Cameroon: Issa Tchiroma’s disillusionment and citizens’ awakening in the face of emotional populism
The political episode surrounding Issa Tchiroma Bakary during the 2025 presidential election served as a revealing moment. It exposed the mechanisms of emotional manipulation, triggered a salutary civic awakening, and, in mirror image, reinforced the centrality of the Cameroonian state as guarantor of peace, stability, and national cohesion.
The 2025 presidential campaign saw the emergence of a rhetoric of rupture championed by Issa Tchiroma Bakary, a former pillar of the system who suddenly transformed into a radical firebrand.
Promising an imminent upheaval, fueled by spectacular yet unsubstantiated declarations, he briefly captured the attention of a segment of public opinion.
However, his flight from the national territory and the subsequent op-eds expressing disillusionment transformed this attempt into a major moment of political clarification.
Issa Tchiroma built his strategy on exaggeration, dramatization, and emotional blackmail.
The staging of personal sacrifice, the invocation of alleged military support, and the announcement of imminent collapse were less about proposing a concrete project than about instrumentalizing popular frustrations.
This approach, disconnected from any real organizational structure or capacity for endurance, served personal interests and aligned with agendas of interference seeking to undermine national stability.
The rupture between the heroic rhetoric and the reality of exile provoked rapid disillusionment.
Far from plunging the country into chaos, this disappointment fostered a more lucid citizenry one capable of recognizing error, deconstructing false narratives, and rejecting hollow promises.
This critical awakening marks a democratic maturation: credulity recedes while the demand for accountability advances.
In contrast to the vanishing “self-proclaimed savior,” the state remained. Institutions held firm, demonstrating that stability does not rest on individual ventures but on durable mechanisms.
This continuity finds its embodiment in the experience of Paul Biya, a seasoned leader whose mastery of internal and external balances has allowed Cameroon to navigate multiple crises without major rupture.
The Issa Tchiroma episode did not weaken Cameroon; it strengthened it. It put an end to the illusion of emotional populism, awakened a more demanding civic consciousness, and confirmed the strategic value of institutional continuity.
In an unstable regional environment, Cameroon projects an image of political maturity, national cohesion, and confidence in a state that endures when impostures fade away.
Gilbert FOTSO
