“President Paul Biya Has The Experience”

Célestin Bedzigui, President of Alliance Liberale Party (PAL).

Why have you chosen to launch a clarion call for all to unite in supporting President Paul Biya in the 2018 presidential election?

I have chosen to launch the appeal for political parties and civil society organisations to support the candidacy of President Paul Biya in the 2018 presidential election because I have scrutinized all the potential candidates and I have seen that only Paul Biya is taking into consideration the two main problems we have in Cameroon now. The first one is the economic problem. When you look at all those young people wasting their time along the roads in what is known as the informal sector, you discover that it is a social bomb. When it will explode, I don’t know whether Cameroon will still be a living country. I have scrutinized the speeches and visions of all the other aspirants to the presidency in 2018, I have not seen any consideration for the country’s economic problems. The second concern is the crisis in the Anglophone regions of the North West and South West. I am trying to push the idea that the best way to solve the problem is through dialogue. If we try it, we will get the results. With the ongoing crisis, I am pushing forward with the ambition to tell President Biya that we have to sit around the table and talk with everybody. The problem we have in Cameroon is not that of living together. We have the problem of the governance style and situation. The problem will be solved when we have this gathering which I call the “Second Tripartite.”

You admitted that proposing the candidacy of President Paul Biya is risky. Why have you taken the risk?

I...