Issa chiroma Bakary, Maurice Kamto,Joshua Osih, Bello Bouba Maïgari are yesterday’s political pillars that have been neutralized in the political scene.
By The Independentist Editorial desk. August 7, 2025
When Cameroon’s Constitutional Council announced its decision on the 2025 presidential race, it confirmed what many already knew: no meaningful challenger will be allowed to threaten the forty-two-year rule of Paul Biya.
It was not just a legal ruling—it was a political obituary for any hope of internal reform in La République du Cameroun.
Over the years, Cameroonians have placed their hopes in various figures and platforms. But one by one, those lights have gone out—not because the people failed, but because the system was never built to serve them.
The Opposition Has Collapsed
In the North, long-time political player Issa Tchiroma Bakary has been politically neutralized. His influence has faded, and his voice—once loud in both support and opposition—has grown silent. His ally, Barrister Felix Agbor Balla, praised in earlier years for defending human rights, is now viewed by many as too willing to compromise with a regime that offers nothing in return.
In the West, Professor Maurice Kamto once stood as a symbol of hope. His background in law, diplomacy, and his calm rhetoric gave many Cameroonians a renewed sense of possibility. But when his 2025 candidacy was struck down without due process, he chose silence over confrontation. For many of his supporters, this felt like a retreat at the very moment he was closest to the doors of power.
Meanwhile, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), once a force to be reckoned with, has disintegrated. Even before the passing of its founder, Ni John Fru Ndi, internal power struggles and policy contradictions had drained the party’s moral capital. Under Joshua Osih, critics argue that the SDF has become indistinguishable from the very establishment it once sought to challenge.
Elsewhere, the UPC, a historic party with roots in anti-colonial resistance, has all but vanished. Its legacy has been buried under decades of intimidation, internal division, and political cooptation.
In the Far North, Bello Bouba Maïgari’s UNDP survives in name, but its credibility is eroded by years of collaboration with the Biya regime. After decades of compromise, few still believe the party has the will—or the capacity—to lead real resistance.
No More Illusions
Cameroonians have been told to wait. To trust the process. To believe that change is coming. But each election cycle confirms the same painful truth: the process is broken. It is not just unfair—it is deliberately designed to exclude, to suppress, and to maintain power at all costs.
This is not democracy. It is maintenance of control by other means.
And so, the question arises: Where do the people turn, when every door is locked?
For Ambazonians, the answer has been clear for years.
Ambazonia Has Moved On
The people of former British Southern Cameroons, known today as Ambazonia, have long realized that they are not stakeholders in Cameroon’s political theatre. They were invited to join in 1961, not as equals, but as a junior partner to a union that was never ratified by treaty and never respected in practice.
Today, under the leadership of President Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako, the people of Ambazonia are no longer watching the drama unfold in Yaoundé. They are writing a different script—one of independence, dignity, and self-determination.
“We are not on a campaign trail,” Dr. Sako declared recently. “We are on a liberation path.”
Ambazonians are not asking to be included in a fraudulent system. They are building a future outside of it—one anchored in historical truth, international law, and popular will.
A Message to the Rest of Cameroon
To those in the North, West, Littoral, and beyond who still hope for change: we respect your courage. But understand that Ambazonia has taken another road—not out of arrogance, but out of experience. We’ve seen what happens when hope is placed in a system that was never meant to change.
To those who once asked for Ambazonian solidarity, only to look away in our time of pain—we say this without bitterness: we carry no grudge, but we carry no illusions either.
The Road Ahead
Cameroon’s constitutional ruling has ended the last illusion of political change from within. The opposition has either been silenced, co-opted, or defeated. The people remain voiceless in a system designed to keep them that way.
But Ambazonia has made its choice. We will no longer beg for a place in someone else’s house. We are building our own.
The path to freedom is never easy, but it is always right.
Ambazonia shall be free. And we will not turn back.
This editorial is part of a series by The Independentist, a publication committed to truth-telling, resistance journalism, and justice for the people of Ambazonia and beyond.
The Independentist Editorial desk.
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