The human face behind Cameroon's opposition leader

History in the making

It is a fact that Cameroon`s modern political history cannot be accurately written without mention of the current leader of the opposition, the SDF`s Ni John Fru Ndi. In fact, ever since he forcefully launched the SDF 25 years ago at a time when the one-party state was the order of the day in Cameroon and the ruling CPDM party led by President Paul Biya was the only cock that could crow, so to speak, party politics in Cameroon has not been the same. I therefore feel that for the record, it is worth examining the history of the man from a view point that is not normally always a preoccupation to political analysts.

The handling of a hot potato

Although it can be argued that if Paul Biya did not pave the way for a return to multi-party politics in Cameroon in the first place by taking steps to allow freedom of expression including the creation of other political parties, Fru Ndi would never have been able to launch his party, the SDF Chairman must nevertheless be given credit for taking the bull by the horns and leading the launching of the party, at a time when talk of a party other than the CPDM was taboo. When he accepted to lead, many of those who stood with him were unwilling to “bell the cat”. Some saw him as simply a facilitator who would create the party and then step aside for them to lead it. But as things turned out, more than twenty years after, Fru Ndi is still the leader. It has therefore even become difficult to talk about the party without talking about him.

A private man

Because of his long stay in office, it is difficult to now think about Fru Ndi without linking him to his political party. Yet, before he became the politician he is today, Fru Ndi was a private man, and even after becoming a politician, he still has a private life. It is that aspect of his that I seek to bring out in this article. I am doing so from a personal angle. I am talking about Fru Ndi as I have known him.

The umbilical chord

John Fru Ndi and I both come from the Baforchu family of Cameroon. The family is a group that initially migrated from Widikum and settled in Mezam Division of Cameroon’s North West Region. The Baforchu family is made up of a number of villages (gazetted by the state of Cameroon) among which are Mbu, Santa Mbei, Baba II (in Santa Sub Division), Baforkum (in Tubah Sub Division), Banjah (in Bamenda III Sub Division), Bassamba (in Nde Division of the West Region), and part of Ngyen Mbo in Mbengwi Sub Division of Momo. I am of Mbu parentage, born and bred in Baforkum, while Fru Ndi is from Baba II but has spent a huge chunk of his life in Mankon Town.

First contacts

I first knew Fru Ndi when he ran the most influential bookshop at the Commercial Avenue in Bamenda, known as Ebibi Bookshop. Although he was not the only bookshop owner in in town at the time, he was the leading one, especially among Cameroonians. He did not only sell books in the bookshop but also distributed them in schools. I cannot now remember whether he was the distributor to Sacred Heart College in Bamenda when I was a student there. However, I do recall that he supplied to CCAST Bambili in my student days there. I remember that I was a member of an informal group of students in CCAST who loved Fru Ndi`s English so much that whenever we saw him drive into the school compound, we would hurry to the administrative building just to hear him speak English.

Country representative in Cameroon

Years later, when I was working as a journalist at Africa magazine in London, the authorities of the publication decided to appoint a representative in Cameroon. I proposed Fru Ndi, Managing Director of Ebibi Bookshop. When he came to London for interview, I was the one who took him to the Chairman and Publisher of the magazine who then called in the Marketing Manager and the Accountant. It was a fruitful meeting.

Red carpet treatment

In the year the SDF was created – but months before it happened, I traveled to Cameroon and while in Bamenda, I visited Fru Ndi at the bookshop. I was surprised that the first thing he did was to hand me his office telephone and ask me to freely call my family back in London. I was humbled by this gesture, considering the cost involved in making calls abroad, especially at that time. But I accepted the offer, after which I thanked him heartily. He told me about the plans to form a new party. After I asked him a few questions, I was not satisfied and so did not offer to be part of it. He did not take offence. To this day, I have not joined his party, yet that has not in any way adversely affected our relationship.

Dancing with Fru Ndi`s wife

Before I left his office, he informed me that they businessmen in Bamenda were having a monthly njangi that evening at Ideal Park Hotel. He asked me whether I would like to come along. Before I could answer, he said: “Do come along! Be my guest!” So that evening I was with them at Ideal Park. I realized that it was actually a get-together of everyone who was anyone in Bamenda. As it turned out, during the socializing part of the evening, Fru Ndi was the Master of Ceremonies. When he announced those to open the floor, I was further honoured that he paired me to dance with his lovely wife, Rose, today sadly of blessed memory.

Who was Rose Fru Ndi?

Firstly, she and I were age-mates, having been born in the same year. She used to call me, “Akamantso”, an expression in Ngemba which means “strong man”. I have always had a special relationship with Fru Ndi but his wife Rose simply a sister to me. In fact, I considered her my twin sister and whenever I visited them at home, she gave me first class treatment. Rose indirectly helped to solidify my relationship with her husband because years later when she was in Britain and I was in Cameroon and ran out of money, Fru Ndi willingly gave me money which I later refund to his wife back in Britain.

An ideal couple

The Fru Ndi-Rose couple must have been one not just made by God but one ordained by him in his bedroom because, speaking now as someone who has studied astrology, I can affirm without fear of contradiction that the two were highly compatible. John is a Cancerian (a Water Sign), and Rose was a Scorpio (another Water Sign). The twelve signs of the Zodiac are divided into four groups, each of which is governed by one of the four Natural Elements: Water, Earth, Air and Fire. So, each Element relates to three of the twelve signs.

The third Water Sign that goes with Cancer and Scorpio is Pisces. A rule-of-thumb in astrology states that when two people come from any two of the three signs of one Element but not from the same sign, their degree of compatibility is as high as 85 per cent from the day they meet each other. When two people come from the same sign, the compatibility drops to 50 per cent because they are too similar: familiarity breeds contempt. There are times when they will be very happy with each other but also times when they cannot stand each other.

There is always the undeclared battle for supremacy, with each person wanting to be boss to the other. But in the case of John and Rose, theirs was the kind that was bound to be so good it could be said to be paradise on earth. That is the highest degree from which any couple can start a relationship. When you leave your Natural Element and go with someone from another Natural Element, the degree of compatibility drops to below fifty initially. That does not mean that you should seek a divorce.

It simply means that you have more work to do to keep it together than John and Rose. That being the case, the relationship between John and Rose was so intense that they could communicate with each other without using words. They could also easily read each other`s mind and know what the other person was thinking and even go further and solve a problem before it surfaced. Between them, there was an absolute and perfect union of hearts and minds.

The departure of Rose

When Rose died, I contacted her husband and sympathized with her. I also wrote some eulogy that was included in the funeral booklet. I did not – as you would imagine – fail to mention that Ma Rose (that`s how I called her) and I were age mates. When I arrived in Baba II during the funeral, I found Fru Ndi in the yard where festivities were taking place. There was the gun firing that usually characterizes funeral ceremonies in the North West Region. He held a gun and was standing with some of his children. When I approached him and we heartily exchanged greetings, he told me: “I am teaching my children how to fire a gun”. I felt that was as it should be because gun firing is part and parcel of our culture.

The anecdote from Pa Albert Cho Ngafor

A.C. Ngafor as he liked to call himself was another baron of the Baforchu family. He once recounted an interesting story about the SDF Chairman, John Fru Ndi. He said when the Chairman`s father died and he Pa Ngafor arrived at the compound, the Chairman was at the graveside with other people, spade in hand. The Chairman said to him as he stretched his hand to greet: “I am sorry Mr. Director (that was his pet name for Mr. Ngafor); my hands are soiled”. He Pa Ngafor replied, while taking the spade from him to continue filling the grave: “I am sorry, Mr. Chairman, my own hands are about to be soiled.”

Fru Ndi and the strike he stopped

Some two years ago or so, students of the National Polytechnic in Mile 6 Nkwen took to the street at the entrance to their institution and blocked traffic on both sides of the road. The reason was that a vehicle had knocked down one of them and they were demanding the authorities to secure the place with speed brakes. Tempers were rising and the D.O. for Bamenda III Sub Division came to the scene but was unable to calm them. Pa Francis Yong, the proprietor of the Polytechnic came and spoke to the students to no avail. He then started removing the pieces of planks the students had used to block the road. When he removed them and handed them to some of the students standing nearest to him to put them away, they would pretend to do so but when he was not looking, they would place them back on the heap further away.

Then Fru Ndi arrived, from the direction of Bamenda, heading towards Bambui. After asking someone what was going on, he walked straight into the crowd and went to where the ringleaders were standing. He said something to them, after which he now went over and started picking up the planks. Not only did students collect them from him and permanently put them way, they actually helped him to remove all of them from the road. In less than no time, the blocked road was once more useable.

Fru Ndi and his thoughts about me

I understand from a reliable source that while I was still a journalist working for the Cameroon Radio Television (CRTV) in Yaounde, Fru Ndi proposed me to the then General Manager, Prof. Gervais Mendo Ze as Station Manager for the North West Regional Station in Bamenda. After he had given his reasons to the General Manager, the Chairman is said to have cracked a joke to the CRTV boss by saying: “Although I am asking you to appoint Tikum Mbah Azonga, I know he is not a member of my party. He is a CPDM person. But still appoint him because he is objective!” As it turned out, I never got that appointment in the end. But that is another story.

Fru Ndi as a cut above the rest

I believe that of all the current leaders of Cameroon`s opposition parties, John Fru Ndi is still the most credible, despite the dissentions and defections that have taken place in his party. One clear reason is that apart from the one election which his party boycotted thus handing victory on a platter of gold to Bello Bouba`s UNDP, Fru Ndi has come first among all of his peers in all other elections to date. Some years ago when I was still at CRTV, I covered a rally of the coalition of opposition parties in Yaounde. We journalists took the opposition members one by one from where they were sitting and interviewed them away from the crowd.

However, when we came to Fru Ndi, we deiced that since he was their leader, we should interview him where he was sitting. When we started the interview, Prof. Hogbe Nlend of the UPC became so angry that he slapped my microphone and it fell down as he ordered us: “Allez faire ça là-bas!” Realizing that there was trouble in the air, Fru Ndi got up and asked us to take him and interview him where we had interviewed the others.

As things turned out, shortly after that rally, Fru Ndi pulled out of the coalition and stood as a single candidate for his party. Interestingly, the number of votes he got outnumbered those of the other members put together. One would have though that after such a clear lesson, the other opposition members would throw in their weight behind him and form a single stronger party. But they did not. So to this day, the opposition is still a divided one speaking with too many voices and confusing the electorate.

Fru Ndi as a unifying factor

There have been calls for Fru Ndi to go because he is said to have over-stayed his welcome. Even so, he has not gone. Were he even to go, there is no doubt that his coming into the field of Cameroonian politics has greatly changed the political stakes and landscape of the country. He has helped to close the gap between Anglophones and Francophones. The proof is that there used to be a time when his party had more Francophone members of parliament (and I believe, councillors) than Anglophone ones, which is a hat trick, considering that he comes from the country`s minority Anglophone section. Another point is that if the results of a certain presidential election were not tampered with, he would have won and would have therefore become Cameroon`s first Anglophone President, just as Barrack Obama has become the first Black President of America. In politics, nothing is impossible.

The way forward

Reflection (some may prefer the word, meditation) can sometimes be salutary because it enables one to discover oneself more and make the necessary readjustments. This may very well be the time for such an exercise as we look at where to go from here.

The case of the Southern Cameroons

In recent times, a lot has been said and written about “the Southern Cameroons”. But what exactly is it? This option to me looks far-fetched, unrealistic and too theoretical. It is hanging in the air and does not have its feet firmly on the ground. So, how will it ever take off? The Southern Cameroons were never “independent’ as such. We were ruled from Nigeria with the interference of Britain. So, how can such a dispensation be restored? Through a war like in the case of Eritrea breaking away from Ethiopia? But we are all afraid of bloodshed and none of us is willing to lead a war. And in any case, fighting is not a guarantee that there will be victory, like in the case of the so-called “Republic of Biafra” that was subdued and forced back into the status quo.

Victory could very well lead to a South Sudan kind of Republic with infighting pitting the President against his Vice President. Are we sure that is the right way to go? Why do we even assume that if we became “independent”, people of today`s South West Region will not also rise and protest that for too long they have been dominated by North Westerners? Yet that claim is true and legitimate. Whereas it is difficult to find a part of the North West which is predominantly made up of South Westerners, it is easy to find parts of the South West that are predominantly made up of North Westerners, to the extent that South Westerners are now renting from them as tenants. Is that justice?

Let us be truthful to ourselves. If there is any past political dispensation that speaks eloquently for itself and can really serve our interests, it is the time when we were the State of West Cameroon and were equal to the State of East Cameroon. At that time we ran our own affairs ably. The proof is there all around us. It is not some abstract past that exists only on paper called “The Southern Cameroons”. We have gone past that. And in any case, what proof is there that the Southern Cameroons which we want to restore was such a good example. Even so, I still believe that there is room in today`s Cameroon for all of all to cohabit. A lot of people point to Paul Biya as the obstacle when they speak. But he will not be there forever.

No political leader stays in power for ever. Have we asked ourselves what steps we would take if Paul Biya were to suddenly leave power? What would we personally and individually do to fill the vacuum? Are we ready for that eventuality? Or are we under the false assumption that there is still time? Where? In politics? That is why I like quoting the late Statesman, the Hon. Solomon Tandeng Muna who once said: “People come and go, but the nation remains”. But we must also fight injustice and by so doing fight for our rights. That injustice does not mean abdication or suicide. It means being present. It means standing up and being counted, not running away. You do not solve a problem by running away from it. It will follow you.