Time to show tough love to Fru Ndi

Boh Herbert on 4/26/13

Sometime in the coming day or two, the Supreme Court will rule on the senatorial (s)elections of last April 14. Whatever the outcome, not much will change. The CPDM will stay firmly in charge. Dictatorship would have won another battle.

 It is no surprise.

Not much was expected to change. At least, not with the die-hard, "come no go" CPDM so firmly committed to sabotaging the will of the people. Not after the SDF crawled into bed with the CPDM. Now we must deal with the by-product of this act of political incest.

 

Seen from the angle of two monsters, laying down together to bring forth (what else?) a monster, a lot will change. The SDF will never be the same again. Since its historic launch in 1990, up until and just before the (s)election to the Senate, the SDF and its leader were "sense pass king". They had skillfully avoided most political traps set them. Well, no more! Alas, the SDF may be on a path akin to that of the stupid fly that follows the CPDM corpse into the grave.

Happily, there is an antidote. One thing could change - nay, reverse - that fate. The SDF leader, Ni John Fru Ndi, can confess his biggest political blunder and offer up his resignation. For a man who has committed few errors despite the enormous pressure of the past 20+ years, this was so monumental Fru Ndi can only survive if the SDF pays the price.

The Supreme Court may yet correct the outcome of the election to ensure that the "right" (desired) people are selected for Senate. We know from history that the election result is not the selection result.

This means that a senate seat is still possible for the SDF leader... by (s)election (preferred and possibly now negotiated). It could come about by invalidating a few CPDM councillor votes in the North West and inventing a draw that forces a sharing of seats. The SDF candidates in Mezam and Boyo divisions could, thus, be let into the new "ngumbah house" Biya is constituting.

Why would the CPDM do such a thing, you may be asking? Well, for the same reason it disqualified its own lists in the Adamaoua and West regions in the first place. Secondly, Yaounde is not eager to deal with Fru Ndi (version 2.0), angered by the "Deal? No deal!" kind of "Njangui" which the CPDM wins "en aller et retour" all the time. Third, the CPDM does not want the SDF radicalized anew by the ignominious beating it just suffered at the ballot box at a time of unprecedented campaigns for the restoration of the independence of Southern Cameroons.

But, I digress... Fru Ndi's resignation (the reason I write) would be a gift... it would be but a little price to pay for the big political sin of "ssssssleeping with the CPDM". In the absence of getting value for money, it would be accepted as a decent short-sale offer to help avoid foreclosure on the entire SDF.

Let me be clear. Fru Ndi has proven beyond doubt that he is that once-in-a-generation kind of politician. He has earned his place in history and in the hearts of democracy lovers. He has stood tall at great risk to himself, his family and his followers. I personally saw him offer to be arrested instead of let gendarmes take me and another of his lieutenant's from his home while we were under house arrest in 1992. I can brag that I know him well. I have tons of respect and admiration for him. In fact, I call him "Pa" (the title for "pater"), not "Ni" (the "big brother" title any Tom, Dick, and Harry). I trust him like one of the SDF supporters who at one of our rallies held up a hand-written placard on one hand and pointed to his spouse with the other hand. The placard read: "Fru Ndi: Je te donne ma femme"!

I love Fru Ndi still but believe that this is when his most intimate friends must privately and publicly urge him to do the right thing. Fru Ndi's true friends at this moment are only those who show him tough love. I do so convinced that I am rendering service to democracy. The urgent matter at hand is to crucify Fru Ndi or the SDF. I dare say the choice is clear, but was it not also clear when the people picked Barnabas, the thief and murderer, instead of Jesus, the Christ?

As Christ is a light to sinners and to the world, the SDF, thanks in large part to Fru Ndi, was once Cameroon's brightest democracy light. As one of the strongest opposition movement in the country yet, it still can be that light. However, if Fru Ndi remains its leader, the SDF will be but a lamp lit and put under the bed.

As some on this forum may remember... there was a time (right?) when both Fru Ndi and the SDF were considered eligible for political sainthood. Now, though, neither may qualify to approach the gates of purgatory (never mind that purgatory was taught "par erreur" by the church). There is a time to step up and provide leadership to the SDF and a time to step down and bow off the political stage. You cannot last almost as long as a certain Paul Biya and yet claim the moral authority to chant "Biya Must Go".

Children who were suckled on their mother's milk at the time of the SDF's launch and chants of "power to the people" and"suffer don finish" are turning gray with Fru Ndi still in charge. We have known for a long time that  Biya's "democratie avancee" means more power to Biya. Now, we have ascertained that the SDF's "power to the people" really means "all power to Fru Ndi".

There is a reason why the SDF of 2013 does not have the many political options that were available to its version of the 1990s. Shit happens. If you push any dog into a corner, expect one of two reactions. It can let out a bark... (witness the SDF threat that it will let out the boys, swinging machetes). Or, you can expect the dog to park its tail in between its hindsight and cowardly flee (witness the SDF's bending over backwards to woo the CPDM).

The SDF forgot that it was dealing with a certain Popaul with whom what you don't see is what you get. The SDF's "grand bargain" with the CPDM is turning out to be its Waterloo. The man who was once hailed as Cameroon's political Moses may have ran the SDF into political bankruptcy.

It did not happen overnight. Anyone who has eyes to see, had seen this coming. The SDF has been in a suppressed state of political decay for a long while now. Accepting the kiss of death from the CPDM was just owning up to that state of decay. But, while the SDF was simply in a state of political decline, the April 14 (s)election may set it in free fall... unless, of course... unless the man who has, indeed, made the SDF decides not to mar it. 

Like Bello Bouba before him, Fru Ndi's political relevance may now entirely depend on and flow from whatever crumbs the CPDM passes down to the Lazarus the CPDM has invited to diner. I mean, of course,  outside of what place he has earned in history books - for better, for worse.

Speaking of crumbs... do not put it beyond the CPDM and the Supreme Court to correct the April 14 (s)election. If the correction wins Fru Ndi the vote, the SDF must make the case for its leader not to accumulate posts. Crumbs are not only a bad thing. Getting to the senate may do Fru Ndi sone good. An I mistaken or did Fru Ndi act so desperate to get into the Senate that we may all be forgiven for thinking that the SDF leader must dream of how nice it would be if electoral fraud could be perpetrated in his favor.

Boh Herbert

Comments

[mbanji]

This is a great piece intended by the writer but I am a bit worried it was marred with some digressions and might be confusing to anyone who is trying to get the scope from this piece.

Truth be told the 'gift' is the same no matter the paper used to wrap it. Agreed that SDF at its infancy needed a steady leader and determined leader that could stare adversities and danger and still stood his ground...and that the SDF chairman did well and did all Cameroonians proud. That proudness lasted a few year and after 1999, its was the time for the chairman to step back and let a new breed with his influence and statute prevail. Power being what it is especially in Africa he sees this as an opportunity to advance his own personal agenda. When any leader stops to lead for his people and his people loss faith and confidence in him its time to stepdown.

Biya is at the stage of disgust and right next to him is the SDF chairman Ni John. I will not quite say he has outlived his usefulness to the party but he has absorbed most of the corruptible tendencies of who he is trying to offseat and in all honesty if Ni John gets to role Cameroon he too will hold on to power and that is a dream of his that has diverted from the point where SDF started to make the country better and rid all the despotism.

cheers

[Tagro]

Yes, time to look at the future, but with what mindset must we embrace this future. These two old folks, Paul and his pal John are yesterday’s men.

One time French president, Chirac, speaking in Tunis, told Africans, advising them against their clamor for 'democracy', that all they should really worry about was to eat and stay healthy; presumably to be fit enough as the field hands in carved out slave territories like the Cameroons.

Chirac’s racist and de-humanizing view, informed by the interest of his owners (French and western capitalist interests) is that the African is sub-human and should not aspire to the universal human values of the citizens and inhabitants of the ‘civilized world.’ The African’s place being to feed the insatiable global capitalist profits that have held the continent hostage since that really first global trade contact with the continent: the economy of slavery.

Today, that economy of slavery is sleekly sustained by global instruments of the IMF and World Bank that even supervise and condone exploitative, as in the case of Francophonic Africa, slave currencies within these slave territories. Africans who subscribe to the Chirac view are the darlings of the corrupt western political and business elite who pride themselves as the “Masters of the Universe”.

Biya got this a very long time ago, as matter of fact he was educated and nurtured to fit in this global system as an Overseer for the field hands in the territory of his birth. He cracks the whip and the field hands work for the benefit of the global capitalists. Biya is left in peace and will be left in peace like the Boignys, Bongos and others until nature’s ultimate call rings his doorbell. The Fru Ndi of today gets it. He may not go as far as to boast to be the “best pupil” as his friend Biya once did, but he’s been having stellar grades.

It’s a tough and thankless job to be a politician (or even a sane human being, if you are informed) in what is nothing more than a deliberately engineered lawless slave territory masquerading as a Nation-State, where no rules or laws of State are respected or applied.

Biya and his buddy, Ndi, yesterday’s men, will go, but do the rest of us understand that we need to find ways to extricate ourselves from the status as inhabitants of a slave territory before we can even begin to aspire to live in a space where rules are in place for the benefit of the native inhabitants of rather than the foreign global capitalist interest with collective and ongoing habit of theft and immorality? It is our collective burden to address.

[Manu N.]

Great job Mr. Herbert on an excellent piece.

My friends and I were discussing this same topic over some California Merlot last weekend. The political strategy/strategies used by SDF and other party leaders of the so call “opposition parties” were just amateurish and lack of vision.

Frankly, I expected nothing good from the senatorial elections because of this, how could any political party in Cameroon agree to the premise of making available only 70 senate seats for councilors to vote and not to the public? Additionally, why agree or allow 30 senators appointed by the Paul Biya who is the leader of another political party (CPDM). That does not make any sense whatever to me.

I too was in Bamenda in 1989/1990 and matched with machete from Foncha Street to Commercial Avenue fighting and longing for change in our party system and beloved Cameroon, but unfortunately, party leaders Ni Fru Ndi, Ndam Njoya etc, found it necessary to be paid and bribed by Biya.

How can you have councilors of your own party vote for candidates of the opposing party? Absolutely ridiculous.

As long as the current party leaders stay in their respective positions, nothing will change in Cameroon. Why should anything change when these party leaders do not encourage democratic practices and new/opposing views within their own party? The Cameroonian people have been fool for far too long and it is high time the younger generation forces these party leaders out and engages the public through grassroots support, financially, emotionally and democratically.

To the party leaders, STEP DOWN with grace, and whoever replaces them, please do not or attempt to seek financial support from CPDM for you will lose credibility of being an opposition party.

Cameroonians all over the globe are waiting for that young, energetic leader to support and create genuine change and not just lip service.

Manu N.

[Fon Emmanuel Ngang]

Mr John Fru Ndi is not going anywhere in the foreseeable future. We will make sure about that.
Politics is not an intellectual or academic exercise. Its a popularity contest. In this way politicians are judged based not on the strength of ideas but on their popularity. In Cameroon the grounds on which committed politicians thread is so slippery and thus treacherous that no one can be judged through the prism of failure or success. The plight of Cameroonians brought about by the present corrupt and dictatorial government of Paul Biya can be appraised from many fronts the most prominent being that Cameroonians cannot truly and freely manifest their political choices. Not only are they boxed in politically the unfortunate effect is that majority of them, many of whom are well educated people ignorantly seem to believe that Cameroon politics is the way politics should be. If not why should we be so inconsiderate to judge anybody based on this very treacherous terrain called Cameroon politics? Show me anybody you think can do better than Mr John Fru Ndi. I ask this seemingly irrational question because not only do I know there could be many more competent than him,but rather because the validity of the question hinges more on having guts than knowing how to play politics. Besides, the play ground is a free entry for all without restrictions of any sort. Why are people so focused on Mr. John Fru Ndi and the SDF? The problem confronting Cameroonians today is not Mr John Fru Ndi. It is the CPDM.
Anybody who has the effrontery to suggest that Mr John Fru Ndi should be replaced is a spineless and gutless individual who does not know any better and can do no better either. The cause of our misery is not Mr John Fru Ndi. He just happens to be a softer target – otherwise why leave the person and chase the shadow? Show what each of you can do about Mr Biya quiting the scene before blaming someone who is trying. What wrong has the SDF ever done to Cameroonians? Has the SDF ever refused to supply electricity, refused to build Hospitals, Schools, Construct roads etc etc? If the SDF and Mr John Fru Ndi promised Cameroonians that they would get rid of Mr Biya’s regime,it is now time for Cameroonians to ditch them and seek salvation from some other political force. They have the right to do that. Why the obsession with the SDF?
Suggesting that Mr John Fru Ndi should go is no better than a group of mice suggesting that a bell should be tied on the tail of the cat.nd even then There are even many waysother ways to send Mr Fru Ndi packing.
1 - Vote him out during SDF party convention
2- Mount a challenge to alter SDF constitution that would weaken his grip on power.
3- and the easiest QUIT the SDF thereby reducing its following. He becomes irrelevant immediately
Merely wishing him gone is not one of these options. As the old English saying goes, “If wishes were horses beggars would ride”.
I am a staunch supporter of the SDF. The day I become so disgusted with its leadership I would not even make a sound. I will just quit. I.have the right to do that. Nothing compels me to remain a faithful follower, and I can never bring myself to understand why people think it must only be the SDF in the opposition in Cameroon!.Anyway for now the Chairman stays and those who think otherwise, they should seek for other means to carry on with the struggle. There are many options

[challow]

Mr Fon Emmanuel,the soundness of you view is unprecedented on this forum. You show a better understanding of the concept of Democracy,and your contextualise analysis comes across clearly. You are a great thinker. Keep thinking and keeping writing,it may take a while but ultimately your message shall be taken home.

Challow

[cantactcameroon]

One thing bafles me. And that thing is the pouring of all the blames of Paul biya's successes in elections on Fru Ndi or the S D F. Gentlemen and ladies of this forum, Fru Ndi can be criticised as the S D F party leader. All the criticism against Fru Ndi beyond the S D F party level are misplaced. the S D F is just one of the political parties in cameroon and Fru Ndi is just one of the many so called opposition leaders.
Why is it that other parties and their chairmen are not critcised and all blames of failures in cameroon are put on the S D F and Fru Ndi? I am tempted to think these criticism are agenda based.
Those of you who keep blaming the S D F and its chairman, why not join another party that would bring about the change that Fru Ndi and the the S D F. couldn't. Or better still form your own party like Bernard M?
All of us do not have the courage to face Paul Biya and so we turn around and fight each other. When Bernard M created a party i expected him to sweep the elections and change cameroon since Fru Ndi and the S D F could not.
Fru ndi is not Cameroon's problem. Paul Biya is cameroons wahala. He is the greatest menace to cameroon not Fru Ndi or the S D F. Instead of attacking Fru Ndi, turn around and Face Paul Biya. thanks