By Sah Terence and Moma Sandrine in Bamenda
Honourable Joshua Osih Nambangi has been elected as the candidate of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) for the upcoming Presidential Election.
He was elected Saturday, February 24, 2018 at an extraordinary convention to designate the party’s candidate for the upcoming Presidential polls.
He won 88.39 percent of the votes as against 11.61 percent for his lone challenger, Hon. Fobi Nchinda Simon – 1,021 votes in favour of Osih and 134 votes for Forbi.
Hon. Joseph Mbah Ndam threw in the towel at the last minute but did not pledge his support openly for any of the two remaining candidates.
In his acceptance speech, Hon. Osih promised to start visiting all the 360 sub-divisions of the country to canvas for support immidiately after his election.
Saturday’s Extra Ordinary Convention was preceded by the presentation of the new members of the SDF National Executive Committee who were elected Friday night on day two of the 9th Ordinary Elective Convention of the Party at the Bamenda Congress Hall.
Ni John Fru Ndi who pulled out of the presidential race was maintained as Chairman of the party while Hon. Joshua Osih succeeded himself as the party’s 1st Vice National Chairman, beating Prof. Ndiva Kofele Kale.
Osih’s victory was greeted with deafening plaudits and his humility was portrayed.
Turning to Ni John Fru Ndi, Osih said: “Mr Chairman, I wish that you continue holding my hand even when we will be in Etoudi in October 2018″.
On his plans to resolve the current socio-political crisis in the North West and South West regions, Osih did not mince words. Hear him: “The first step to resolve the Anglophone problem is to change the person who sits in the Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon”.
To him, dialogue remains the best strategy to employ in solving the Anglophone crisis.
“If you don’t put the problem on a table, you cannot get a solution because you first of all have to understand what the problem is and you can only understand what the problem is if you discuss. There has never been a time in the history of humanity where issues were solved by violence,” said Osih.
The 9th ordinary and extraordinary convention of the SDF is history telling drawing from the words of Henry Kejang, the 3rd Vice National Secretary for Communication.
“This convention has permitted us to look back at the past, take stock of the present and the future is just right in front of us to appraise,” Kejang said.
Barely 24 hours after his election, numerous endorsements have poured in from Cameroonians within and out of the country.
Amongst them, Dr. Dieudonne Esomba who said he was struck by Osih’s mastery of issues and simplicity when he first met him.
Osih also got the support of prominent professor of private law at the University of Douala, Prof. Gatsi Jean who said Osih incarnates a new Cameroon, one of peace and national integration.
The frenzy that followed Osih’s nomination indicates a new era for the SDF party and politics in Cameroon as a whole and many people who had hitherto been caught up in the web of voter apathy are now nursing a new motivation to go register with ELECAM.
A-Z of the convention
Holding after a number of postponements, and amidst numerous threats from the Ambazonian secessionists that led to the changing of venue twice, the 9th Social Democratic Front, SDF convention and extra ordinary convention had a lot of interesting events mixed with high emotions and drama.
Beginning with the arrival of delegates from all ten regions of Cameroon, on the 21st of February, with most coming in on the 22nd morning, the registration and accreditation of members, the convention that was scheduled to begin at 8am finally started at about 1pm. The opening day of the convention saw in attendance of about 1,100 delegates out of the 1500 that were expected.
During the opening ceremony, Ni John Fru Ndi congratulated the delegates for braving the odds and turning up for the convention. He reminded them of the principles of the SDF party which is democracy, justice, equal opportunities for all among others. He reiterated that the SDF has always advocated for and still stands for a federal form of government.
He also made mention of the Anglophone crisis which he said genuine dialogue remains the only way to solve the problem and also, called on the unconditional release of all those arrested as a result of the crisis.
The opening ceremony closed at 4:30 pm after various committees were unable to present their reports. Reports were then pushed to the next day and all delegates were advised to move to the safety of their rooms and homes so as to avoid being caught in the insecurity in Bamenda, especially as there is curfew instituted by the governor of the region.
Convention ground flooded with campaign papers.
On Friday morning, the convention ground was flooded with campaign material bearing pictures and names of some candidates as well as the positions they seek to occupy. The most popular were the campaign posters of Hon. Joshua Osih who was seeking to win the party’s nomination as presidential candidate and succeed himself as 1st Vice National Chairman of the party.
Some friends of SDF joined them to observe convention.
The CPDM was represented at the convention by Minister Gregroire Owona who in his solidarity address congratulated the SDF delegates who came from all over the country for their convention. He also extended a message of congratulation to the SDF for their enormous contributions to democracy in the country.
Not one to disappoint with his usual sense of humour, Minister Gregoire Owona told the SDF delegates that; “You are welcome at home” and took up his head to look round the ceiling of the hall then at the people as if to remind them that they were actually sitting in the CPDM congress hall, then smiled as others laughed.
He stressed that political adversity does not match with animosity and rejection of the values of friendship reason why the CPDM central committee honored the SDF invitation to their convention.
Another friend of the SDF at the convention was the eminent Prof. Titus Edzoa who sat very close to Fru Ndi at the high table. He took the podium and delivered a very empassioned speech during which he recounted how he spent 17 years in prision and how Ni John Fru Ndi had stood up with the SDF militants to cry foul until he was released.
“ I am here today to express my gratefulness for this rare support and my heart twinkles with lakes of joy.”, Prof Titus Edzoa told the delegates who rained plaudits on him.
Also present at the convention was a delegate of the Frederick Hebert Foundation of Germany who happens to be a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. The delegate indicated that his foundation has been working with the SDF since 1990 and that they are very interested in the SDF affairs reason why he is very curious to know who will be SDF’s presidential candidate. It is worth noting that the translation equipment of the SDF was donated by this foundation on the appeal of Fru Ndi.
Irregularities
During the presentation of committee reports, the report of the legal affairs committee was highly contested as there had been a petition against it from Kumasi John in Douala and a disagreement between the committee head Prof. Kale and Lawyer Benjamin Suh Nfor on certain articles of the constitution that led to some serious threats of physical harm on Prof. Kale. However, Kumasi John withdrew his petition publicly and called for reconciliation.
The committee made a proposal for the institution of a national secretary for Bilingualism who may be appointed by the chairman and voted in the next convention.
Another irregularity was noted at the level of the centre delegation where two lists of delegates had emerged. This was said to have been as a result of some infighting from that region brought about by the former regional Chairman for the Centre Region, Ibrahim Aladji , in alleged complicity with some party big wigs.
Talking to the Vice chair for the Centre Region, Parfait Nbvoum, he told The Sun that it is only when they arrived Bamenda that they realised that a certain list of delegates had been presented at the convention without the regional chair endorsing and even the hotel rooms meant for the centre delegation already occupied by the parallel delegation.
He added that they also learned that the SDF senatorial list for the centre region had already been prepared by the persons suspected of trying to undermine the centre delegation for some selfish reasons and handed to ELECAM without the knowledge of the regional chair.
He went on to say that they had written a petition against it and were waiting for the hierarchy of the party to take action and that if nothing was done they would start a riot at the convention ground.
Another irregularity was noted at the level of the election of the First National Vice Chair where the first candidate Prof. Kale’s picture was not on the single ballot paper whereas his rival, Joshua Osih his picture boldly printed on the paper.
Prof Kale contested this and said it gave a prejudiced decision to the voter as most voters always want to distinguish their candidate during voting. However, the voting continued as Prof. Kale’s points were duly noted.
The elections went on for the whole night uninterrupted with candidates taking their turns on the podium to campaign and be voted into their respective offices.