SDF refutes report of Osih Joshua as president

Communication officers of the Social Democratic Front, SDF, have discredited recent media reports which suggested that party Chairman John Fru Ndi was inclined to endorsing Vice National Chair, Joshua Osih for presidential candidate of the party.

“There are no ongoing negotiations within the party for Joshua Osih to be endorsed as the main opposition party’s candidate for the forthcoming presidential election.” The SDF stalwarts suggested that any highly placed SDF member who disclosed such information to the press should be insane.

They made the clarifications Thursday July 21, over state broadcaster – CRTV television. It was during a political programme dubbed ‘Espace Politique’, dedicated for political debate and political party propaganda.

Going by Beatrice Anembom Monju, the party’s Communication Secretary, “Some print and online news organs have been trying to sell ignorance to the people.” She said the press reports were merely to shape public opinion, though she didn’t sound convincing in establishing the non-existence of ‘the group of wise me’; a caucus within the party that is said to be carrying out the lobby.

Monju and her team accused The Guardian Post, and US-based The Cameroon Journal, of unprofessionalism. They said the news of ongoing negotiations within the SDF was unfounded and “cannot be accepted by the SDF.”

“The presidential candidate for the SDF is chosen only during a National Convention which is an extra-ordinary assembly of the party,” Nkemlemo Denis, Assistant National Secretary for Communication, insisted. He said such an assembly is attended by National Executive Committee members, National Advisory Council members, Shadow Cabinet members, regional executives of the party, mayors who are SDF members, the party’s national chairman, amongst others.

According to Nkemlemo, Osih Joshua is presently leading a team to reorganize the party’s basic structures in the Far North Region and can’t be concerned with presidential election candidacy at this time. “I don’t think Osih can be behind the propagation of such information,” Nkemlemo noted.

Both officers called on SDF members and sympathizers to be vigilant with the type of information they consume, especially on social media, saying that “there are a lot of detractors out there.”

SDF’s reaction was coming following the publication of the story in The Cameroon Journal. A trusted source had disclosed to The Journal that behind door negotiations were ongoing between a caucus within the party and Fru Ndi to have Osih Joshua made presidential candidate of the party in the 2018 elections.

We learned the SDF’s National Executive Committee will be meeting in Fru Ndi’s home town of Baba II in Santa, on Sunday July 31. The agenda of the gathering is yet undisclosed, but may not be unconnected to the recent developments within the party.