Why Mbida was able to rise to power ?

Why Mbida was able to rise to power

 

1. The fact that no party won an absolute majority in the 1956 elections paved the way for Mbida whose party the DC won 20 seats to rise to power.
2. The French believed that Mbida was a moderate politician because he wanted a gradual approach towards independences.
3. Ahidjo party the UC won 30 seats into ALCAM but Ahidjo who was a Muslim from the North was unable to convinced politicians from the South to form a coalition government.
4. Mbida’s was intellectually more apt than Ahidjo.
5. Mbida’s strong Catholic background won the favour of both the French and the Christian South.

 

Reasons  for the fall of Mbida from power

 

 

1. Mbida fell out with the French Colonial masters because he did not want French personnel to be imposed on French Cameroon.
2. Mbida rejected the possible integration of French Cameroon into France.
3. Mbida rejected dialogue with the UPC and therefore, failed a political solution to the UPC crisis.
4. He became dictatorial and did not consult his cabinet colleagues. He also cancelled the scholarship of some Cameroonian students in France because they criticized him.
5. He became unpopular because he did not favour immediate independence of French Cameroon.
6. He did not include the idea of reunification in his program.
7. During the DC congress held of Abong Mbang in 1958 Mbida made policy statements that were very unpopular in the North such as the democratisation of Northern Cameroon and the transfer of civil servants from the South to take up jobs in the North Muslims in the North were frightened and threatened to secede and join Chad.
8. Ahidjo advised Ministers form the North to resign from the Mbida government but when Mbida led to form a government without the UC, the French rejected it and his government collapsed.
9. The French high commissioner Jean Ramadier masterminded his down fall.