The Governor of the Littoral Region, Samuel Dieudonné Ivaha Diboua, has reportedly promised to transmit to President Biya the call by CPDM militants for him to contest the 2018 presidential elections.

If Biya wins the election, it would be his fifth mandate in a row, totaling over 30 years.

The moribund Divisional Coordination of the Wouri CPDM headed by Senator Thomas Tobbo Eyoum (former Government Delegate to the then Douala Urban Council), on January 26, 2016, handed the motion of support to the Governor for onward transmission to Biya.

At the occasion to hand the motion of support to the Littoral Governor, WCPDM militants who were brought in by the Coordination shouted support for President Biya. They called Biya, “Our Champion”, and pleaded for him to be their candidate at the 2018 Presidential Election.

The Wouri CPDM is said to be urging Biya to run for the 2018 presidential election as a way of thanking him for reducing fuel prices by FCFA 20 and FCFA 25, respectively for petrol and diesel, as well as increasing family allowance by FCFA 1000.

The CPDM militants were, however, unable to explain to reporters how the insignificant reduction in fuel prices has impacted the lives of the bulk of CPDM militants in Douala or the impoverished masses.

For one thing, taxi fare in Douala remains at FCFA 250 during the day and FCFA 300 at night. Neither did they explain how the increase in family allowance has changed the lives of most families in Douala, considering that civil servants, the direct beneficiaries of family allowances, constitute a tiny fraction of the population of the economic capital.

Another questionable aspect of the call for Biya to run for the presidency has to be channeled through an executive administrator rather than through the party’s secretariat.

The Coordination of the Wouri CPDM sent the motion of support to Biya in his capacity as the Chairman of their party and not as Head of State.
Such a motion of support was normally supposed to be handed to the Secretary General of the Central Committee of the CPDM, and not through a Regional Governor.

Biya Must Run

As it happened before the 2011 presidential election when a group of CPDM elite started the campaign for Biya to contest the election, this time around CPDM elite in the South Region and CPDM Senators of the Centre Region saidthe ‘Biya must run in the 2018 presidential election’ call in motion. To jump on the bandwagon now is just a matter of adding another motion of support calling for Biya to run.

Since the Wouri CPDM Coordination has joined in the “people’s call”, CPDM elite and government officials in other parts of the country will no doubt add their voices lest they are thought to be anti-Biya, and face the fate that befell former Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, MarafaHamidouYaya.

Marafa thought he was doing the octogenarian Biyawhen he advised him not to run for another mandate.

Marafa was not only sacked from Government a few weeks after the election, but was jailed for 25 yearsfor“embezzling public funds”.

As the call for Biya becomes louder, there is increasing media reportsin Douala that the incumbent Head of State might call early presidential elections in 2017, in the pretext that in 2018 he will need to focus on preparations for AFCON that will hold in early 2019.

Some media organs have even been criticising opposition parties for sleeping and not taking the allegation seriously.

The fact that CPDM elite have startedcalling so early on Biya to be the party’s candidate for an election billed for 2018, may foretell something suspicious.