By Ikome Christie-NoellaEposi in Buea
The National Secretary General of the Franckist Citizen Movement for Peace and Unity of Cameroon, Prince Obosso Epupu in a recent phone interview granted to The Sun Newspaper’s Buea correspondent, Ikome Christie-Noella Eposi insisted that their champion Franck Emmanuel Biya will run for the upcoming presidential elections only if the president of the Republic of Cameroon, His excellency President Paul Biya will not contest.
He noted that the movement is not in competition with President Biya and they will wait till when it’s their turn because they (Franckists) are not in a haste. “If President Biya still decides to run for the upcoming elections, we are going to wait and we are going to rally our support behind him till he decides not to run again. Only then can our Champion Franck Olivier Biya push for his candidacy”. Prince Epupu stated.
Talking on French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Cameroon and the level of mobilisation from members of the Franckist movement, the national secretary general added that movement braced up massively to welcome the July guest. “We wanted to communicate our agenda to the French President and to the rest of the world. We wanted to let everyone know that we have decided to take responsibility of our own political destiny. We the youths of Cameroon through this movement have identified someone that we think has the capacity to take over the political leadership of this country”. The NSG noted.
He added that despite financial constraints in bringing members together, about 5000 Franckists all over the country where present in Yaoundé. “It has been a huge success because our message has gone through to the rest of the world and that alone is satisfactory. We are very happy that we were able to do this”.
As per the issue of Franckist banners that were pulled down, Prince Epupu explained; “We received a call from the police headquarters as far as withdrawal of our banners and posters are concerned. They pleaded with us to pull down our banners and posters and their reason was understood and accepted by us because they made us to understand that the visit of the French president has specified objectives. They also told us that the issue of succession is not within those specified objectives of the visit.
We came to project a presidential aspirant that we wish to take over only after President Paul Biya but the security officials made us to understand that it is not the time for presidential elections so they think that we are saturating Yaoundé with a contrary message that does not fall within the sphere of this visit. They are not against our movement. We are a republican and democratic movement so they are not against the messages we carried in our banners.
We have nothing against the state and the state has nothing against us but they just thought the timing of our mission was not appropriate. We the Franckists had an objective to pass a message and we were very happy that in less than 24 hours, the message was spread across the globe. There was no such thing as arrest of our members. No Franckists has been arrested or in detention we were simply asked to put down our banners.
It should be noted that President Paul Biya spoke of generational transition reminding the youths of this country to be get ready to take over the political leadership of this country and the Franckist movement is within the instructions of the President. “So we the Franckist have decided that we will only materialise our preparations only after President Paul Biya decides he is not running again”. Prince Obosso concluded.