Cameroon: The democratic awakening in the face of prophets of political illusion
The presidential election of October 12, 2025, revealed a major political fact, often underestimated yet profoundly structural: the reclaiming of control over the political narrative by Cameroonian citizens themselves. Several public statements, including critical opinion pieces that went viral, attest to this democratic maturation, where blind allegiance is receding in favor of analysis, perspective, and responsibility.
This moment marks a decisive step in the collective learning of democracy when illusions fade and political debate returns to the grounds of truth, stability, and the national interest.
This democratic moment reveals a fundamental reality: The Cameroonian people are neither passive nor easily manipulated in the long term.
They may listen, hope, and even allow themselves to be swayed for a time, but they observe, weigh the facts, exercise discernment, and ultimately judge based on the national interest and collective stability.
Issa Tchiroma Bakary built his campaign on carefully calibrated emotional rhetoric: a sacrificial posture, promises of total rupture, insinuations of military support, and messianic discourse playing on social and regional frustrations.
This strategy had but one objective to short-circuit political reason and provoke immediate emotional allegiance. The opinion piece by Ediegnie denouncing Issa Tchiroma’s falsehoods demonstrates that such manipulation has its limits.
The civic awakening witnessed here is salutary. It reminds us that democracy advances not only through alternation of power but through citizens’ ability to unmask false prophets.
The hurried exile of Issa Tchiroma, his external connections, and his visible alignment with foreign interests and transnational networks reveal a well-known African pattern: when certain political actors fail to conquer power through the ballot box, they attempt to weaken the state from within, often with external complicity that shows little concern for national stability.
In the face of this, the continuity of the Cameroonian state stands as a bulwark. It is not stagnation but strategic stability. Paul Biya, through his experience at the helm of the state, embodies this mastery of the long term this ability to preserve national cohesion in an unstable regional environment.
Governing does not mean promising chaos in the name of change; it means guaranteeing peace, unity, and the strength of institutions.
Today, Cameroon moves forward with citizens who refuse manipulation, prioritize lucidity, and choose collective responsibility. The moment of democratic truth is not one of slogans, but one in which civic consciousness retakes control of the national narrative. This is how a sovereign nation is built ; standing tall, in charge of its own development and stability.
Paul FOCAM
