CPDM : Standing Taller Amidst Complex Adversity

Maturity is characterised by age and even much more, the manner in which an individual or organisation handles challenging moments. Forty years is by every reckoning an age of maturity and the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) has shown proof of resilience in the face of hard times to remain buoyant in the rocky national political landscape.  
Cameroon’s political history teaches that if the CPDM enjoyed relative calm in its first five years of yore, the situation changed drastically after the introduction of multiparty politics in the country in 1990 and thereafter with the legalisation of the first political parties. Even though its political leader, President Paul Biya, warned his supporters during the party’s creation to prepare for eventual competition, very few imagined the rough and rugged terrain the CPDM would encounter when opposition political parties effectively came into existence. 
In effect, the wind of change was in line with the political vision of the CPDM’s founder, Paul Biya, who believes that although the party by its name refers to an assembly of all citizens of goodwill who hold the unity and stability of the country in high esteem, democratising the political landscape and consolidating the people’s sovereign power so that they can better participate in the running of State affairs, remains the ideal in any democracy. And this is how the CPDM’s hitherto hegemony was threatened and its governance wrongs exposed as their political rivals hoped to do better once in power. How well this worked remains debatable, but the CPDM needed to employ top-notch strategies to stand taller amidst the fierce adversity.  
The most felt of the challenges was after the 1992 legislative election when the CPDM won only 88 of the 180 seats with the rest (92 seats) carried away by all opposition parties that ran for the election. The absence of a majority in Parliament, was to say the least, going to be a strong impediment to the CPDM. But its strategists employed its political tactics and pulled one of the opposition parties, Movement for the Defence of the Republic, to form an alliance. The coalition continued thereon and other parties joined the bandwagon subsequently. 
While a group of smaller political parties, call them Presidential Majority, are increasingly joining forces with the CPDM to keep the party’s leader at the helm of the State, of course against some gains, other parties ...