“Fru Ndi is formidable but I think I can beat him at the Primaries in SDF”

-By Felix Teche Nyamusa, SDF 2018 Presidential candidate, pending primaries.

What is the inspiration behind your newly published book?

I have come up with my book Effective Democratic Succession in Cameroon–The Ideology Neighbourhood/works of Felix Teche Nyamusa. I am talking about Good Governance and succession in Cameroon in 2018 particularly as I am candidate. In the context of Cameroon where it is a one-man-show and where there is no separation of powers, I am not only going in for a scrap of ELECAM which is a CPDM installed outfit with majority CPDM personnel especially at the high level. I am talking of separation of powers right now before we get anywhere close to the elections. I will not only wait for ELECAM to be revamped. There must be separation of powers because it is a one-man-show. Biya uses his executive and usurps the powers of the legislature by appointing senators and rigging elections to get parliamentarians elected. He always has majority and he goes into the country’s coffers and gets money from there and indebts the country to carry out the activities of his party. 35 years in power is too much especially for a President that is not performant. We should take a look at other African Democracies that are succeeding like in Nigeria, Burkina Fasso and South Africa. We get to the last resort which is the Cameroon Constitution which has to be ratified by international agreement since Cameroon has signed with other international charters that Cameroon is a signatory. Once a leader decides not to listen to a majority of his people, these people take to the last resort and the last resort will be sustained efforts to send away such leaders using whatever means possible. 

How does your book define “whatever means possible” as you just said?

A while ago, the regime came up with a law on terrorism that was trying to intimidate Cameroonians. I think we are too smart and above such things. If a people stand up and say the electoral laws are bad, that they don’t have good roads and that their educational system is nothing to write home about you can’t refer to that as terrorism. If the people condemn the fact that ELECAM which is the only electoral body has its members and most of its highly placed personnel appointed by one party which is itself participating in the elections it is not terrorism. I think that there comes a time when people will stand up against all of this. In 1992, the coalition of opposition parties won elections with the SDF candidate Ni John Fru Ndi as leader. I think that one of the ways forward is a coalition. That’s what I am working for and that’s what other countries have done. Once we stand up, it will be a sustained struggle by the coalition. Apart from there being a one man show in Cameroon, the history of the country shows that it is made up of two historical entities. In my manifesto I pledge if I become President that I will reinstall what the forebears of this country had proposed at reunification which is a Federal United Republic of Cameroon of two equal states. It harms nobody. That’s the manifesto I will put forward and I will tell my people to stand up for that manifesto.

If it means that we will stand like we did in the early nineties which culminated with our success in 1992 we should do that and sustain it. 

Can you touch on some of the key issues highlighted in your publication?

The key issue is that the law on terrorism does not baffle any other person so long as we are doing the correct thing. The key issue is that if a people like other countries have driven away dictators, then we can do it in Cameroon. We are talking of Good Governance and nothing else. The regime in place should put in the structures and if they are acceptable, we will go in for the elections. But if things are done the way they have been doing it, then they will be inviting war and I and other well meaning Cameroonians are ready to lead. I am ready to lead the Democratic Standoff using the last resort which is specified in our constitution. It is specified within international organisations like the International Human Rights Chatter. Cameroon is a signatory to this and it is embedded in our constitution.

I am calling on the youths get in and all Cameroonians to get on board by registering so that we start from the primaries. I know John Fru Ndi may be a candidate and a strong one at that and any other person may come within the party and within Cameroon but I think that I can beat Fru Ndi at the primaries in SDF and I am inviting Cameroonians to register in the SDF and on the National Electoral Register if they want change. If they consider my manifesto and give me that vote things will move forward. I think I have what it takes when you look at the SDF revolutions of the early 1990’s and earlier on. Cameroonians have the potentials. The youths should get involved so that we begin the struggle at the primaries. If the youth want change, let them get registered. The party militants should be active and participate at the level of the primaries and eventually also register on the National Electoral list.

How is your book structured and when exactly are you launching it?

The book is structured in chapters. I look at the various addresses of the Head of State, I look at the addresses of my party chairman, I point out the failings of our party, I propose an amendment of the SDF Constitution to separate the Chairman from the Presidential candidate. We are not blocking anybody. Nobody is saying that this candidate or that one should not run. 

In a Democracy, you cannot be the Chairman of a Party and the Presidential candidate. Being both chairman and presidential candidate is intimidating to some candidates who will feel that if they don’t vote for you and they lose there will be victimization. I have equally proposed that all the grievances of the various Secretary Generals of the party that have resigned should be looked into at the Convention. That’s how we start because we have to go to equity with clean hands. The book equally looks at Cameroon and where it has been failing. I look at how Cameroonians are streaming out of the country for “greener pastures”. I have also looked at the Anglophone question. I have sent congratulatory messages to other struggling democracies who are making head ways like Burkina Fasso, Nigeria. The book touches everything. In about three weeks the date for the book launch will be specified. We plan to go round the country and the Diaspora where ever there are Cameroonians. This book will equally be useful to CPDM progressives and other Cameroonians of all works of life.

          

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