NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE TO A VALIANT HEART No.00035/16-08/RDPF-KUMZSE/ADN-2025
The misunderstanding about the role of traditional chiefs in Cameroon
The law on traditional chiefdoms in Cameroon, formalized by the 1977 decree (amended in 2013), recognizes and structures these chiefdoms as part of the country’s administrative organization. These chiefdoms, ranked in three levels according to their territorial and historical importance, play key roles in local governance—maintaining order, driving socio-economic development, and conveying administrative directives.
Key aspects of the law:
- *Recognition and organization:* The 1977 decree establishes a legal framework and hierarchy of chiefdoms.
- *Administrative role:* Traditional chiefs act as auxiliaries to the administration, transmitting governmental decisions and maintaining public order.
- *Customary role:* They resolve disputes and mediate following customs and traditions.
- *Financial framework:* Chiefs of first and second degree receive allowances based on their rank and population size.
- *Collaboration with authorities:* Chiefdoms cooperate with territorial authorities under the Ministry of Territorial Administration.
- *Dispute resolution:* The law includes procedures to address challenges regarding chief appointments.
Dear brothers and sisters, compatriots, ladies and gentlemen,
It is the RDPF-KUMZSE, led by its National President Dr. NDEMMANU Antoine De Padoue—who was the youngest presidential candidate in the October 12, 1997 election—that proposed and obtained remuneration for traditional chiefs. Today, we propose a new status for traditional chiefs, inspired by legal precedents such as the first-degree chief of Foto, who also acts as the assistant to the Sub-Prefect of Dschang and is a Sub-Prefect himself elsewhere, or the Bamoun Sultan acting simultaneously as assistant and civil administrator.
Our proposal aims to grant traditional chiefs the status of traditional civil administrators equivalent to that of public civil administrators. This would give them autonomy in managing their communities, with conflicts of authority resolved by the administrative tribunal. This important reform is still awaiting implementation.
Dear brothers and sisters, compatriots,
The diaspora must help our traditional chiefs move away from dependence on the administration by pooling:
- Human resources (agronomists, agricultural technicians, farmers – MRH1)
- Financial resources (merchants, businesspeople – MRF2)
- Natural resources (traditional chiefs, land chiefs – MRN3)
Together, this will boost agricultural production based on IRAD studies, build large storage granaries, and develop agro-industry and agro-food sectors, enabling food self-sufficiency as well as economic, financial, and monetary autonomy!
We must stop reducing our traditional chiefs to recipients of aid and donations. Cameroon has fertile lands in a costly global environment where many suffer hunger. It is disappointing that while some lament seeing traditional chiefs now paid by the State, they obstruct their full role as administrative auxiliaries.
Dr. NDEMMANU Antoine De Padoue, National President of RDPF-KUMZSE, invites you to prepare for a democratic alternation in Cameroon through the 2026 legislative and municipal elections, where the opposition must become the majority in all elected chambers—an essential prerequisite for a likely victory in the October 2032 presidential election.
Time is both our enemy and our greatest ally.
Fraternally,
Dr. NDEMMANU Antoine De Padoue, Ph.D. in Social Economics.
National President of RDPF-KUMZSE.
Former presidential candidate, October 12, 1997.
Contact: (+237) 690 922 056 / 670 655 614.
