Facing Bullets and Bias: Can Cameroon’s First Female President Come from Exile?

There is a possibility that Cameroon’s next president will be a woman.

Michèle Sonia Martine Ndoki, a presidential aspirant, currently in self-imposed exile in Ivory Coast, was shot and jailed for 8 months, but she is not relenting.

Ndoki’s political journey deviates from the traditional norms of politicians. She is currently not affiliated with any political party, having been expelled from the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM).

She has recently unveiled her latest endeavour, a new movement called “le mouvement de bâtisseurs de la nation” (The Nation Builders’ Movement), with aspirations of using it as a platform to pursue political change in Cameroon.

Background:

Ndoki, 51, was born in France in 1973, and her parents moved back to Cameroon when she was one. She currently holds a relatively low-paying job in Abidjan, where she works for a law firm. Ndoki is living in a 2-bedroom house with her two sons, 26 and 18. Her ex-husband now lives in Canada, after their marriage broke down in 2020.  Ndoki was recently in Cameroon for the burial of her father, who was also known as Michel Ndoki. She also has five sisters and a brother, Frida Frederique, Cecile, Jean-Benoît  and Gaelle.

She completed her secondary education at the Lycée Joss in Douala in 1991. She then attended higher education in France, earning a Master’s in Company Law from Université de Champagne (1994-1995) and a postgraduate degree in the same field from Université d’Angers in France from 1995-1996.

Ndoki’s career started in 1996 when she joined BeauFour Ipsen, a pharmaceutical group, as an intern, in France. Then she moved back home and joined Ngwe & Associés law firm as a lawyer in consulting and corporate law in 1998, then in the tax and legal branch of PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Douala. From 2006-2012, Ndoki worked as a legal manager for various multinational companies like Orange, Diageo, Sanofi Laboratories, and Gicam. In 2012, she started working as an independent legal consultant.  In 2014, she passed the internship access exam to return to the legal profession, and in 2015, she won the French-speaking advocacy contest against the death penalty.

Human Rights Advocacy
In 2015, Ndoki joined the Association for the Defence of Homosexual Rights (Adefho), and in 2014, she co-founded Freedom Generation, an association for the defence of freedoms and human rights. She has been a strong representative of political prisoners and victims of oppression.

Party Politics

Ndoki got into active politics in 2012, when she became a member of Edith Kah Walla’s Cameroon’s People Party (CPP). She was offered a position by Maurice Kamto, leader of the CRM party, in 2013, but only joined in December 2016. She became the departmental head of the CRM in the Douala 1st constituency and first national vice-president of Women wing of the party. Ndoki played a key role in Kamto’s presidential campaign and post-election litigation. Nevertheless, due to internal conflicts within the party, she found it necessary to voice her concerns about the leadership and ultimately decided to run for the party’s presidency in 2022. Some party members opposed this move, and with documented instances of harassment and intimidation, she was expelled from the party in July 2023.

Obstacles
During a political activity in January 2019, Ndoki was shot and subsequently arrested and imprisoned in February of that year. After national and international outcry, 91-year-old President Paul Biya ordered for her release on October 4, 2019. Regardless of the obstacles, she persisted, voicing her opposition to injustices, and advocating for a more democratic Cameroon. The challenges culminated in her leaving Cameroon for Ivory Coast in 2020, where her sons met her a year later.  

Anticipating the Future:
Ndoki remains a prominent figure in Cameroon’s political landscape. She aims to challenge the status quo and motivate change in her political endeavours. With an uncertain path ahead, Ndoki’s strong dedication to justice and her courage to defend her beliefs make her a notable figure to keep an eye on in the future of Cameroon.

Mimi Mefo Info

---