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Cameroon: SDF's Constitution Amendment Posture - Compromise Or Cowardice?
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The Post (Buea)
OPINION
22 February 2008
Posted to the web 22 February 2008
Peterkins Manyong
In 1993, renowned journalist, Herbert Boh, then rendering voluntary service to the SDF, wrote a thought-provoking analysis titled "Bernard Muna And
Fru Ndi - The Betrayal." In it he chastised Muna, then Campaign Manager for the SDF because he criticised Fru Ndi for sending people in the streets to be killed in a bid to recover his stolen victory from Biya.
The Muna/Fru Ndi clash took place after two SDF vanguards had been shot to death by gendarmes on March 25 of that year in Cow Street, Bamenda. Public opinion was overwhelmingly in favour of Fru Ndi under whose leadership the Union for Change group of political parties was giving Biya nightmares
The Union's plan of action forced Biya to convene a Constitutional Conference, even though its proceedings and outcome were manipulated. That was Fru Ndi in 1993 - daring, charismatic and consistent.
The Fru Ndi we have in 2008 is an entirely different human being. After refusing to commit the SDF in the fight to halt Biya's illegitimate ambition to eternalize himself in power, the SDF Chairman makes a U-turn and says his party would lead demonstrations against it.
But just when the public is jubilating and expecting him to say when, Fru Ndi holds another press conference, this time in Douala (February 13) and calls on Biya to convene a Constitutional Conference on the issue. Fru Ndi was obviously echoing Janet Garvey, US Ambassador to Cameroon, who recommended a national consensus on the matter.
But the SDF Chairman knows Cameroon and Biya much better than the US Ambassador. He knows Biya as an incomparable political fox -.he cannot have so soon forgotten the 1991 Tripartite Conference, the resolutions of which he wisely refused to append his signature to because he knew Biya was a man of bad faith.
He must surely recall that the political leaders who erroneously signed it later on regretted doing so saying that what was finally presented as the Tripartite document was not what they had approved. Computer wizards or signature had done the trick. Fru Ndi was, therefore, supposed to maintain the stand that the Constitution should not be revised. His equivocation on the issue has dealt a severe blow to the move to prevent Biya's constitutional coup.
Fru Ndi's conduct after the Douala press conference also raised doubts about his sincerity in challenging Biya's planned mandate extension. Instead of joining Jean Michel Nintcheu and other SDF militants demonstrating against constitutional amendment, he left with the pretext that a SDF youth training seminar was to hold in Bamenda and he needed to be there.
The seminar finally held two days later, meaning that the SDF Chairman could lead the demonstration and still be in Bamenda on time to preside at the event. Fru Ndi had earlier shown his disapproval of the anti-Biya demonstration by halting it when Nintcheu and his supporters initiated it last January.
Bernard Tabali, Northwest SDF Chairman, had suspended a similar planned demonstration following similar instructions from his hierarchy. The impression given for both instructions was that the entire SDF party and the civil society were mobilising so that the demonstrations should take place nationwide at the same time.
Egoistic SDF MPs
Worse still, Fru Ndi has called on SDF MPs not to boycott that session. This is clearly a welcome piece of instruction to the MPs who are looking with optimism towards the planned salary increase by the Biya regime. It would come as no surprise if SDF MPs vote alongside those of the CPDM.
The MPs have already begun to prepare the mind of the public for such an eventuality by boycotting a meeting convened by the civil society on Saturday, February 16 - a meeting to which they were invited. Joseph Chongsi, Chairman of the Union of Northwest Human Rights Organisations,
UNOWHURO, one of the meeting's conveners, told this analyst that he wasted much time and huge sums of money on air time informing the MPs about it. Even the tough-talking Mbengwi MP, PC Fonso, was absent.
If the SDF has failed as Joseph Banadzem, SDF Parliamentary Group leader, confessed during last Saturday's meeting, Fru Ndi should make his party's helplessness clear to a wider public so that Cameroonians should stop counting on the party.
The SDF Chairman demonstrated he no longer saw the Head of State as an adversary by stating during the Yaounde press conference that Biya was somebody for whom he had a lot of respect. By dint of the post, he is holding, Biya deserved veneration at first.
But the moment he backpedaled on his promise to quit power in 2011, he lost every modicum of respect from Cameroonians and the international community. Covenant breaking is a sacrilege, even in politics. When a leader does it, he becomes a usurper, a political 'cut purse' who wants to steal the precious diadem (the people's sovereignty) and put into his pocket.
The country's frontline opposition party has a bounden duty to champion the move to forestall such an outrage and other anti-people activities. At the time of writing, 22 SDF militants, among them a former gendarmerie colonel who should be enjoying peaceful retirement, are languishing in Kondengui Prison because he and fellow militants obeyed instructions from party hierarchy to disrupt the Muna/Ngwasiri May 26, 2006 Convention in Yaounde.
None of the SDF top officials cares to visit them. One of the detainees, John Nguh, died last year and many are in critical health conditions. Not a single demonstration has been organised by the party, even in Bamenda, the party's headquarters, to pressure the Biya regime for their release.
For Fru Ndi has to convince the public that he is still the daredevil of 1990 or that he has not stricken a form of compromise deal with the Biya regime. He must like Mboua Massock prove himself, once more, a champion of public liberties.
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Nintcheu is not still campaigning to enter parliament. He is already there and should enjoy his hard-earned Assembly seat. He should not continue to risk his life; leading anti-Biya demonstrations when his political boss is probably dining with the same regime for which hundreds of Cameroonians have lost their lives in vain efforts to uproot.
My comments on Peterkins article are based on two observations. 1)The world being a global village,i'll strongly advice,that we Cameroonians should stop narrowing our thinking to the size of that natural triangle called Cameroon. This said ,constitutional revision is a normal exercise in any nation wether that is done in good faith or not, that is another debate in it's own.Biya has not stood the test of time ,he had on several occasions recognised that for those who read his speeches in-between-the-lines.What if the revision suites some of us who think that a two-round presidential pool,an independent electoral... [Read Full Text]
I do not think Fru Ndi is what is needed to stand opposed to constitutional amendment that centres largely on benefitting some power embezzling leaders in this country. He has not proved himself worthy of trust or capable of airing out the cries of those Cameroonians who had been tricked into giving him their support. We need some better person with will power and steadfastness and not this frivolous andv flip flopping Fru Ndi. Good article Peterkins.
The person who wrote this article is an enemy of the SDF and its chairman. The SDF has its plans and does not stop any other Cameroonian from acting when things are going wrong. What appraisal do you make of the last riots in Cameroon. So because many people have lost their lives trying to unsit Paul Biya, Fru Ndi should should also lost his? You are really an idiot with a chicken brain. Your analysis are fit for the dust bin.
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