SDF convention: All set for Fru Ndi’s enthronement as life chairman!

–       SDF accused of preaching democracy but practicing dictatorship

By Kristian Ngah Christian & Douglas A. Achingale in Yaounde

Chairman Ni John Fru Ndi

What was at first only a rumour has now been confirmed. John Fru Ndi is the Social Democratic Front (SDF) chairman-for-life! In the elective convention of the party billed for October 14 to 16, 2012, the SDF leader will stand unchallenged, contrary to declarations made prior to the October 9, 2011 presidential election by party stalwarts and Fru Ndi himself that he would quit the scene thereafter.

The Guardian Post has been reliably informed that all the elective positions of Cameroon’s leading opposition party will be contested for at the convention except that of chairman. A party bigwig told The Guardian Post in Yaounde recently that any supporter who is not satisfied with this arrangement should go and create his own party.

“The insiders of the party that we are,” he said, “decided that this is the only way to compensate the chairman for all the strides and sacrifices he has made for this great party. I think Fru Ndi deserves this and even more. Whether this sounds well to the ears of other members or not is of no consequence. There is nothing they can do to change the situation.”

This modus operandi, critics say, is inimical to the teachings of a party that calls itself democratic. At the same time, it is a glaring confirmation of the fact that Fru Ndi’s style of democracy is tailored to suit that of his arch enemy-cum-friend, President Paul Biya.

The dictum, “power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely” can best be used to describe the SDF leader and his new-found mentor. When Fru Ndi made his forceful entry into the political scene in 1990, he was seen as a messiah who had come to free Cameroonians from the throes of repression. But not too long after he tasted power, he became obviously sloshed. Like his master, he did and is doing everything to keep it, crushing every dissenting voice and imposing himself as the only cock to crow in the hen yard.

And so within party circles, Fru Ndi now cuts the image of an untouchable emir, a demi-god so to speak. He only falls short of re-echoing the infamous Houphouet Boigny statement: “Après moi le deluge” (that is interpreted to mean “the flood will destroy everybody and everything after me”).

SDF: Mirror that refuses to see self

If anything, the October 14 – 16, 2012 elective convention of the SDF will re-awaken concerns about the leading opposition party’s legacy in the country’s political history.As SDF militants and sympathisers prepare to congregate in Bamenda for the convention, a constant question that will apparently echoe on many minds will be: is the SDF living up to the dreams of its founding fathers? For a party whose birth was paid with the lives of six youths slain in cold-blood by repressive regime forces, over two decades of chequered political containment and internal power -wrangling worsened by an unwavering personality cult around the party chairman is no good legacy.In apparent view that the SDF is like a mirror that refuses to see self, some key observers in Cameroon’s political scene are expressing the dominant absence of a culture of freedom of ideas and choices in the SDF.

“Fru Ndi is the only cock that crows and anyone who dares challenge his chairmanship or position on issues becomes an enemy,” an analyst advanced. “There is no difference between that attitude and the dictatorship perpetuated by the CPDM regime,” he affirmed.Though many salute the SDF for stirring an opposition culture in the country with credits in the fight against corruption and a refusal to join government, many Cameroonians still take the SDF party leadership to task for using a notorious, constitutional provision to get rid of opponents.

Another reason advanced to justify the authoritarian fabric of SDF leadership is the undermining, by NEC, of some party militants duly voted in primaries to carry the SDF ticket in municipal and legislative elections. “How can party leadership sideline a man people voted to represent the people,” one man screamed. “Even at the level of the national assembly, the chairman still dictates which SDF MP will be given what position on the bureau of the House preventing elected representatives from freely making choices. This is only typical of dictators,” another commentator complained.  Another primary concern expressed in comments as the Bamenda elective convention approaches is the lack of transparency in the handling of party funds. Militants are being asked to contribute towards the upcoming national convention without being told what has been done with money in party coffers.

Recently, bitter quarrels have raged within party ranks over Fru Ndi’s handling of 230 million FCFA, 200 million FCFA of state subvention and 30 million offered the chairman by President Biya after the maiden meeting with Fru Ndi in Bamenda.Journalists too have bitter memories of the SDF as most of them cornered to comment on the party’s democratic culture and press freedom are keen to point out the absence of a deliberate effort within the SDF to promote press freedom. “Press freedom has been defined to mean criticise Biya and CPDM and praise SDF and opposition,” a Bamenda-based radio reporter complained. As some of the journalists advanced, media houses deemed critical of SDF stands have been denied access to NEC meetings; party officials have remained hostile to any SDF-unfriendly press and going as far as dragging some news organs to court on charges of libel. The cases of French language daily Le Messager, the national bilingual daily, Cameroon Tribune, Chronicle and Lifetime are some of the well-known victims of the party’s legal incursions.Most remarkably, the rallies organised nationwide by the SDF in the late 90s to rundown the image of The Herald newspaper has not been forgotten by many.

Fru Ndi on Biya’s payroll

Observers say if Fru Ndi is still tenaciously holding to SDF leadership, it is on account of the enormous pecuniary advantages he enjoys in that position, a great deal of which comes from his man at Etoudi. For, it is an open secret today that the SDF chairman has long been on President Biya’s payroll. Unconscionable sums of money are said to regularly leave Etoudi for Ntarikon on the sly.

Asked to know from a CPDM-insider at the presidency if truly the SDF chairman was receiving money from President Biya, he responded “My young brothers, you may be talking of money that Fru Ndi receives from the president, but you can’t really imagine in what amounts. No single Cameroonian receives as much money from the president as Fru Ndi!”

No wonder therefore, that the SDF chairman was highly excited and effervescent when he was received for the first time by President Biya during the 50^th anniversary celebration of Cameroon’s armed forces in Bamenda in December 2010. His feeling, as someone described it, was like “Ah! I’ve finally been able to tell my financier a big thank you face-to-face!”         

Many Yaounde inhabitants who talked to The Guardian Post were of the opinion that at 71, John Fru Ndi deserves a quiet retirement from active politics. “He has a wealth of experience in the field and should only act now as a consultant,” one of them advised. “SDF supporters have the tendency to always compare with the CPDM. ‘What of Biya who is almost 80 years old?’ they would say. But I would like to ask them one question. Do we progress by copying the bad example or the good one?”

 Nonetheless, the popularity of the SDF as a central pillar in Cameroon’s creeping democracy is still saluted by many.  The party remains in history as the only reasonable regulator, though limited, of the many excesses of the Biya regime. For this single reason, popular desire is to see the SDF emerge from the Bamenda convention more forcefully, united and to rise far above its difficulties to become a stronger force in Cameroon’s political landscape.