A stolen election, dressed in constitutional formality, is broad daylight robbery sanctified by cowards.

“These are the times that try men’s souls.” When Thomas Paine wrote those immortal words in the winter of revolution during the American war of independence, he was not speaking to soldiers alone; he was speaking to every soul faced with tyranny and called to courage. Today, that call echoes across Cameroon. The ballots have been cast, the people have spoken, and now the nation stands on the precipice of history. Shall we stand upright as citizens, or bow once more as subjects? The hour for cowardice has passed. History will not absolve those who championed loyalty to a dying monarch against fidelity to a living nation.

Cameroon stands at the threshold of deliverance or damnation. Every Cameroonian, from Maroua to Bamenda, from Mamfe to Bertoua, from Buea to Ebolowa, must understand this truth: freedom is never granted; it is won. As Nelson Mandela reminded the world, “To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” Today, to defend your vote is to defend your neighbor’s dignity, your child’s future, and your nation’s soul.

When Issa Tchiroma Bakary declared victory; not as an act of arrogance, but as an affirmation of the people’s will; he summoned the deepest chords of our collective conscience. “The people have chosen. And this choice must be respected.” His words were not mere rhetoric; they were a covenant, a reminder that sovereignty belongs not to palaces, nor to the aged throne of Paul Biya, but to the millions who braved sun, fear, and intimidation to cast their votes.

For 43 long years, Cameroon has been imprisoned in a gilded cage of stagnation. Paul Biya’s rule has become, in the haunting words of Václav Havel, “a system so entrenched in its own lies that it no longer knows the truth.” Our youth flee across deserts and seas because home has become a waiting room for the future that never arrives. Our economy drifts, our voices are muted, and our dreams deferred – all while the machinery of state rusts under the weight of arrogance and decay.

Yet in this moment, something ancient and indestructible has stirred: the will of a people who have had enough. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed, “There comes a time when people get tired of being trampled by the iron feet of oppression.” That time is now. Let us be clear: any attempt to annul, distort, or hijack the verdict of the ballot is not politics; it is treason against the republic. To steal a people’s mandate is to desecrate the sacred altar of democracy. As Abraham Lincoln said, “The ballot is stronger than the bullet.” But only if it is defended. For when the ballot is betrayed, the bullet is emboldened.

The Biya regime and its instruments must hear this clearly: legitimacy does not flow from decrees or uniforms. It flows from the consent of the governed. And consent withdrawn cannot be reimposed by force. If the Constitutional Council becomes the handmaiden of fraud, it will not be an arbiter of justice but a gravedigger of the republic. To the military and the security services; remember your oath. You swore loyalty to the flag, not to the man who hides behind it. “When injustice becomes law,” as Thomas Jefferson warned, “resistance becomes duty.” You are protectors of the nation, not the enforcers of one man’s vanity.

To civil society, to journalists, to the clergy: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” (Edmund Burke) Now is the time to speak truth with fire, to write with courage, to march with peace, and to refuse the narcotic of silence. Your pens, your pulpits, your cellphone cameras – they are the weapons of light. Use them. And to the international community; neutrality in the face of theft is complicity in the crime. Let no one pretend that the “electoral process must take its course” while the process is strangled in its cradle. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu reminded us, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

This is not about Issa Tchiroma alone. This is about every Cameroonian who still believes that tomorrow can be different from yesterday. It is about the farmer in Mayo-Louti who voted for a fairer market, the teacher in Bamenda who voted for peace, the student in Yaoundé who voted for a future, the mother in Douala who voted for dignity. The world is watching. History is recording. And generations yet unborn will ask: When the moment came, did we stand or did we shrink?

So, rise Cameroonians! Stand tall as guardians of your own destiny. Defend your votes with discipline, with courage, and with peace. Let your voices be firm but your hands be clean. For as the great poet Maya Angelou said, “We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated.” The verdict of the people is not a rumor to be silenced; it is a revelation to be respected. No hand, no power, no decree must be allowed to steal this victory. The time for fear has passed. The time for courage has come. Let every heart echo this truth: Cameroon shall not sleep through its revolution. The people have spoken, and their voice must stand, sovereign, sacred, and unbroken.

By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai