Bello Bouba Maigari, Minister of Tourism and leader of the National Union for Democracy and Progress (UNDP) announced in Yaoundé that he will be challenging the 92-year-old President Biya in the upcoming presidential election.

‘I have heard you and I accept’, is how the current Minister of Tourism and Leisure officially declared his acceptance of the call from his party’s militants to stand as a candidate during UNDP’s ordinary congress held on Saturday 28 June 2025 at the Palais des Congrès in Yaoundé.

An elite bureaucrat with expertise in the economy and trade, Bello said he will establish a presidential committee dedicated to constitutional reform on his first day in office and devote his full efforts to its success.

The veteran politician however did not outline his plans for the nation and did not provide specific details on whether he intends to resign from the Biya-led government.  

Political battles pursuing individual and factional interests, rather than the future of the nation and its people have reached a dangerous level in Cameroon and there are fears that Cameroonians including those in the diaspora are allowing the nation they have painstakingly built under the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo to crumble from the ground up due to irresponsible political strife.