Asonganyi, others remain SDF – Prof. Nkwi

Following the resolutions of SDF’s National Executive, NEC meeting of April 18, where 13 committees were created to prepare for its 25th anniversary with a Peace and Reconciliation Committee, Paul Nkwi, Chairman of the committee in an exclusive exchange with the Cameroon Journal has said that Tazoacha Asonganyi, former National Secretary of the party “remains SDF ideologically.” He spoke to The Journal’s Hilary Nyingchuo.

Q: As chairman of the Peace and Reconciliation Committee can you throw light on the mission of the committee – because this isn’t the first time the party is extending a hand of fraternity to deserted militants.

As the title indicates, it is aimed at bringing together not only individuals of the SDF party but also factions in the party. There is no single human institution where you find total agreement in everything and so the SDF is no exception.

In terms of policy, the SDF has a policy which is the implementation of social democracy that reaches the grassroots with a very pragmatic approach to development.

Conspicuous on those your committee targets to bring back within the ranks of the party is Prof. Tazoacha Asonganyi and other erstwhile militants, why that special focus?

A: Professor Asonganyi happens to have been within the decision-making circles of the party and though no longer militating; he remains one of us because despite leaving the SDF, he has stood for the fundamental values of the party. He has remained SDF in his actions and pronouncements. I think that it is important for us to come together and harness our efforts as a family so that we can attain the objectives of the SDF as in the 90s.

Q: Two current Mayors of the SDF are no longer NEC members following their defiance of party instructions during the 2013 parliamentary and municipal elections, is the reconciliation process going to consider them too?

A: Let me inform you that even before the creation of the peace and reconciliation committee I have talked to both Mayors of Tubah and Kumba II that you are referring to and it may interest you to know that they remain SDF; in fact, they still strongly hold the values of the Social Democratic Front. They may have defied the council instructions during the 2013 council elections but it doesn’t exclude them from the party.

Q: Can you assure that the worries expressed by all these departed millitants before quitting the party have been looked into?

A: Even the prodigal son when he returned to his father’s house, he never bothered of the problems that pushed him away from home. He was just excited to be part of the family once again. I think that we should be more concerned of the feeling of being together again knowing that there can never be total agreement in any human institution.

Q: Can we expect a strong dynamic and radical SDF of the 90s after the 25th anniversary commemorations?

A: I think that the message is simple and all those who joined the SDF out of conviction like I earlier indicated should be able to accept this hand of fraternity and let’s forge ahead. We have had challenges for the past 25years and we have equally recorded successes too and this 25th anniversary is a time to reflect on both challenges and achievements.

We equally want all those who believed in the fundamental principles of the party to know that we have not reached the Promised Land yet. We certainly recognize that we have trampled on the toes of some individuals in the course of this struggle but this should be a moment of reconciliation.

Q: Prof, you just talked of the SDF’s policy of social democracy and equal opportunities, but there is a generalized state of inequality in the party where the observation is that a few sycophants surround the Chairman of the party and are living in total affluence while an ocean of the party’s militants and sympathizers wallow in abject poverty. How is the SDF addressing this concern at this moment of reconciliation?

A: Please note that before taking up public office most of the people you are referring to were business people and so did not stop their businesses when they entered office. I have never stopped my consultancy; I have remained a professional in the academic domain.

This is to tell you that the party does not pay us but we make sacrifices to the party and so that should not really be a concern of top priority as you put it.

The Chairman unfortunately, stopped his bookshop business because the kind of position he occupied could not allow him to continue. He went into farming which in a way is teaching by example – which we have to go back to farming as bedrock of our economic development.

Q: You are the shadow cabinet Minister of Youth and Social Affairs. What is the situation of the youth in the SDF party today?

A: As an example, I am the Shadow cabinet Minister of Youth and Social Affairs and should have gone to parliament 15 years ago, but I stayed back to advise and allow young and dynamic members of the party to go and that is why you will find people of the 30s and 40s today as Mayors and Parliamentarians.

The SDF deliberately did not want to split the party into groups to say the women, the men and the youth sections but the party has structures mechanisms that promote the involvement of committed and dedicated youth in the decision-making organs of the party. We do encourage them to participate and stand for elective positions