Peterkins Manyong
2 November 2008
ACT is the name of the drug combination accepted by doctors worldwide as the most effective antidote to the malarial parasite. Malaria is a disease, which in one of its most extreme stages; affects the brain; "Cerebral malaria" is the most common name for it.
Multiparty politics in the early 90s produced an effect on Cameroonians akin to cerebral malaria. Opposition supporters were most struck, the SDF in particular.The conduct of Fru Ndi and the rest of the radical opposition was understandable at that time. Cameroonians had just begun recovery from several decades of dictatorship and naturally enjoyed their new found freedom with a lot of relish.
Journalists at that time were more supporters than reporters.The fanaticism of most militants was also defendable on grounds that the Biya Regime then at its weakest, was reduced to the necessity of using state instruments to stem the tide of formidable opposition. Needless to emphasise that killings, tortures and maiming were rampant.
That was particularly the case in volatile towns like Douala and Bamenda. Djeukam Tchameni's Carpe Liberte proved itself as much of a match for the Gendarmerie as were the Takumbeng women of Bamenda.
During the French Revolution, some people were guillotined not for opposing the rebellion, but for not being revolutionary enough.Especially within SDF circles, the slightest hint of moderation was considered an act of betrayal. "Eating Soya" was the common expression used on persons who were not vehement enough in chastising the Biya Regime. Fru Ndi was silent in the face of such stigmatisation and was therefore seen by his opponents as condoning it.
So great was the faith of most Cameroonians in Fru Ndi that one way of saying a piece of political information was accurate was to say it came from the lips of the SDF National Chairman.
Following the same logic of political fanaticism, if Fru Ndi disagreed with any individual, for whatever reason, that individual must either be a traitor or a blockhead. When therefore Mahamat Soulemane, SDF National Vice Chairman, rebelled against Fru Ndi and convened a convention in Yaounde in 1998, he was declared guilty, tried and sentenced in the court of public opinion before most Cameroonians had even the slightest inkling of why he had done it.
Fru Ndi's decision that nothing of the sort would take place in the name of the SDF and the appointment of Seydou Madaidi, Soulemane's immediate replacement, as the commander-in-chief of a task force to dismantle the illegal convention was seen to be in the exact order of things.
The news that people were injured in the skirmish that followed was received with a lot of glee even by upholders of the love-your-neighbour as yourself doctrine.Fortunately, nobody died. Another expedition in Sop, Jakiri Subdivision on September 10, 2000, to neutralise another anti-Fru Ndi meeting, registered the same degree of success. As in the case of Yaounde, nobody died, at least not on the spot.
Mbah Ndam And The Diboule Case
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly and prescribing the wrong remedy" This often quoted definition by Ernest Benn has never been better substantiated than in the events which led to the death of Diboule.
While it makes sense to blame the organisers of the 2006 Yaounde Convention that led to the death of Gregoire Diboule, it is worth noting that if zealots like Joseph Mbah Ndam and Emmanuel Yoyo never fanned it, it would never have happened. These two, in whose hands Fru Ndi was practically a puppet, opposed Ben Muna's bid to challenge Fru Ndi in the planned contest for the party's top job.
Mbah Ndam championed the argument that Ben Muna who had just returned to the party after resigning and from the SDF had not militated long enough to challenge Fru Ndi. Mbah Ndam knew very well that in any free and fair contest between Fru Ndi an Ben Muna, the former would win by a wide margin, as he had done in the race for he party's Presidential candidate.
Mbah Ndam, in his determination to portray himself as a political superstar and puppet master to Fru Ndi, maintained this stance, pushing Ben Muna and his ally Ngwasiri, to do what they did. Fru Ndi's woes stemmed from Mbah Ndam's Machievellism. This one prominent Anglophone newspaper once described Mbah Ndam as the chief of the villains in the SDF.
This is why in a previous exposition this analyst cautioned Fru Ndi not only to trust, but always to crosscheck. Mbah Ndam has certainly struck more deals with the CPDM in the National Assembly than Fru Ndi is aware. The double standards Mbah Ndam demonstrated before and during the session that ended with the controversial constitutional amendment of April 10, 2008, portrays him as a man less to be trusted than the fox.
Today, Fru Ndi is in a political quagmire. Equally disheartening is the situation of the 21 SDF detainees at Kondengui, two of whom have already died. Despite the brilliant performance of SDF lawyer Sama Francis, the regime seems bent on nailing Fru Ndi, using all the sophism it is capable of: Prosecution's decision to overruling the defence's objections is based on the argument that the Preliminary Inquiry was done before the New Criminal Procedure Code became operational.
It is also worthy of note that what the prosecution is portraying as murder is actually a case of assault occasioning death. This is what Justice Bessem Eyong in his capacity as Northwest Attorney General, said about Kohtem's murder. It would require the most sophisticated legal gymnastics to prove that Fru Ndi sent people to Yaounde to kill Diboule. For murder to be established there must have been premeditation.
Lawyer Harmony Bobga Mbuton pointed out during a recent BBC interview that the Biya Regime was manipulating the case for political reasons. He was replying a question from the interviewer who wanted to know why two factions of a political party were involved in a brawl and only members of one party are in court.
But while we condemn the unfair judicial system that comprises persecutors rather than prosecutors, political zealots who obey instructions from party leaders without reflection, learn from the ongoing Diboule case that the stone from the naughty boy's catapult does not hit the drummer in the nearby bush. It kills the little bird dancing on the middle of road.
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