UPC still divided after "Unitary" congress

Several weeks after Cameroon’s oldest party, the Union des Population du Cameroun, UPC, held what was termed the unitary congress in Yaounde, cohesion is yet to return to the outfit.

The evil spirit of division continues to lurk in the party that fought for the independence of Cameroon during the colonial period.


The Post learnt that one of the factions of the party led by Hon. Bapooh Lipot, has filed a complaint at the Supreme Court, calling for annulment of the unitary congress that took place in Yaounde on June 6 and 7.


Hon. Lipot, who is one of the Members of the National Assembly for the Nyong and Kelle constituency in the Centre Region, says, by holding the congress, other UPC factions violated the party’s constitution. On account of such a claim, every decision taken at the congress is null and void, according to him.


The Lipot faction is seeking solace from the Supreme Court after it lost a tough battle to have the administration stop the unitary congress from taking place. After several attempts, it failed to influence the Yaounde authorities to ban the congress.

On the contrary, the administrative authorities backed the congress that took place at the Omnisport neighbourhood in Yaounde.


During the congress, Prof. Basile Louka was elected the Secretary General of the party, while Victor Onana triumphed as the Steering Committee Chair in a highly contested election.


Fourteen candidates ran the race for the post of Secretary General while ten gunned for the position of the Steering Committee Chair of the party.


Given that only two posts were filled during those elections, the UPC executive bureau remains largely uncompleted. That is why the unitary congress mandated that party’s Scribe and the Steering Committee Chair to organise a meeting and work out modalities for the election of other bureau members.

These include five Vice Presidents, the Organising Secretary, Propaganda and Communication Secretary and the Treasurer.


But Bapooh Lipot holds that the re-organisation of the UPC would have started with the re-organisation of the grassroots and not the executive bureau. The Yaounde Unitary Congress was the trickledown of a consultation meeting with UPC officials and the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation on June 3. The following UPC officials attended the meeting.


They were Hon Pierre Sende, Basile Louka, Bernard Ouandji and François Zogning. But Lipot and Ouandji reportedly took exception to the resolve to hold a unitary congress.


Observers hold that despite the fact that there are still cracks on the walls of the UPC, the unitary congress succeeded in mending fences to a certain extent.

Before the congress, the UPC had four factions with each of them claiming legality and legitimacy. It is worth noting that since the return of the UPC to the country’s political arena in 1991, in-house quarrelling, egoism and individualism have constituted the bane of the party.


In the late 1990s, two strong UPC factions led by Prof. Henri Hogbe Nlend and late Augsutin Frederic Kodock emerged. The Biya regime somewhat stocked the fires by giving them ministerial positions alternatively and firing them at will.


After the death of Kodock, the demons of division raised their ugly heads higher in the party. It is this undoing that helped the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation to bar the party from fielding any candidates for the pioneer senate election in April 2013.


It was only at the eve of the September twin elections last year that the warring factions of the party managed to observe a temporary ceasefire.

The Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation had imposed one condition on them; that the party would only be allowed to run for the polls if the various factions closed ranks.


The UPC factions heeded the condition and fielded candidates for the election. The bid yielded dividend given that the party won all the three seats of the Nyong and Kelle constituency and two in the Sanaga Maritime Division in the legislative elections. It also won 135 councillors in the municipal elections.


Political pundits say only time will tell where the wind of conflict or reconciliation will take the UPC to. But Prof. Basile Louka, the man at the driving seat of the party, says he is determined to give the party a new lease of life.


He promised to revive different branches of the party like the Democratic Youth of the UPC and the Women Democratic Union of the UPC in order to fully give back the party to the grassroots.