Fru Ndi returns home for SDF anniversary

SDF party National Chairman, John Fru Ndi, has returned home ahead of the celebration of the 24th anniversary of the party. Fru Ndi returned to the country on May 24, after close to three weeks in the U.S.

After Fru Ndi left the country, there was no activity that took place at the national level of the SDF as a pointer to the fact that everything about the party is tied to his apron strings.

For the last five months, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the SDF has been unable to meet. A NEC meeting had been scheduled to take place in Buea early this month, but Fru Ndi’s outing to the U.S. May 5, caused the meeting to be postponed.

Many party officials have until now been wondering how the anniversary of the party would have been celebrated without Fru Ndi, given his absence and the fact that the National Secretariat of the Party is lodged in his private residence. An SDF Shadow Cabinet minister close to Fru Ndi hinted the Cameroon Journal that Fru Ndi’s departure had slowed down activities in the party, that his return means renewed activity.

Though he fell short of telling us why Fru Ndi left for the US in the first place, party insiders and close aides to the chairman suggest that Fru Ndi’s unannounced visit to the U.S might have been to seek medical attention, and also to further the SCNC cause which he has recently embraced.

SDF NEC in Buea early June An SDF source friendly to the Journal who pleaded not to be named has hinted that the NEC meeting earlier planned for Buea will now take place, early June. The shift from Bamenda to Buea comes after scathing criticisms on the SDF National Chairman, accusing him of imposing only his ''graffi'' brothers to juicy bureau posts in the National Assembly.

Given that the last re-composition of the National Assembly Bureau did not see the lone South West Member of parliament featuring, a boycott of the NEC meeting is feared.

The charismatic SDF leader will during his stay in Buea, grant a press conference during which he is expected to address burning issues affecting the party. The highhandedness of some district chairmen will also come under focus.

Political observers posit that the Buea SDF NEC meeting will provide a forum for the party to discipline its officials who have gone out of the rails.

Another very dicey issue that will for sure be discussed at the Buea SDF conclave will be the recognition of the mayors of Kumba II and Tubah councils who are under the sledgehammer of SDF’s article 8(2).

The strategic SDF NEC meeting will also have on its agenda the reorganisation of the basic structures of the party in the Littoral Region. It has come under lots of pressure, especially as there is a seeming divide in the party in the region.

Though attempts to get across to the SDF National Organising Secretary, Ferdinand Asapngu remained abortive, SDF sources hold that he, together with the other SDF heavy weights like Pa Atekwana and Aloysius Tebo will be dispatched to the Littoral after the NEC meeting to put things in order.