motion had set the pace for further calls to start coming from North West and South West regions.

Sources informed us that Musonge could not conceal his disappointment and anger when the news got to him that Ekema’s motion of support had been read on CRTV radio and that it was also passing on the CRTV news bar.

The member of the CPDM Political Bureau who combines the functions of Grand Chancellor of National Orders of Cameroon, Chief Whip of the CPDM group of Senators and CPDM Central Committee Delegate for the South West region, made frantic calls to CRTV, chastising the management for allowing Ekema’s motion to go on air, we learnt.

But Musonge’s effort came a little too late; the damage had been done. Ekema’s support motion had already gone across to the wider public and even the Etoudi Palace. The Median was told that Ekema had also faxed his motion of support to the Cabinet of the Presidency to make sure that it got there before the one by Musonge and his followers.

Observers have reckoned that Ekema’s ‘swift and well calculated’ action has only proven one point namely that Buea now has two factions of the CPDM; one loyal to Mayor Patrick Ekema and the other loyal to Senator Mafany Musonge.

They noted further that by boycotting the Musonge-inspired meeting in Limbe and addressing a parallel motion of support to President Biya, Patrick Ekema and his partisans have openly and fearlessly challenged Musonge’s authority as the number one elite of the CPDM in Fako and even the South West.

It should be recalled that when mayor Ekema’s list was rejected during the recent reorganization exercise for reasons he considered as unjustified, he declared that he would not respect the outcome of the election. Mayor Ekema and his followers accused Musonge of instigating the rejection of their list.

It is understood that Musonge and other Fako CPDM elite notably Hon. Emilia Lifaka and Mbella Moki made sure Ekema did not have his way to becoming section president because they feared that if Ekema combined the offices of Mayor and Section President he might become too powerful and difficult to handle.

Many CPDM militants still recall that Patrick Ekema’s predecessor at the council, Senator Charles Mbella Moki, was a source of real headache to Musonge and Hon. Emilia Lifaka when he combined the offices of Mayor and President of the section.

Political pundits have maintained that even though Musonge might maintain his characteristic calm in the face of Ekema’s volte-face, it is unlikely he would let Ekema go unpunished. He would wait for Ekema at the next turning.

Meanwhile, a commentator in Buea simply remarked that Musonge has only fallen in his own trap: That Musonge positioned Patrick Ekema to use him to fight Mbella Moki, but little did he know Ekema will also turn against him one day.