by Stephane Nguemalieu | SDF-West | Cameroon
In the current socio-political context, only one mode of accession to the supreme magistracy has been used so far: accession through a legal transmission of power by the outgoing "resigning" president to the incoming president.
Since the 1990s and the advent of political pluralism, the mode of alternation through the ballot box has been explored unsuccessfully through elections. Faced with this situation, some politicians have come to believe that only a revolution could provoke and lead to alternation at the head of state.
Thus some politicians, mostly extremists of the right-wing bourgeoisie, thought that this revolution would take place essentially on tribal bases. They thought that by instrumentalizing the aggrieved tribes in the sharing of the national cake, they could constitute the critical mass capable of provoking a revolution that would lead to the fall of the regime.
This approach is supported, in their view, by the idea that accession to power in Cameroon is essentially on tribal bases. For them, it is your community that lifts you up and keeps you in power.
This assertion is false. For if it is Ahidjo's leadership among the northern deputies that enabled him in his time to outvote Albert Marie Mbida (Prime Minister) and to accede to power, Mr. BIYA's accession to power was made through a legal transfer of power in accordance with the constitution.
No politician can rely on his community alone to gain power. Because the country is very fragmented at the community level, it is very difficult to federate even the most aggrieved communities around the idea of overthrowing the regime, whether through revolution or the ballot box.
Tribalism is used by the authorities to divide communities and prevent them from federating their dissatisfaction with the regime. The other weapon is the clientelism that the regime uses to maintain the support of the communities. The sharing of the national cake with a clientelist background is essentially done on the basis of regional balance in the distribution of prebends among the political, administrative, economic and military elite.
This clientelism that keeps the regime in power destroys the idea that it is your tribe that keeps you in power. For if Paul BIYA no longer has pretensions to distribute to the tribal elite from his tribe, it is clear that they will let him and his tribe go with him.
The SDF has understood this and has never bet on a tribalist approach to coming to power. The SDF has always said that poverty has no colour, no race, let alone tribe. All tribes in Cameroon suffer from social inequality. And only a structural solution based on the pillars of social democracy and federalism can solve the problem of social inequality and the emergence of Cameroon.
However, our political formation struggles to reinforce the left-wing popular discourse that can bring it to power either through a revolution initiated in the ghettos of the big cities or through the ballot box.
The SDF must redeploy to the Ghettos in order to have the critical mass that will enable it to come to power.
The Ghettos will create a drive that will rally all the other countries and constitute the critical mass to gain access to power either through the ballot box or through a revolution.
Stephane Nguemalieu
Conseiller municipal à la mairie de BAFOUSSAM 1er
Sécretaire régional à la communication pour le SDF-OUEST
(Translated from the french language by Roufaou Oumarou partly using deepl.com)