Dakolé Daïssala

Dakole Daïssala (born April 15, 1943) is a Cameroonian politician and the President of the Movement for the Defense of the Republic (MDR), a political party based in Cameroon's Far North Region. He served in the government of Cameroon as Minister of State for Posts and Telecommunications from 1992 to 1997; subsequently he was a Deputy in the National Assembly from 1997 to 2002 and then Minister of Transport from 2004 to 2007. He has served in the Senate since 2013.

Daïssala is a Kirdi and was born in Goundye (Kaélé), located in the Far North Province. In 1967, he became first deputy prefect in Ngaoundéré; subsequently, he was Deputy Director of General Administration at the Ministry of Finance from 1969 to 1970 and Director of Transport from 1970 to 1973. He served as Deputy Director-General of the Cameroon Urban Transport Authority (Société de Transports Urbains du Cameroun, SOTUC) from 1973 to 1975, and then as Director-General of SOTUC from 1975 until 1984.

Daïssala was arrested following the failed April 1984 coup attempt against President Paul Biya. After spending seven years in prison without ever being tried or even charged, he was released in 1991. He wrote a book about his experience in prison called Libre derrière les barreaux (Free Behind Bars).

Once released, he founded the Movement for the Defense of the Republic (MDR), an opposition party; some have suspected that the party was actually created by the authorities as part of a strategy of diluting meaningful opposition. The MDR won six seats in the National Assembly in the March 1992 parliamentary election (all of them in the Far North Province) and afterwards it allied with the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (RDPC); the two parties thus constituted a narrow parliamentary majority with 94 out of 180 seats. Daïssala was appointed to the government as Minister of State for Posts and Telecommunications on April 9, 1992; four other members of the MDR also received positions in the government at the same time.

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