The Social Democratic Front, SDF party, has embarked on a reconciliation bid aimed at bringing back some of its erstwhile members that either resigned or were dismissed.
The reconciliation move is one of the measures the party has engaged to give its upcoming Silver Jubilee on May 26 an aura of appeasement.
“We will, through the Peace and Reconciliation Commitee, struggle to bring back to the party people like Prof. Tazoacha Asonganyi and others who either resigned or were dismissed from the party,” the Chair of the Documentation and Communication Committee of the Coordination of the Silver Jubilee, Hon. Joseph Mbah Ndam, told The Post in Yaounde recently.
Mbah Ndam was speaking after a general coordination meeting to establish the programme of activities of the Jubilee of the SDF at the party’s secretariat in the Olezoa neighbourhood in Yaounde on April 9. Cyprian Awudu Mbaya, Coordinator of the Silver Jubilee activities, chaired the meeting.
Going down memory lane Hon. Mbah Ndam, said it has been 25 years since the SDF party was launched in Bamenda on May 26, 1990. He said even though, the opposition party has not been able to bring cataclysmic change and full democracy to Cameroon, it has a lot to celebrate for its 25 years of existence.
Hear him: “We have a lot to celebrate. If you can train cameras on me freely and publish and broadcast what you want, it is press freedom, thanks to the SDF. Before we launched the party, there was no law on Press Freedom.”
He said there is so much press freedom that journalists cartoon the President of the Republic in newspapers and even ridicule him with impunity.
Hon Mbah Ndam also gave credits to the SDF for igniting the fight against corruption, especially the embezzlement of public funds.
“When we first complained that there was so much embezzlement of public funds, President Biya said there was no proof. When Cameroon was rated the worst corrupt country in the world, he started arresting his ministers and sending them to prison,” Mbah Ndam recalled.
He said the spirit of the anti–corruption drive, that the SDF ignited, has led to the creation of the Special Criminal Court that is specialised in prosecuting embezzlers of public funds. Mbah Ndam claimed that Government created the National Elections Observatory, NEO, and later Elections Cameroons, ELECAM, because of the SDF’s continuous clamour for an independent electoral commission.
“However, I regret that we have not changed Cameroon to the extent we want. We have not yet been able to cause the collapse of the ruling junta that is leading us to the gutters. But, since there is still enough energy left, all is not lost” Mbah Ndam told reporters.
During the Silver Jubilee coordination meeting in Yaounde, participants laid emphasis on reconciliation with embittered militants as well as those who left the party.
According to a tentative programme of festivities marking the Silver Jubilee, the party’s Chair, Ni John Fru Ndi, will attend May 20 celebrations in Yaounde. The final event will be the celebration of the 25th anniversary in Bamenda on May 26.
Expressing the wish to have a successful Silver Jubilee celebration, Hon. Mbara urged all those who have been given responsibilities to carry out their tasks diligently as a way of demonstrating their love for the party.
