Chief Albert Samba Ngwana, dies at 77

When the telephone number of Chief A. S. Ngwana rang this reporter on Monday morning, I knew he wanted us to have a lengthy exchange on a number of issues as we usually did in the past several years.

But unfortunately, it was a female voice that come with the horrible news that “Mr. Ambe, Chief is no more ! He died last evening.” That is how the sad news was broken to this reporter who served as a communication adviser to the senior citizen.

Albert Samba Ngwana,( popularly known as Chief A.S Ngwana), the Chairman of the Cardinal Democratic Party (CDP), a Douala-based opposition party, last Sunday evening, August 17 died in a hospital in Douala, where he was hospitalized on Thursday August 14, 2014,family members told The RECORDER.

The politician died at the age of 77. He was born in Beba, Northwest region of Cameroon on January 1, 1937 and he gave up the ghost on August 17, 2014.

Chief Ngwana, a career British-trained banker, became the pioneer Managing Director and Chief Executive of the now defunct Cameroon State bank, the Cameroon Bank Limited, from 1961 to 1966.

It was in 1983,that the courageous Chief Ngwana launched the first opposition party in Cameroon, the Cameroon Democratic Party(today known as the Cardinal Democratic Party),to challenge the one party dictatorship of President Biya. In 1985, he was forced into exile in Nigeria for six years by the Biya regime.

Upon his return, following the re-launch of multi-party politics in the 1990’s, Chief Ngwana became actively involved in the political life of the nation by regularly expressing his views via the audio-visual media, the Internet and the print media on sensitive matters of national interest.

He was also a devout Catholic Christian, pro-lifer and Human Rights crusader, who organized anti- condom and anti-abortion public lectures in some major towns of Cameroon such as Buea,Limbe,Douala and Bamenda.

At one moment, Chief Ngwana, as a moralist, urged the Cameroon government to arrest and prosecute known prostitutes, since prostitution is a crime in the country.

Chief Ngwana was a sharp critic of the Biya and at a press briefing at Akwa Palace Hotel, Douala on August 10 ,2012,he made public an open letter he had written to Cameroon President, Paul Biya, calling on him to rescue the country from breaking up because of various crises, but without any response.

Chief Ngwana, no doubt, was an advocate of a two-state federal government for Cameroon and sympathizer of the SCNC, which is campaigning for the restoration of the independence of Southern Cameroons.

The politician and senior citizen believed that the marginalization of Anglophones or better still, the Anglophone problem could only be resolved if Cameroon reverted to the 1961 federal constitution.

He was also an advocate of population growth. “Development is by the people for the people. Where there are no people, there is no development. Development is for people. Abortion is the greatest hindrance to development,” he argued.

Chief Ngwana was an author of several books such as: “The Cameroon Democratic Party (1983-1988)”, “The Struggle for Political Pluralism and Democracy in Cameroon” and “Population and Development.”

He was married and had five children, as well as many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.