L’opposant John Fru Ndihead of the SDF since 1990, has died aged nearly 82” after a long illness as announced by the official statement of the Vice President of the SDF, Joshua Oshi.
John Fru Ndi started out in politics in the 1980s in the CPDM of Cameroonian President Paul Biya, before founding the SDF in 1990 when Cameroon officially legalized multipartyism.
From vegetable vendor to opposition leader
John Fru Ndi was born on July 7, 1941 in Baba II, near Bamenda, then British Cameroon at the time in North West Cameroon, an English-speaking region in the grip of a deadly conflict since 2016.
John Fru Ndi married two women in his life who all unfortunately died. The Cameroonian opposition leader buried the first in May 1973 and the second in May 2005.
The title of Ni, marking respect in the local language, was given to him at birth. He did his schooling in Cameroon, at the Baforchu Basel mission and at the Santa Native Authority, before flying to Nigeria to study at Lagos City College and work there in 1957.
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In 1966, Ni John Fru Ndi returned to Cameroon and started selling vegetables. Then, he ran a bookstore in Bamenda, his hometown, the “Ebibi Book Center”. He was also a manager of a football sports club from 1979 to 1988, while at the same time chairing the branch of the “Lions Clubs” association in Bamenda.
36% of the vote in 1992
It should be noted that Ni John Fru Ndi was the candidate of the Democratic Rally of the Cameroonian People (RDPC), the party in power for 40 years, in the constituency of Mezam Central, during the parliamentary elections of 1988.
After his bitter defeat in these parliamentary elections, Ni John Fru Ndi founded in 1990, two years later, the SDF, the Social Democratic Front, a distinguished opposition party. He was also elected national president of this party during its first ordinary national convention, held in Bamenda in May 1992. Thus, the history of the return to multiparty politics in Cameroon could not be written without his name in gold letters.
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In 1992, during the very first pluralist presidential election in Cameroon, Ni John Fru Ndi came second with 36% of the vote, behind the emblematic Paul Biya who obtained 40% and in power since 1982, that is, a little more than 40 years.
The Cameroonian president also granted him a public, official and historical audience on December 10, 2010. Cameroonian President Paul Biya and his main opponentNi John Fru Ndi, spoke that day one-on-one for the first time in Bamenda, the day after the celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of the Cameroonian army.
A fading political influence
Before this date, Fru Ndi and Biya had never met. And since this atypical meeting, no other official meeting has taken place between the two men, nor between President Biya and another opponent.
Following his failure in 1992, the chairman, as he was called in his party, then denounced massive fraud before declaring himself elected. His residence at Ntarikon Palace in Bamenda had been put under surveillance for several months.
In this movement, an invitation to the inauguration ceremony of US President Bill Clinton was sent to him and he attended with his late wife Rose on January 20, 1993.
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Recall that John Fru Ndi had been an unsuccessful candidate three times against Paul Biya in the presidential elections of 1992, 2004 and 2011, each time coming in second position. In 2018, he had given up running in another presidential election held in October of the same year. Above all, he had announced that he would leave the leadership of the SDF during his party’s congress which should be held from July 27 to 29, 2023, but which ultimately could be postponed.
External pressures and internal divisions
In 2019, the president of the Front Démocratique Social is briefly abducted by separatists. The latter summon him to boycott the legislative elections of 2020, which he categorically refuses. His party won only five seats out of 180. A drastic fall, accentuated by internal divisions which inevitably shake the party.
His house had been burned down and he had even been briefly kidnapped the same year by an armed group who claimed to have tried to convince him to withdraw the SDF deputies from the National Assembly.
Loss of a fierce and charismatic political opponent
In fine, the life of Ni John Fru Ndi is a lesson to other opponents that his leadership was all about serving and not being served. Cameroon therefore lost this Monday, June 13, a fierce, charismatic and enigmatic political opponent.
The man who embodied the possibility of an alternation in Cameroon while leading his party with an iron fist, therefore goes into eternity, leaving a narrow political family.
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All our condolences to his nuclear and political family and especially to his nine children to whom President Paul Biya also sent a letter of condolence and his moved compassion and that of his wife.
That his soul rests in peace !
Adieu Chairman !
Fabrice Nouanga