Cameroon’s Presidential Election: Tourism Minister Bello Bouba Maigari to Contest

(3 Minutes Read)

Tourism Minister Bello Bouba Maigari, a veteran politician and former prime minister, has accepted his party’s nomination to run for president. The 78-year-old has the backing of the National Union for Democracy and Progress (UNDP)

Cameroon’s long-serving President Paul Biya is facing growing questions about his political future, as a second high-profile government official steps into the race to succeed him ahead of the country’s October 2025 election.

Tourism Minister Bello Bouba Maigari, a veteran politician and former prime minister, has accepted his party’s nomination to run for president. The 78-year-old was officially backed by the National Union for Democracy and Progress (UNDP) over the weekend, a move that has stirred political speculation, especially since he has not resigned from his cabinet post.

Maigari’s entry into the race follows that of Issa Tchiroma Bakary, another northern political heavyweight and former government spokesperson, who recently stepped down to launch his presidential campaign. These developments hint at cracks within the ruling elite and a potential shift in the political alliance between Biya’s central power base and the country’s northern regions.

President Biya, now 92 and in office since 1982, has not announced whether he intends to run for another term. His silence is fuelling uncertainty in a country where political succession has long been a taboo subject.

Paul Biya (born Paul Barthélemy Biya’a bi Mvondo, 13 February 1933) has been serving as the second president of Cameroon since 1982. He was previously the fifth Prime Minister under President Ahmadou Ahidjo from 1975 to 1982. As of 2025, he is the second-longest-ruling president in Africa (after Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo in Equatorial Guinea), the second longest consecutively serving current non-royal national leader in the world, and the oldest head of state in the world.

A native of Cameroon’s south, Biya rose rapidly as a bureaucrat under President Ahmadou Ahidjo  in the 1960s, as Secretary-General of the Presidency from 1968 to 1975 and then as Prime Minister. He succeeded Ahidjo as president upon the latter’s surprise resignation in 1982 and consolidated power in a 1983–1984 staged attempted coup in which he eliminated all of his major rivals.

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Biya introduced political reforms within the context of a one-party system in the 1980s, later accepting the introduction of multiparty politics in the early 1990s under serious pressure. He won the contentious 1992 presidential election with 40% of the plurality, single-ballot vote and was re-elected by large margins in 1997,2004,2011 and 2018. Opposition politicians and Western governments have alleged voting irregularities and fraud on each of these occasions.