By Njodzeka Kernyuy
At the time many Cameroonians are wondering what happened during the 2025 presidential election, the former campaign manager of opposition leader Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who maintains that he won the election, has opened up about what he views as tactical mistakes that have prevented Tchiroma from capturing power.
Talking on MMI News’ flagship program, The Conversation Desk, Dr. Chris Manengs said he built Tchiroma’s campaign from scratch. But as the chief architect of the plan for Etoudi, he was axed out of it by what he described as a coup plotted by Tchiroma’s daughter.
Dr. Manengs acknowledged that they won the election but not power because they didn’t win the structure or the system that controls power.
However, he understood that it was impossible to completely remove a system that has been in power for 43 years through one election.
So, his mission was long-term as he had hoped that after his candidate won the election, he was going to push for a power-sharing agreement whereby Mr. Tchiroma could be the Vice President.
This, to Manengs, was the fourth layer of the plan, but it could not be activated because Tchiroma’s daughter hijacked everything, he claimed.
Leaving Country Total Mistake
According to Manengs, Issa Tchiroma Bakary was not supposed to leave the country, because by leaving, power left.
He said Tchiroma’s daughter pressured the father to leave, meanwhile they had reached a point where the United Nations, the European Union, and other foreign bodies were pushing for change.
“They were calling every second to understand what was happening,” he said.
Tchiroma is currently in the Gambia since fleeing Cameroon. To Manengs, allowing Tchiroma to leave was a regime tactic.
“The Tchiroma residence was guarded by people without arms. If they wanted to come in and take him, they could have done that,” he stated.
Local elections is a Way to Capture Power
Dr. Chris Manengs also disagreed with Issa Tchiroma Bakary’s strategy to boycott the upcoming legislative and municipal elections.
When Manengs said they won the votes and not power, he meant they did not control the mayors, MPs, elites, business people, and international media, among others.
That’s why he argued that Tchiroma’s plan to boycott the upcoming municipal and legislative elections is a mistake.
“Capture power from the base,” he said. Manengs asserted that fraud is not committed at the national but at the local level—meaning those who control the local levels, like Chiefs, elites, MPs, and Mayors, can decide the winner irrespective of the votes in place.
These errors which he says the Tchiroma side is making are only possible because he, the chief architect of Tchiroma’s campaign, has been sidelined.
However, Tchiroma, in a statement, recently said participating in the election is indirectly endorsing the “illegitimate” regime in Yaoundé. That’s because Tchiroma believes he is the “legitimate” president of Cameroon.
Political Divorce
Dr. Manengs admitted that, in the next election, he will be grooming another candidate to take power. According to him, despite no longer working for Tchiroma, he still respects him. He calls Tchiroma a father.
He at one moment revealed that when he last spoke with Tchiroma, they started working on another plan.
“But someone again deleted my number from his phone.”
He claims someone is sabotaging his relationship with the former minister.
Kamto’s Biggest Challenge
Some of the people he blames include Prof Maurice Kamto, the 2018 presidential runner-up. According to him, Kamto’s neutrality during the 2025 election was a bigger threat.
That silence, he said, made it difficult for some of Kamto’s people to decide on whom to support and channel resources.
Even after the election, Kamto was still silent as violence rocked the country and Tchiroma’s supporters were being hunted.
Manengs said that, if Kamto had supported Tchiroma, it could have been a different ball game.
“When we went to Kamto’s house, we offered him basically almost everything with regards to decision-making and campaigns, but it was clear Kamto wanted Bello Bouba Maigari,” Manengs said.
“When Mr. Tchiroma was fighting for his victory, if Mr. Kamto had come out, it would have given a bigger sound, and maybe we would have had a different result. Of course, there are also flaws in our team. There are so many things that we did not do to gain power. But if he had just decided to come with us, the story would have been a little bit different,” he said.
However, they still managed to penetrate Kamto’s people, he added.
The election has come and gone, but the government in place remains in a stalemate because Manengs “destroyed” the CPDM, something he said nobody did in decades.
“All of us need to come together and make sure that our country is actually developing the right way. And that’s just what we are praying for and seeking. Fingers crossed,” he added.