Tension is mounting in Yaoundé, Cameroon’s political capital, as the country’s opposition parties will be announcing a single candidate on Saturday, September 13, 2025, who will give the 93-year-old incumbent, Paul Biya, a run for his money.

The event, scheduled to take place at the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaoundé, will send a clear and strong message to the corrupt and incompetent ruling party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) that change is on the way and that those who are still sitting on Mr. Biya’s sinking boat will have themselves to blame.

Cameroonians are looking forward to change and most of them think that Mr. Biya has overstayed his welcome and that he should be held accountable for the economic disaster that has hit the country like a wrecking ball.

Mr. Biya, who is suffering from acute senile decay and who is not even participating in his own campaign, is being touted by the ruling party as the best candidate for the country even when things are falling apart and corruption has increased significantly.

Mr. Biya has ruled Cameroon for forty-three years but there is nothing to show for his long stay in power. The country’s economy has collapsed, causing many Cameroonians to seek greener pastures out of the country.

The country’s political capital, Yaoundé, is an eyesore with garbage heaps lining the streets as if the city is being decorated with garbage.

During Saturday’s event, Prof. Maurice Kamto, who was disqualified as a presidential candidate by the country’s constitutional council will endorse the single candidate which many think will be Issa Tchiroma Bakary who was Mr. Biya’s communication minister and also vocational education minister.

Professor Maurice Kamto is a crowd puller and his presence at the stadium on Saturday will be a nightmare to CPDM stalwarts who thought that his political career was over.

Professor Kamto’s support for a northern candidate spells danger to the ruling CPDM which is very unpopular in the North and is not liked in the West, Northwest and Littoral regions of the country.

Kamto’s endorsement will diminish CPDM votes in the Southern part of the country, whereas in the North, Cameroonians are hunting CPDM stalwarts  out of their towns and cities. Even Imams who suggest that prayers be offered in Biya’s name are being shunned in the North.

The country’s political map is being rewritten and the constitutional council’s decision to disqualify Prof. Kamto might turn out to be its greatest undoing as that decision is today uniting the country’s opposition.

CPDM politicians are losing sleep. A huge majority behind Issa Tchiroma who is from the North might thwart efforts by the ruling party to rig elections across the entire Grand North.

This is a developing story and the Cameroon Concord News writers are already on the ground in Yaoundé to provide full coverage of the event. More will be yours as it becomes available.

By Rita Akana in Yaoundé