Senatorials: Will ailing Achidi Achu withstand Fru Ndi in NW?

-         * Disgruntled fons, CPDM senatorial aspirants vow to back SDF to humiliate CPDM & Achidi Achu as was the case in 1996 when he was PM

By Kristian Ngah Christian in Yaounde

Considering John Fru Ndi as a giant and Simon Achidi Achu a dwarf in the field of politics, pundits see a complete mismatch between the two in the April 14 senatorial election in the North West region. They have openly expressed doubts as to whether the latter who heads the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) list in that region will be able to withstand the overbearing weight of the former, the Social Democratic Front (SDF) national chairman, who is heading his party list in the North West.

The analysts give the former prime minister no chances of emerging victorious in the poll especially when they take into cognizance Fru Ndi’s past records in elections in their native Santa as well as the vows that disgruntled North West fons and CPDM senatorial aspirants who felt cheated by the CPDM investiture committee, reportedly made recently to the SDF.

“Our chairman has made a firm promise to crush Pa Achidi in the same way as he humiliated him and the CPDM in the municipal elections of 1996,” an SDF bigwig told The Guardian Post at the weekend in Yaounde. “And we can be very sure about that because most of those who will vote for senators in the North West are disgruntled CPDM councillors.”

Going by past elections in the country, all those who spoke to The Guardian Post gave the SDF national chairman an upper hand. They recall that in 1996, Fru Ndi came out of the municipal election head high despite the fact that then prime minister, Simon Achidi Achu at the time had transported ambulant voters (university students) from Yaounde to Santa. “Fru Ndi’s charisma and popularity caused Achidi Achu’s men to instead vote for the SDF,” we were told. To this day, Achidi Achu and his sycophants have continued to bear a grudge against Fru Ndi for causing his (Achidi Achu’s) premature exit from the Star Building.

Political observers have not also forgotten the 1997 parliamentary poll as well as the 2002 twin parliamentary and municipal elections which the SDF also won in Santa in spite of all the manoeuvres, votes-buying and the rigging machinery the former prime minister employed to let victory go the CPDM way.

“Even in 2007 when Santa was made a special constituency, Fru Ndi did his all to ensure victory for the SDF in the parliamentary and council elections. In the 2011 presidential election, the SDF also won for Santa. Although the voters in the upcoming senatorial elections are municipal councillors rather than the general population as in the previous ones, we cannot doubt that Fru Ndi will mesmerize Cameroonians again by humiliating Achidi Achu,” Ndisang Prosper, a researcher in political science, assured The Guardian Post.

Our interlocutors were unanimous that Fru Ndi’s oratorical skills coupled with Achidi Achu’s fragile health will work to the former’s advantage during the campaign. “How can an old man who does not even know how to speak and whose health is failing; in fact, who recently suffered a stroke which affected his speech, think he can compete with a vibrant sweet-talking personality like Fru Ndi?” one of them questioned.

We were also reliably informed by some of the councillors that even if they had an intention to change their minds on the day of the election, the anger over Zaccheus Forjindam’s life sentence which Achidi Achu is believed to have wholeheartedly endorsed by virtue of his stony silence over the matter, would make them think again.

The former prime minister’s failure is also foreseeable because, as The Guardian Post gathered, disgruntled CPDM senatorial hopefuls whose names were dropped from the different list by the party’s investiture committee are already campaigning for the SDF in the North West.    

Worst still, it is being widely-believed within the North West CPDM political circles that one of the out-comes of the Fru Ndi-Belinga Eboutou meeting was that Biya would help the SDF win all the seven senatorial seats in the North West. “Otherwise what explains the fact that President Biya took a dead wood like Pa Achidi Achu to head the CPDM senatorial list in the North West?”, questioned a CPDM bigwig from the region.