On SDF Anniversary Day: Fru Ndi explains why SDF did not actively take part in May Celebrations

By Francis Ekongang Nzante

In a chat with the media on Friday May 26 at his Ntarikon residence in Bamenda, Ni John Fru Ndi, Chairman of SDF; the leading opposition political party in Cameroon stated in unequivocal terms that people only march on a day like the 20^th of May in Cameroon because they are happy and celebrating an occasion. Ni John Fru Ndi said following what had been going on in Cameroon for a long while now, the 20^th of May was not an occasion for celebration. The same reasons account for the absence of any noticeable celebrations to mark the 27^th anniversary of the party which came into existence in 1990.

The Chairman took out time to explain using incidents that had taken place in the two English speaking regions of the country. He wondered how a government could support that University Games should take place in Bamenda despite all that had happened. He questioned if it was it simply to disgrace the people of the Northwest or the Anglophones. In the Northwest and Southwest Regions, children of francophone extraction he said, were brought to go to school. Some of these children he said went to school in ordinary dresses. Moto Cycles were brought in from the Littoral and the West to ride in Buea and Bamenda and children were brought in to march and show that things were okay. This he said hurts because it doesn’t solve the problems. “Under these conditions, I will be pretending if I say it’s okay people should go and march. People march because they are happy. You march because you are celebrating an occasion.”

In the same vein, he said “the Prime Minister had taken out time and come out here and I was told that the teachers came out with seven points and after the discussion they went up to nineteen which they agreed to come in three days or so to sign. They closed the meeting on Monday to come back on Wednesday to sign but by Tuesday night they banned the Consortium and ordered the arrest of many people. Many of these people are still on the run today and since then schools in the Northwest and Southwest have not been opened.”

Talking about schools, the Chairman doffed his hat for missionary schools that churned out most of the educated personalities in English speaking Cameroon. He said if you took off Saint Joseph’s College Sasse and Cameroon Protestant College Bali among a few others, education in the Northwest and Southwest would come to nothing. He further said if these same Missions cry that look we have a pain here and you only insist that they should tell the world that everything is okay then there is a serious problem.

Turning to the head of government he said “The Prime Minister who had worked with the consortium agreed with his Director of Cabinet and the next moment they came insisting that children should be sent to school. Under what conditions were these children to be sent to school and where were the teachers?”

The SDF Chairman said in the past there were Teacher Training Colleges in the Southwest and Northwest Regions and that the government came and closed these establishments and took all the trained teachers from the missions for themselves. When those teachers who remained saw their disadvantaged position since the mission could not increase their salaries, they got angry and joined the government. This killed the private sector that was coming up forcefully.”

 The most ridiculous thing he said was that Government had a Nursing School of high repute in Bamenda but this school was closed. He questioned the reasoning behind closing these schools and telling people about health for all by the year 2000 considering the fact that nurses do a fantastic job for patients to get well. In a nostalgic manner he recalled the time when you had state registered nurses and how their special appearance gave hope to patients in hospital.

People of the Anglophone extraction are arguing over the state of things because they are looking at where they came from and comparing it with the present state of things he explained. “Our children cannot face the future by going backward. We should be giving an education aiming at five, ten, fifteen, twenty years.”

Considering that this brush with media men and women took place on the eve of a decisive NEC meeting, Ni John Fru Ndi said the National Executive Committee Meeting would focus on the strategy of the party for the future. The continuity of the party he said had been guaranteed through the grooming of younger ones. “I could have been Mayor, Parliamentarian or Senator but I sent in younger ones with an intention of grooming them.”

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