SDF NEC criticized for abandoning Bonaberi district

The National Executive Committee, NEC, of the frontline opposition party, SDF, has come under scathing criticism by militants in the Bonaberi (Douala IV) Electoral District of the party, for having abandoned the District in factions.

The SDF leadership is being criticised to have, in a CPDM style, allowed an Executive Bureau comprised of members of one of the two camps to spend more than half of the four-year mandate.

Root Of Split

In early 2013, elections were organised to renew the basic organs of the SDF in the Bonaberi Electoral District. There were two lists in the elections for a new Executive Bureau to run the District.

One list was headed by the incumbent District Chairman, John Ndangle Kumase, who was also Mayor of the then SDF-run Bonaberi Council (2007- October 2013). Kumase has been Chairman since the party was created the Electoral District in the early 1990s.

The other list was headed by another Anglophone in Douala, Barrister George Kinyang.

Kumase and Kinyang both hail from the Northwest Region. Bonaberi or Douala IV Subdivision is mostly inhabited by people who hail from the Northwest and Southwest Regions. It is the municipality with the largest Anglophones among the five municipalities in Douala. Bonaberi is the only SDF Electoral District in Douala, where an Anglophone can be allowed by the Bamilikes in the party to become a District Chairman.

Petition & Counter Petition

In the election for a new Executive Bureau for the District in early 2013, supposedly by the National Organising Secretary of the party, Ferdinand Asagngu, the list of the incumbent, Kumase, claimed victory. But Barrister Kingang filed a petition to NEC, on a number of irregularities that allegedly occurred in the elections. The Post learnt that one of his complaints was that the National Organising Secretary that was supposed to conduct the election left the accreditation of delegates in the hands of Kumase who was a candidate in the election. Kinyang complained that Kumase denied accreditation to many delegates he (Kumase) identified as his (Kinyang’s) supporters.

Kinyang also complained that, close to the election, Kumase exploited his position of District Chairman and created many new and ghost wards in a bid to have more delegates support him in the election. There was also a complaint that some members of Kumase’s list were not qualified to be on it, because, they had come in new from other political parties and had not yet spent up to three years in the SDF as required by the party’s constitution.

The Post leant that at a NEC meeting which held in Buea, Southwest Region, members examined Kinyang’s petition and a decision was adopted to annul the election. NEC, therefore, ordered that fresh election be organised.

At the next NEC meeting, Kumase, who was absent from the Buea meeting, filed a counter petition against the decision by NEC to annul the election. NEC promised to examine Kumase’s petition.

But the matter has, since then, never been brought up to the floor during a NEC meeting, and Kumase has remained in office now for over two years, despite protests by the Kiyang’s camp. As a result, the Bonaberi Electoral District has remained in two camps, with NEC seemingly looking unconcerned.

Memo From Ward Presidents

Prior to the composition of lists for the 2013 Municipal Elections, a group of Ward Presidents in the Bonaberi Electoral District wrote a memorandum to NEC in which they warned that the outgoing Mayor and District Chairman, Kumase, should not feature on the SDF list for the Municipal Election in Bonaberi, or the party would lose the elections. Kumase did feature on the list, though he was placed on the 27th position in the list of 41 candidates. As District Chairman and outgoing Mayor, Kumase should normally have been the list leader, except that NEC and the National Investiture Committee realised that all was not well with him as the Ward Chairman had cautioned.

Meanwhile the fact that Kumase was placed on the 27th position on the SDF list, did not still console the disgusted Ward Chairmen and militants in the Bonaberi SDF. Rather, they were quick to point out that the party hierarchy was trying to play a smart one on them, and that Kumase would again be designated Mayor by the Investiture Committee, if the SDF won the Municipal Elections.

At the joint Municipal and Legislative Elections in 2013, the SDF, strangely, won the Legislative Elections and lost the Municipal Elections. It is not clear whether NEC got the message from the SDF militants in the Electoral District.

‘NEC Has Not Abandoned Bonaberi’

When The Post contacted one of the National Legal Advisers of the SDF, Barrister Atanga Mbah-Mbole of the Atanga Law Office Douala on November 21, he denied claims that NEC has ignored the problems at the Bonaberi Electoral District. He said if NEC had not yet examined the issue till date; it is because the Committee has been grappling “more burning issues”.

Barrister Atanga also rejected complaints by the Kinyang camp that Kumase has, since 2013, been operating illegally as District Chairman, because, NEC, at the Buea meeting, cancelled the elections that took place in the Electoral District. He recalled that when Kumase filed a counter petition against the annulment of the election at the next NEC meeting following the Buea meeting, the Committee resolved that “debate will be opened on the matter.

“By that, the cancellation was cancelled,” Atanga said, adding that since administration of the Bonaberi Electoral District must continue, it is just normal that Kumase should be the person to continue in the post of District Chairman, until when NEC will find time to examine what actually happened at the elections and take a decision.