Prominent lawyer and presidential candidate Akere Tabeng Muna has called on Cameroon’s ruling regime to acknowledge its electoral defeat and hand over power peacefully, in what he described as a defining moment for the nation’s democratic conscience.
In a sharply worded statement titled “The Illusion of the Bull’s Possible Victory”, the former Bar Association president and ally of Bello Bouba Maigari said the ruling establishment was trapped “in the illusion of the bull that still believes in a possible victory,” accusing it of manipulating election results and spreading false narratives of rural support.
“Head down, it charges, tampering with election results and spreading the myth of the incumbent’s unshakable strength in rural areas, the very places where people suffer the most, yet are paradoxically portrayed as joyfully filling the pockets of their oppressors,” Barrister Akere Muna wrote.
The statement, released Friday in Yaoundé, comes five days after the October 12 presidential election, which opposition candidate Issa Tchiroma Bakary is widely believed to have won. Akere Muna, who was among the first to congratulate Tchiroma, has now joined other voices urging the regime to accept the people’s verdict and ensure a peaceful transition.
Drawing on a powerful metaphor, Muna likened the current government to a wounded bull charging blindly toward its own downfall.
“This regime is the bull, blindly charging into an arena that no longer belongs to it,” he said. “The arena is now filled with the silent yet determined masses of the people, who have spoken openly and forcefully for change.”
Muna invoked the example of Senegal’s former president Abdou Diouf, who peacefully ceded power in 2000 after losing at the polls, describing his act as a “compass that has guided Senegal to this day, a legacy of dignity that still resonates through history.”
“As the days go by,” Muna continued, “the nation, Africa, and the world hold their breath, hoping that the outgoing president will take a page from Diouf’s book.”
He concluded his reflection with a poetic but pointed warning: “After 43 years of endurance, the people are watching, wondering if Diouf’s heart can be cloned. The bull, in its final desperate charge, sees only the red cape of its own illusion not the matadors of destiny waiting for its fall.”
Muna’s statement adds to a growing chorus of calls from political leaders, civil society figures, and international observers, urging calm, transparency, and respect for the popular will as Cameroon stands on the brink of what could become a historic political transition.
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