SDF Chairman, John Fru Ndi, has in an interview granted The Cameroon Journal on the occasion of his party’s 25th anniversary celebrations, spoken extensively on burning issues plaguing the party.
Top amongst them was the reconciliation issue and a balance sheet of the party’s achievements within the past 25 years. “How can a woman divorce her husband and then tells him we can still remain boyfriend and girlfriend?” He questioned rhetorically of former Secretary General, Elizabeth Tumanjong, while disclosing that she was independently writing letters to President Biya without his signature.
We also wanted to know why he’s not ready to pass the touch and whether he will still want to stand as candidate in the 2018 Presidential elections. He answered all the questions, howbeit, with lots of innuendos. At certain moments in the interview the Chairman appeared very irritated with the questions fired at him.
He granted the interview in the presence of his First Vice National Chairman, Nambangi Osih Joshua, Parliamentary Group Leader, Banadzem Joseph Lukong, Ngala Esther Ntala, Nji Tumasang Paul, Communications Secretary, Annembom Munjo and a host of other top SDF officials.
The interview was conducted by The Journal’s Mbom Sixtus, Sylvanus Ezieh Acha’ana, and Nyinchuo Hilary. Excerpts
Can you give us your evaluation of the SDF in 25 years?
Twenty five years is a long time for me to give you a detail evaluation of the SDF. However, if the SDF is still waxing strong after 25 years, then it is doing well. We would not say that it has been all that easy. But what I will say is that we have succeeded in 25 years. I want to thank members of the party and those who prayed, worked for us and moved side by side relentlessly with us. I want to thank those who have been standing firm to the truth and spirit of the party from the time it was created. Thanks to the SDF, Cameroonians enjoy press freedom and relative peace. This morning (last Monday), I listened to Morning Safari on CRTV about keeping Cameroon clean. Surprisingly, nobody mentioned that: “Operation Keep Cameroon Clean” was initiated in this country by Fru Ndi. I went round the country and cleaned places. It was equally Fru Ndi who initiated the sensitization campaign on HIV/AIDS. I went round the country with my members; sensitizing Cameroonians on the danger of AIDS. SDF MPs have done quite a lot. They have exposed so many things in parliament. If today we are talking about the fight against corruption, it’s thanks to the SDF. At least we have pushed the Biya government to go from left and right, up and down with electoral reforms. I want to thank both SDF MPs and Senators who have so far stood the test of time and proven themselves as the people’s representatives in parliament. Some have made mistakes but a majority of them have done quite well. SDF mayors have also been doing so well. I feel proud that one of the best mayors in this country is an SDF mayor. So with all these, I think the SDF has done well to give the Cameroon people that sense of belonging. I want to congratulate members of the SDF for a fight well fought and that at 25, we are looking into the future with hope.
Mr. Chairman, what explains the fact that the SDF with a very strong following for 25 years remains unable to capture power?
You know we have never had free, fair and transparent elections in this country. There has been buying and selling of votes. There has been changing of electoral results at polling stations. If you look at the present situation with ELECAM, the CPDM never submitted in Tiko but they brought their files and gave to the director general of ELECAM who took the thing, went to the Supreme Court and handed it there. We are in a country where the laws are never respected. I attended a meeting where the president of ELECAM, Fonkam Azu answered a question on electoral reforms but his director general cut in to say they made the laws and can change them at any time. Are you telling me that these are conditions under which anybody can win elections in this country? Marafa Hamidou Yaya who is now in prison is now telling anybody who cares to listen how he used to doctor election results in favour of the same regime that has now jailed him. That tells you that the SDF has been winning elections but the results changed at the level of MINAT/D.
Many have said that the SDF missed an opportunity to take-over power when it refused to participate in the 1992 parliamentary elections. What’s your take here?
The SDF was fighting for legality. We wanted free, fair and transparent laws before taking part in those elections. We spent three nights in a hotel in Douala debating on whether to go or not to go in for that election. The SDF was founded to get to power through the ballot box. Would those conditions have given us that? No! But I keep telling people that despite the fact that the SDF never went in, the other parties that went in had a majority, and if they say we have political leaders in this country, I am not looking at the CPDM. Why didn’t they use UNDP, MDR, etc., to form a coalition to oust Biya? If I took part in those elections, I would only have multiplied the negotiating powers of those opposition party leaders who took huge sums of money and accepted to join government.
But with the benefit of the hindsight, do you have any regrets not taking part in that election?
We have no regrets whatsoever. Situations have proven us right that there are no free and fair elections in Cameroon. There are no laws that govern elections in Cameroon. Even when we decided against all odds to take part in the 1997 parliamentary elections, our victory was stolen; leaving us with only 43 parliamentary seats. We held a meeting in Bamenda to decide whether to go to parliament or not to go. We had to decide on what we were to lose by not going to parliament and what we were to gain by going to parliament. After a lot of heated debate, I declared at a press conference in Yaounde that we had to move demonstrations from the streets to the floor of parliament. It is unfortunate that the first year was a disaster because most SDF MPs were excited and did not know what to do. They were seriously criticized. But when they started coming out with hard issues and figures, Cameroonians said: “Congratulations Fru Ndi, your boys are doing it…”
Have you observed that turnout at your rallies have for the most part dwindled from what we used to see in the 90s?
No! I don’t think your assessment of recent turnouts at SDF rallies is accurate. I think that in the recent rallies I have beaten the rallies of the 90s.
Mr. Chairman, we’re making allusion to the rallies such as held in Douala and Yaounde on the eve of the 1992 presidential election. You have never had that type of turnout since…
To my opinion, people are now more-politically educated and they are now coming out much more determined. And I have more people in my rallies. There might be some rallies were attendance drops. You have to understand that if I am having a rally in Douala for instance at the stadium, they (a certain lawyer) will come with microphones to disturb. We make it cool and leave. I want to assure you that the SDF rallies have improved. We might have dropped in certain areas because of bribery and corruption but I am still very convinced and confident that we are making it.
You have said that in 1992, the SDF won the presidential election but the regime rigged it. The SDF decided to enter its shelve – didn’t do anything. Should you have that opportunity today, will you allow it go like you did in 1992?
You are a Cameroonian and also concerned about the future of this country. Keep aside journalism; you are first a Cameroonian before being a journalist. Journalism is what you want to earn a living out of. But you earn that living when the country is well organized and you can sell more of your newspapers. Look at what started in next door Central Africa, Burundi and in other countries. Were they not young people like you who took to the streets to seize back their stolen victory? But here in Cameroon, it is all about Fru Ndi. You take the lead and start fighting. The future is yours, not mine. I just want to guarantee that future, but not for me to fight again as you should have fought for as a youth. It’s your future.
Lets talk about SDF’S Article 8.2. Has it been a curse or a blessing to the party?
Prof. Asonganyi Tazocha, former Secretary Gen. of SDF, victim of article 8.2 It has been a huge blessing because we cannot have a party without discipline just like you cannot have a country without discipline. The problem in Cameroon also is indiscipline. They have been styled the untouchables who can do whatever they want and go away with since Mr. Biya appears too afraid to touch them!
Since the party is talking a lot about reconciliation, don’t you think it will make lots of meaning to completely suppress Article 8.2?
Article 8.2 cannot be suppressed. We are trying to review it in the spirit of reconciliation. Remember we don’t just butcher people with 8.2. Article 8.2 is like a remote control. It is supposed to be here (pointing at a remote control on the table). If you take it and put in your pocket and go and starve the people here of the use of this thing, then you are giving yourself 8.2. If you hit it down to destroy yourself, then you are giving yourself 8.2. 8.2 is an article that spells out auto exclusions. You exclude yourself by the things you do. When that is done, it is the militants at your base who start punishing you.
But you don’t give room to those affected by Article 8.2 to defend themselves?
Of course I do! For instance, when the base writes that Anembom as the communication secretary has done this or that against the constitution of the party, it comes up to the province; the province confirms and sends to NEC. When the matter is brought before NEC, we tell the accused to bring his or her lawyer to defend him/ her. If we discover that the accused is guilty of the charges, we still allow him or her to appeal to the convention. We do not just say no – full stop, this is it, you must be expelled from the party. I think 8.2 has been a huge blessing to the SDF.
One of the criticisms we get is that Fru Ndi presides over the National Advisory Council, the National Executive Committee and the National Investiture Committee. Is there no possibility for these powers to be separated?
The powers are separated with the different people I sit on these commissions with. All actions taken either in NEC, the National Advisory Council and the Investiture Committee follow clearly laid down rules and laws of the SDF. The fact that I preside over these three bodies does not mean that I dictate decisions to members. In the Investiture Committee, for instance, I do not invest people alone. After the council elections, people who want to be mayors, deputies and grand councilors apply. When you are applying, you know that you could be accepted or not. We sit down in a team of 22 and look at the applications. For this council, what are we looking for? We try to find out if this man has the required experience.
Do you take into consideration the sacrifices one has made to the party before accepting him/her for a position?
Of course we do. That is one of the key things we look for while studying applications. We don’t only look at qualification. We look at your sacrifices, qualification, determination, zeal, vision and so on. We put so many things into consideration.
Dr. Elisabeth Tamajong, former SDF Secretary General – she was single handedly writing letters to the President accoding to John Fru Ndi What about the moral values of candidates seeking the offices of mayors and deputy mayors?
Well, we look at the moral values. But you know sometimes in politics you have the “Sam Mofors.”
Mr. Chairman, what is the problem between the SDF and its secretaries general?
Well, you should ask the secretaries general and not the SDF. The last secretary general said she resigned, did she say she was sacked?
She complained that her signature was suspended without her knowledge…
Yes, but she also wrote in an article that I scolded at her during a rally in Kumba because she was chewing gum. If you came to interview me today with one of you chewing gum and popping it, I’ll simply leave the table. Those who hold high offices should at least have some moral ethics. I, however, appreciate all she did for the party. But if the job was too heavy for her, it was her right to resign.
About the suspension of her signature; it should be understood that I send signatures to the bank. I do not always insist to have my own signature on all documents. She may have expected all documents to carry her signature as secretary general, but once the vice president’s signature is there, those of the financial secretary, the treasurer and the deputy treasurer, everything is intact.
But if there is anything wrong, which I must not say it here; it doesn’t suffice that we should begin exposing everything because she’s no longer there. But as I said, I appreciate everything she did for the party. As editor, can your deputy editor just on his own write letters sign and send them to the president of the republic without your knowledge? But she did that.
What about Professor Asonganyi?
Why don’t you ask him?
We did. But he told us no one has contacted him for the reconciliation the SDF announced…
No, let me finish with Tamanjong. She said she has resigned from the party but that she remains a militant. How can a woman divorce her husband and then tells him we can still remain boyfriend and girlfriend? People should not think that things must not be done their own way. Are you telling me that all the other members of the party are still there because they haven’t hurt me or that I haven’t done things that hurt them? The truth is that we have laid the stage for reconciliation. Anybody who wants to come back should go back to his base and begin from there. The truth is that most of them have no base. Secondly, there are many of them who want to come back as secretaries general and or so. If I leave the SDF today and decide to return, I’ll have to start back from my ward and start climbing.
Chairman, don’t you see this your argument standing as a hindrance against genuine reconciliation in the party?
Where do you get voted to belong to any of the structures of the party? For me to be chairman, I must belong to a ward. For me to be national chairman, I am first of all nominated by my ward. The ward sends me to the district, the district sends me to the division and the division sends me to the province. For instance, I was challenged once at the provincial level by Hon. Paulinus Jua. The SDF is the only political party in this country where the chairman of the party is challenged during elections. You know I have stood elections with Ben Muna, Tabessing and the likes. Tabessing for example, came up with a campaign slogan that if he is voted, he’ll change the constitution of the party. How do you come into a party and starts challenging its constitution? Since he was beaten at the primaries, he has never been heard of again; at least not within the SDF. If he comes back tomorrow and is told he can’t stand for any election, he will say Fru Ndi is not a democrat.
About the 2018 presidential election, you hinted when you just returned from the USA that you may still stand, are there any lessons you can draw from the Nigerian presidential election which saw the surprise victory of former military ruler, Mohammedu Buhari?
Well, we have not yet sat to analyze that. I want to restate here as I stated earlier that 2018 is a long way from now. However, anybody who wishes to contest the 2018 presidential election on the SDF ticket would have to pass through the convention. If you stand and win, then we’ll start talking other things in relation to that.
Just three years away from 2018 presidential polls; are there any negotiations for a united opposition candidate?
I don’t think we have to start talking about that now because you are a living witness to the negotiations we have had before. The other political parties want the SDF to be absorbed. We have 18 parliamentarians in parliament with about 14 senators. Somebody has just four parliamentarians and would want me to give him the 18 parliamentarians so he can be presidential candidate?
The problem with us is that people think anybody can just dance his way through to say he is presidential candidate. Cameroonians want just more than that. So they’ll always ask them who are you? Where are you from? We have had coalitions before. Ndam Njoya in the last presidential election went in coalition with about 14 political parties; 14 parties which could not secure a comfortable vote to be able to retrieve their deposit. If 14 parties went in as a coalition and could not retrieve their deposit then there is something wrong.
I went in alone at the last moment because we had not prepared to go in for the election. With all the mess Marafa put me into; you know he gave me 10 votes here or so, but gave 300 votes to other political parties that lost the election in their own very backside. I told him; “Look Mr. Marafa, when they say northerners are sheeps, it’s people like you. You give 400 votes to somebody who is not known anywhere and 10 votes to Fru Ndi; do you think that the people do not know me? A town where I have been there over and over, slept with the people ate with them and other things…” Go and tell those people who want coalition to join Fru Ndi instead of asking Fru Ndi to leave his party and join them.
Do you intend to seek another term when your current mandate ends?
Mr. Journalist, if you came to me with your ears open, you should have heard me saying there is still time to talk about that. 2018 is still a long way for us to begin debating on that.
But you declared during the last presidential election that it was your last attempt…?
That was to say if I were given the votes. I said I was to go in for just one term if I won the 2011 presidential election. Is that not what I said?
Given the confusion and tumult that could reign in the case of vacancy at the helm of the SDF, is there anybody you are grooming to take over from you when you finally quit its chairmanship?
Are you already prepared for that tumult…?
But Chairman, you know the SDF is a big political party in Cameroon…?
If you have been following the history of the SDF, we send young people to parliament, we send young people to councils, this is just to prepare them for the leadership of the party.
Are you grooming somebody?
Do you want me to tell you the person?
Of course, Cameroonians would be interested in knowing who Fru Ndi is grooming as successor?
I can’t tell you. There are many who the people will choose from when Fru Ndi quits the SDF leadership.
What is the relationship between Fru Ndi and Paul Biya?
I have been listening to this Nigerian music; personally, personally (P. Square)… People dance to the tune of the rhythm on one spot neither going forward or backward. When Mr. Biya came to Bamenda, we shook hands and he said we will talk. I have met him two or three times but nothing serious that concerns the wellbeing of this country has ever been discussed.
You don’t call each other?
Maybe you people who are in Yaounde have Mr. Biya’s telephone number. Give me his number so that I can call him. Before he came to Bamenda, Tazoacha Asonganyi wrote in your newspaper that as an insider, he has information that Fru Ndi has been wining and dining with Biya. But when Mr. Biya came to Bamenda, he said it was the first time we were meeting.
You mean to say you were disappointed when you met him in terms of the substance of your discussions?
Maybe you should go and ask him whether he was disappointed after his first meeting with Fru Ndi.
We would, if he also gives us the opportunity to talk to him as you have done.
Then why do you criticize me so much when I give you opportunities like this? Why do you want to kill the SDF which without its creation, you would not have been able to practice journalism in this country?
Talking about reconciliation, are there some people you are afraid their coming back to the SDF would weaken your powers? We ask this question because you told journalists at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel press conference that the SDF will not approach anybody for reconciliation?
If I could challenge Mr. Biya, who would I be afraid of?
But Mr. Biya is not eyeing your chairmanship position?
So you think. Can you ask him? What is paramount and primordial to us is the future of the Cameroonian people.
Chairman, one of the main goals of the SDF at formation was to champion the fight against Anglophone marginalization. Many believe the SDF has drifted from that position?
The SDF is the only party that came up with a good programme for a federal system of governance. That was to ensure that Anglophones and other Cameroonians take care of themselves and greatly develop their regions. We saw the suffering of the people of Cameroon. If you go to the East or Northern regions, you would see how people are suffering. I remember when I first went to Guider, I saw a boy with thread worms coming out of his arm. It was itchy and he kept scratching. He said: “Chairman, look at me here dying and people come here by helicopter, carry marble and go”. So when you see such suffering, would you want to just take the Anglophone and run? That boy needed my help and support.
If the federal system comes, the people will be able to help themselves in many ways. The SDF was never created to solve only the Anglophone problem but to answer to the pressing needs of all Cameroonians.
But do you believe there is an Anglophone problem in Cameroon?
Of course! I think I have spoken about it more than you journalists. When they bring wrongly- translated questions for Anglophone students to answer in the police exams; when they cancel competitive entrance exams into the medical school at the University of Buea because many Anglophone students were declared successful; when they start juggling with IRIC entrance exams, do you think I look at that and I’m happy? I look at things from a national perspective. But please, take note that I am first of all an Anglophone before being the chairman of the SDF which is a party with a huge following in all of Cameroon’s ten regions.
Chairman, don’t you think that you will gain more honour if you step down from your post of chairman and become an adviser to the party?
Step down? If I step down today, it would be another opportunity for you to dedicate a whole edition of your newspaper to say how I have wined and dined, negotiated with Biya and running away. Thank you very much!
Chairman, can we have one last question?
We will have time for more interviews. Thank you!
