Saint Eloi Bidoung, the man who wants Paul Biya’s party
St. Eloi Bidoung, Third Deputy Mayor of Yaounde VI Council, who has declared interest to become the party’s next National Chairman when its next congress comes up, has described the party as “a movement of professional dancers.” He was making reference to the staged lining by roadsides of party sycophants dancing whenever Biya, 83, is leaving or returning to the Etoudi Unity Palace.
Bidoung, who argues that grassroots CPDM militants have sent a strong signal, albeit in varying tones, asking Biya to quit, also said “the CPDM is a movement of defrauders of Cameroonians’ party; a gathering of fraudsters and treasury looters led by secret agents, devil’s henchmen and mercenaries who epitomize treachery and witch-hunting.”
Going by the ‘revolutionary’ CPDM member, there is a legion of oligarchs and plutocrats in the party. “Should a political movement which describes itself as democratic prioritize nominations over elections?” He questioned rhetorically.
Following Bidoung’s outburst, one of President Biya’s cronies, Christopher Mien Zok, Director of CPDM’s press, information and propaganda organs and General Manager of the Yaounde Conference Centre, came out fiercely in defense of Biya, who has ruled the country for 34years.
Mien Zok described Bidoung as “one of those enemies in the house (CPDM).”
“From all indications, if one bears a pre-destined name like St. Eloi, one can mistake themselves for someone with a divine mission, even that of a messiah. May be, this is why such people start seeing demons and devils everywhere.
Suddenly, they feel urged to chase these demons out of the temple, with carefully chosen and well felt words, if one were to quote obnoxious words which, under conditions of normal camaraderie, decorum and courtesy, are forbidden from use among comrades in the same party,” Mien Zok is quoted by many local newspapers as saying.
The CPDM official wondered by what means Bidoung intends to transform the “devils and demons” he so virulently condemns into ‘saints’ like him should he become party chairman.
On the recent appointment of CPDM regional and divisional coordinators, Mien Zok argued that the appointments were backed by Article 28(3) of the party’s statutes of 1996, incorporated into the 1999 basic texts of the party.
However, The Cameroon Journal has observed that in the CPDM party, members who criticize certain wrongdoings within the party are often tagged as “enemies in the house” and treated with scorn. Bidoung is not the first CPDM militant to blast the party chairman. Late Ateba Eyene and others were in the same light.
