One of Cameroon’s most revered politicians and National Chairman of opposition Social Democratic Front, SDF party, Ni John Fru Ndi, has passed unto eternal glory, at the age of 82.
The prominent and fearless opposition politician, who ran three times unsuccessfully as presidential candidate, passed on in the nation’s political capital, Yaounde, June 12. The charismatic and down-to-earth political figure died at his Nkolfoulou residence on the outskirts of Yaounde.
In a release issued early yesterday, the First Vice National President of SDF, Hon Osih Joshua, said the party Chairman “died at 11: 30p.m in Yaounde, from a prolonged illness”.
“It is with sadness that we announce the transition into eternal glory of the National Chairman of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), H.E Ni John Fru Ndi,” partly read the release.
“As we mourn our leader, we commit his soul to rest in the bosom of the Almighty Father. The funeral program shall be communicated as soon as it is established,” added the release.
Fru Ndi, who held the position of SDF National Chairman till death, had in recent years been battling ill health. He made many trips abroad for medical attention.
He is reported to have undergone surgery in a hospital in Geneva, Switzerland, during one of the medical trips.
The longstanding Biya regime opponent was weeks back evacuated abroad for health concerns.
News, we gathered, indicate that he returned to the country last week. It is revealed that Ni John Fru Ndi, before finally giving up the ghost, had been in coma for days.
His demise has brought to an end an era within the country’s political landscape. Fru Ndi was considered by many as a rallying voice within the North West and South West Regions.
His fight against what he had described as institutionalised corruption, immunity, and inertia, and the active role played in the creation of an independent electoral commission, to ensure free and fair elections, made him national figure and a statesman.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, one of his sons, Benjamin Fru Ndi, described him as a loving father, political monument and peace crusader.
“It is difficult to say goodbye to a parent. Late last night into the early hours of this morning [yesterday], we had to say our goodbyes to our father, our leader, our hero, our friend, our patriot, a nation builder, a true statesman,” he said, adding that their father “left an indelible mark” in their lives.
Supporters and sympathisers of the SDF party, friends as well as close allies of Fru Ndi, yesterday thronged his residence to pay their last respect.
Fearless launch of SDF & battle for return of multiparty politics
In mid-1990, there was a new dawn in the political landscape of Cameroon. There were talks within most Anglophone towns, Bamenda in particular, about the imminent launching of a political party.
The name Ni John Fru Ndi, who was already a popular person as he was mostly known for running his Ebibi Bookshop, and having been the President of PWD Bamenda football club, was mooted as the man leading a group fronting the launching of the party.
On March 16, 1990, barely six days after the Biya regime had insisted that multipartyism was not illegal in Cameroon, John Fru Ndi, a Bamenda-based bookseller, and the late Dr Siga Asanga, a lecturer at the University of Yaounde, submitted an application with the Mezam Divisional Office, seeking authorisation for a political party called the Social Democratic Front, SDF.
Although the application was in direct response to government’s declaration that multipartyism was not proscribed in Cameroon, the SDF had actually been in gestation months before.
According to the official version of the creation of the SDF, the party sprung out of the Study Group 89, a group created in November 1989, with goal to sensitise national and international opinion about the marginalisation of minority Anglophones. It was during a meeting at John Fru Ndi’s residence in Bamenda on February 17, 1990, that members of the study group decided to transform it into a political party.
The SDF application set the stage for a confrontation with government. First, then Minister of Territorial Administration, Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya, claimed that his Ministry had not received the SDF application, and then later declared that the application was incomplete.
As government dragged its feet, SDF officials argued that under the 1967 law on associations, the party did not need prior authorisation from the administration to go operational and announced that if the government did not formally respond to its application within two months, they would go ahead and unilaterally launch the party.
#The guardian post
