THE CONFLICTING FORCES IN THE SDF DURING THE THIRD PHASE OF THE STRUGGLE FOR A FREE, DEMOCRATIC, LIBERAL, UNITED AND PROGRESSIVE CAMEROON

It is hard to write about a political party that one put his future on hold for for more than a decade and that one defended as the vehicle through which change could be realized in Cameroon.  Nevertheless, for the interest of the future New Cameroon, for the noble ideals of the century old Cameroonian struggle, and for the sake of historical revelation, we have to confront the ghosts haunting us from that chapter of  Cameroonian and African history where a political party  that was  looked upon as a model, sold itself cheap because the head was rotten and the leadership did not believe in its revolutionary mission.

I have observed a passion by Fru Ndi backers to discredit all those who have ever stood up against the SDF chairman. The strange thing is that they go about advocating their cases without  using parameters.  What comes out of their write-ups because of that, is a subtle portrayal of Fru Ndi as a persecuted saint, a meek Christ-like figure that is not responsible for any of the wrongs going on around him or in Cameroon in general. In that blind attempt of painting everything black and while, these Fru Ndi advocates even denigrate those who have gone through their pilgrimage in life with a clean record of having taken upon themselves the colossal task of showing the people the true path to the future by living and putting the struggle far above themselves and their personal considerations, and sacrificing enormously for that. Having the Fru Ndi-like mindset that  “eating money from the government is okay because it is the people’s money”, they seem to see nothing wrong in the corrupting influence of that concept of accepting handouts from the system, something  Fru Ndi is guilty of doing.

After a careful observation I came up with this view of what the struggle within the SDF is all about and how the party degenerated into the abysmal state it is today:

1.      Firstly is that group that considered or came to consider the SDF’s creation as a bargaining chip to use to get a bigger stake in the government/or system.They never imagined that it could beome the party that would be expected to dismantle the anachronistic French-imposed system. There you have the Ben Muna, Basile Kamdoum, Siga Asanga etc (whether they also  had the ultimate interest of the people or only their personal interests in mind, we cannot tell). They never succeeded. I considered this group as the biggest retarding force in the SDF, especially during its early years. One sees logic in  the write-ups against them.

2.    You have this second group that originally shared the first camp’s perception, got drunk by the unexpected popularity that the SDF picked up less than two years after its launch, looked forward to controlling the stakes by taking power but lacked the stamina to engage in a struggle of attrition after the SDF in general and Fru  Ndi in particular were deprived of victory in the stolen presidential elections of October 1992 by Biya and its rigging machinery. But then with the control of the party in their hands, they in their unscrupulous ways figured out that they could still use their positions to eat from the  struggling masses they are purporting to be leading, as well as from the system. They are the biggest traitors to the exponents of change because the people gave their trust to them. That is Fru Ndi and his men. They are the ones who made fortunes from the SDF.

3.    The third group are those who partially or fully believed in the revolutionary objectives of the struggle, sacrificed or lost enormously and thought it was okay or not too bad until they observed or understood the extent of the money-making ring of the Fru Ndi mafia group (The second group) and decided to make a bargain too with the regime and system in power. I identify Mahamat Souleyman etc. in that camp.

4.    Then you have the fourth group of those who thought they were politicking and went about business in the SDF devoid of the all-embracing ideals or principles; either because they were tacitly for personal interests, an ethnic group, linguistic entity or region. Though against the system,  these are the so-called moderates or liberals or political clowns. They failed to confront the entrenched Fru Ndi camp in 2002 at a time when the SDF could have been saved (by siding with the last camp). Even though some of them are making the move now, it is belated, and to say that their intentions are something to die for is like playing the Russian Rolette. Here we find Asonganyi, Ngwasiri, Nyo Wakai, Nkemngu etc. You can determine for yourself the liberals, moderates and clowns from this group.

5.      Our fifth group fully or partially believed in the revolutionary objectives of the struggle, sacrificed or lost enormously and thought it was okay or not too bad until 2002. They openly or tacitly sided with the revolutionaries or genuine exponents of change in the party. In this camp are two categories. Those who stayed in the SDF and decided to act like the Fru Ndi camp and make up or recover the money they spent, and those who quit in 2002 and decided to return to get their so-called rewards for the so-called sacrifices made for the SDF. I say so-called sacrifice because there is no price for a sacrifice that is for an all-embracing struggle that is haunted by the loss of purposeful, righteous and virtues lives.

6.    As Ntemfac Ofege wrote, there are those who “left in a grand style” from Fru-Ndi’s trapped SDF in 2002. This sixth group are the figures we can look up to as the legends of the generation that led the struggle, either because they never betrayed/or because they confronted the malady of the Fru Ndi mafia in an effort to save the SDF and the Cameroonian struggle. These revolutionaries and/or union-nationalists who had rejected the system all their lives and/or who stood for the cause to realize a total and complete change, sincerely believed in the virtues of a selfless cause for the benefit of future generations. The late Dr Samuel Tchwenko, Albert Mukong etc belong with that group. We should emulate their ideas, especially the tested ones in this group who have already gone through their pilgrimage in life without falling short in the all-embracing struggle for the future New Cameroon.

I have observed diehard Fru Ndi supporters and apologists bundling the sixth group with all the others. It shows incomprehension on their part or dishonesty in their souls. Simply, the conflict today in the SDF is mostly between two opposing camps that lacked a vision for the New Cameroon from the onset.


The first camp comprises the second group above (The Fru Ndi group) and figures in the fifth group, as well as those suffering from incomprehension). The second camp constitutes the first group (Muna-led group) backed by the third group and those suffering from incomprehension as well as elements in the fourth group.

I hope this clarifies the haziness many have about the futile ongoing in the SDF.

Posted by: Janvier Tchouteu | Thursday, 04 May 2006 at 11:49 PM


AFTERTHOUGHT: December 18., 2018

The vanguard of Southern Cameroons and Ambazonia, especially those abroad who participated in Cameroon's political evolution in the 1990s are mostly SDF militants drawn from the fourth group. Strangely enough, the Amabazonians with roots from the SDF reserve a deeper hated for those still in the SDF who do not support them, or are politicking within the system, even though these same Ambazonians or Southern Cameroons advocates had been quiet or openly or tacitly supported the SDF leadership in the first decade and early second decade of the 2000s, when both forces saw the incorruptible union-nationalists (Kamerunists) as their worst enemy, union-nationalists (Kamerunists) who quit the SDF in 2002 or stopped giving the party their support. All the same, all the factions (former and current) of the SDF that still see the "New Cameroon" as our collective salvation, need to find common ground and work together with other progressive forces in the country to dismantle this French-imposed system and restore the dignity of the Cameroonian people. Many mistakes have been made by the exponents of change in the past three decades. But this is the moment to set aside our differences and build a united front in completing Cameroon's unfinished liberation and in founding the "NEW CAMEROON"