A good fighter is not somebody
who is always advancing. He is someone who knows when to proceed and when to
retreat; when to stand up in full view of the enemy and went to take cover.
John Fru Ndi is by all standards a fighter. Whether he is a good one or not can
be concluded only after perusing the analysis that follow. It centers on his
modus operandi with North West
governors, past and present.
Luc Magloire Nguema
This was the governor during
whose tenure of office Fru Ndi launched the SDF. Being the first opposition
party to be launched since multiparty politics was abolished in 1966, the issue
of SDF’s launch was a hot potato in the hand of Magloire Nguema. Given the very
delicate nature of the task, Magloire Nguema if he ever read Shakespeare’s
“Hamlet” had better reasons than Hamlet to cry out “The time is out of joint; O
cursed spite that ever I was born to set it right”. He however tackled the
problem in his own way. He urged the DO of Bamenda to issue a ban on any
gathering within the city for that period and called on the population to shun
the launch of any political party by a certain Ni John Fru Ndi. The ban order
was broadcast several times over CRTV Bamenda.
The best way to
popularize a book or any other publication is to place a ban on it. Same goes with
every ban. That was the same effect produced by the ban on SDF’s launch; it
aroused curiosity. This curiosity was aggravated by the militarization of
Bamenda town and the presence of water canons in town - a species of vehicles
which many in Bamenda were seeing for the first time. While Bamilekes and other
foreign nationals quit the town in prodigious numbers, the diehard inhabitants
of the town stood their grounds to see what would happen. Curious onlookers and
supporters of change flooded Bamenda increasing its population.
The barriers
that were erected making movement in town difficult intensified the tension.
Ntarinkon was the only part of town left out in the militarization process.
Those who wanted to frustrate SDF’s launch thought the party could only be
launched at City Chemist Roundabout then christened “Liberty Square”. Fru Ndi and Siga Asanga
who championed the launch took advantage of this ignorance and decided to
launch the SDF at Ntarinkon
Park.
Thus, in an
attempt to prevent SDF’s launch, the Biya regime through its North West and Bamenda administration rather
made the event a tremendous success. The shooting to death of six young persons
during the launch gave the event a greater significance than it would have been
if nobody died.
There is
however, no evidence that Fru Ndi met Magloire Nguema throughout his stay in North West but it is
reasonable to assume that the SDF chairman was grateful to the governor for
making his party’s launch a success by attempting to obstruct its launch.
Fru Ndi and Ebong Ngole
John Ebong Ngole has his faults
as a man, but whoever picks bones with him would admit that he is a very
tolerant man. Being an Anglophone, he certainly found himself in a more
precarious position than Magloire Nguema when it came to dealing with Fru Ndi
and SDF. In the event where he cracked down on the SDF the criticism would be
that only an Anglophone kills another Anglophone. Ebong Ngole managed the
situation so well that he finally left Bamenda with very little to reproach him
for. He is best remembered for a mocking statement referring to Muna and
Foncha. The two elderly statesmen had signed a document condemning the
subjugation of Anglophones concluding with the phrase “Former Vice President and
Prime Minister”. Ebong Ngole wondered aloud what they achieve in these
capacities. The person who gained much notoriety under the administration of
John Ebong Ngole is Bell Luc Rene then Senior Divisional Officer for Mezam.
His decision to
rain grenades on the population of Bamenda on October 2, 1991 earned for him
the ignominious title “Bend Look Grenade”.
This name haunted him right to when he left North West having attained the rank of
governor.
Ebong Ngole is
remembered with fondness by genuine SDF supporters because it was during his
reign that the SDF had legal status; thanks to Ben Muna who as a legalist, said
the SDF could only gain legal status if fresh documents were compiled and
deposited at the governor’s office. That was after government had legalized at
least three other parties that had done same. Ben Muna therefore deserves the
appellation “SDF Founding Father”.
The reign of
John Ebong Ngole is remembered for a significant declaration Fru Ndi once made.
After the proclamation of the 1992 presidential election results, a security
helicopter hovered over Fru Ndi’s residence. The SDF chairman who was also his
party’s flagbearer at the presidential election picked his phone and called the
governor’s office and warned: “if that
thing does not stop flying over my house, I will shoot it down”. The
governor actually believed Fru Ndi had the ability to implement his threat.
Within seconds of the threat the helicopter quit Fru Ndi’s residence.
Bell Luc Rene
It has been hinted how Bell Luc
Rene attained a sublime level of notoriety after he ordered gendarmes to rain
grenades on the Bamenda population. As governor, his source of headache was
more Mrs. Rose Ndi, the SDF Chairman’s wife, than Fru Ndi himself. Bell Luc
Rene boycotted two occasions allegedly because Mrs. Rose Ndi was there. At every
opportunity she told whoever asked her opinion about the governor that he was
an ungodly person. Bell Luc did everything to reconcile himself with the North West population
and to a great extent, succeeded.
Fai Yengo Francis
There is not much to talk about
the relationship between Fai Yengo Francis and Fru Ndi. Fai Yengo is remembered
more about his assistance to the growth of unity among fons (NOWEFU) and the
1997 terrorist attacks than his relationship with the SDF. At least, there is
nothing on record to show that he ever had any strained relationship with Fru
Ndi or the SDF.
Kouambo Adrien
He was a relatively harmless
administrator. He came close to clashing with the SDF when he ordered the
construction of a millennium monument at City Chemist Roundabout. The work was
already at an advanced stage when Fru Ndi intervened and ordered that it should
stop. That City Chemist Roundabout had since been christened Liberty Square because of the six
‘martyrs on democracy’ that were killed there on May 26, 1990. The governor had
the military might to order the workers to continue, but for the sake of peace,
allowed the SDF chairman to have his way. The venue of the millennium monument
was shifted to a spot close to where the present grandstand is. Fru Ndi attended
the occasion which was the ushering of the North West into the 21st century.
Adrien Kouambo finally left the North
West without any friction with Fru Ndi and the SDF.
Koumpa Issa
There is nothing on record about
Fru Ndi’s relationship with Koumpa Issa while the latter was North West governor. The SDF was certainly
no source of headache for Koumpa Issa. Koumpa Issa understood the North West well enough
and avoided every situation that could lead to conflict. He was lucky to be
governor when political sobriety had returned to North West.
Abakar Ahamat
His presence in the North West is the
greatest thing that ever happened to Fru Ndi. The SDF National Chairman had
done everything humanly possible including writing to Biya, to hold dialogue
with the President. Luck smiled his way when Biya announced that the Golden
Jubilee of the Cameroon Armed Forces would be celebrated in Bamenda. Fru Ndi
condemned the decision saying Biya was coming to intimidate the North West ahead of the
2011 presidential election. He said the President wanted to use the opportunity
to lavish financial gifts on the military.
The SDF
chairman’s position was however, not shared by fellow North Westerners. They
wanted a state university, a reference hospital and the tarring of the ring road.
Fru Ndi was therefore, obliged to shift his position, especially as the press
was in support of the visit. Fru Ndi had done everything he could to meet Biya.
The President’s visit was an opportunity to do so. Why not embrace it; was the
question on the lips of every rational commentator. Abakar Ahamat was the
person who best understood the need and so laid the groundwork for the two
political rivals to meet after more than twenty years. Fru Ndi later told The Post newspaper that his meeting with
Biya had revived the SDF meaning his party was sleeping if not dead before
Biya’s visit. Fru Ndi’s meeting with Biya was viewed by both Cameroonians and
the international community as the best thing that had happened to Cameroon
within the previous 20 years.
Because of the
part he played to bring about the meeting, Abakar Ahamat has since been an idol
of Fru Ndi. The romance between the two men was strengthened by the fact that
both took the same position in the CAMCCUL controversy that rocked the whole
nation on the eve of Abakar Ahamat’s departure from North West. The two men were united by the
position that both wanted Musa Shey Nfor to quit the helm of CAMCCUL although
for two different reasons. Fru Ndi had applied for a loan of 100 million FCFA
from the Union Bank of Cameroon UBC. UBC is a bank put in place by the credit
unions. Musa Shey Nfor was blamed for the SDF chairman’s inability to contract
the loan.
Abakar Ahamat
was cajoled by the loan delinquents of CAMCCUL to take a position. The loan
delinquents circulated tracts threatening mayhem on the eve of a BAPCCUL
meeting. Musa Nfor is President of BAPCCUL. The governor proceeded to ban the
meeting after delegates had traveled to Bamenda from all other parts of the
country. Drinks had already been bought and food prepared for the delegates to
the tune of 2 million FCFA. The delegates that came in had also checked into
hotels increasing the amount spent. It was after all this had been done that
the governor issued a ban on the meeting. That he acted with the complicity of
the SDF chairman is evident from the reaction of Fru Ndi and his myrmidons
after the tragic event. Vanigansen Mochiggle, SDF Shadow Cabinet Minister for
Media and Information later held a press conference at the party secretariat to
damn Chronicle which exposed the Fru
Ndi mafia in the CAMCCUL saga.
But the press
conference failed to produce the desired impact. Journalists who attended
rubbished Mochiggle’s arguments. They failed to see with the SDF shadow cabinet
minister’s condemnation of Musa Shey Nfor whom he claimed had politicized
CAMCCUL. Rather, they argued, it was the SDF and its chairman bringing politics
into the whole show by describing Musa Shey Nfor as a CPDM lackey. Shey Nfor’s
crime was that he had not endorsed Fru Ndi’s questionable loan application. It
was “Hot News” newspaper which later
explained why Fru Ndi wanted the loan and therefore, justified the refusal to
grant it. Fru Ndi was under pressure to relinquish his position of SDF
chairman. Since he considers the SDF as his NGO from which he should derive
pecuniary benefit, he must not quit it without lining his pockets. He therefore
needed the money which he would pocket and leave the burden of repayment to his
political successor. Abakar Ahamat might not have been acquainted with this
fact. But if he did, it was unlikely his position would have changed since he
was an enemy to Musa Shey Nfor whose salary he boasted that he had caused to be
suspended.
Fru Ndi was an
enemy to Musa for the reason given and since an enemy to an enemy is a friend,
Fru Ndi and Abakar Ahamat were bound to be pals. Fru Ndi’s outburst against
Shey Nfor and Simon Nkwenti during the Aziri Credit Union AGM and his panegyric
on Abakar demonstrated just how profound was his romance with the North West governor.
When Abakar Ahamat was later appointed governor of Adamawa, Fru Ndi reportedly
dispatched a large delegation to the installation ceremony.
Incidentally,
the SDF coordinator for Ngaoundere elected during the reorganization of the
party after the new Adamawa governor was installed is named Abakar Ahamat. Even
in far away Adamawa, Abakar has not stopped breeding further evils against
CAMCCUL in collaboration with Ntarinkon. This was manifested during last
CAMCCUL general assembly which there was an attempt to disrupt. On that occasion
the devil in the shape of Awah Cho Fobuzie (A.C Risky) wanted Musa Shey Nfor
removed as CAMCCUL president, but the delegates to the meeting thought
otherwise. He remains at the helm of the organization and there is absolutely
nothing Abakar Ahamat, Fru Ndi, A.C Risky or any other detractor can do about
it.
Fru Ndi and Lele Lafrique
Having tasted the fruit of
collaboration with the administration and finding it delicious, Fru Ndi sees
the absolute need to warm his way into the affection of the new North West governor,
Lele Lafrique. The SDF chairman not only attended the governor’s meet-the-people
conference at Ayaba last Thursday, but for once attended the reception that
followed at Ayaba hotel. That is how far Fru Ndi has gone in his romance with
the Biya regime which the SDF was launched to unseat.
Governors Who’ve Served North
West
1st - Guillaume Nseke:
6 Sept 1972 = 2 years, 3 months, 18 days
2nd - Enow Tanjong: 14
Dec 1974 = 1 year, 8 months, 20 days
3rd - Abouem Atchoyi 4
Oct 1979 = 6 years, 9 months
4th - John Andela: 31
Aug 1983 = 6 years, 9 months
5th - Alexandre
Motanga: 9 March 1984 = 1 year, 6 months, 4 days
6th - Walson Ntubah:
24 Sept 1985 = 4 years, 19 days
7th - Magloire
Nguiamba: 13 Oct, 1989 = 1 year, 6 months, 3 days
8th - John Ebong
Ngole: 16 April 1991= 1 year, 5 months, 2 days
9th - Bell Luc Rene:
18 Sept 1992 = 4 years, 1 month, 1 day
10th - Fai Yengo: 19
Oct 1996 = 1 year, 9 months, 9 days
11th - Adrien Kouambo:
28 July 1998 = 4 years, 9 months
12th - Koumpa Issa: 27
March 2003 = 4 years, 8 months 14 days
13th - Abakar Ahamat:
10 Dec 2007 = 2 years, 1 month, 26 days
14th - Abakar Ahamat:
5 Feb 2010 = 2 years, 1 month, 9 days
15th - Lele Lafrique:
14 March 2012
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