By Ashu Nyenty, PhD.
I am not a member of the SDF, and I am not close to the chairman of that party (even though I sincerely think we should have had some form of relationship, being an Anglophone who humbly reports at the level I do — but that’s Joshua for you). So I always resist the urge to comment on things concerning that party. But sometimes in life, “evil” thrives when good people sit back and do nothing.
Chairman Joshua Osih Nambangi has his own personality flaws in politics. That’s why his campaigns have never really gotten off the ground. He seems better as a behind-the-scenes operator than as a frontliner.
Yet nothing justifies the cabal that was mounted against him and the SDF in this last election season. Osih was vilified, insulted, maligned, and literally torn to shreds. And in all of this, the voice of the SDF was weak in defending their own, though some tried.
Sometimes it’s not the noise of the enemy that hurts, but the silence of your supposed friends. The attacks against Osih and the SDF were brutal, phenomenal, and surgical. And the most lethal of these attacks came from the Anglophone community — both North Westerners and South Westerners — who are supposed to be Osih’s primary constituency. For the first time, I saw a new generation of political influencers, whom I had never seen before, bring down the SDF edifice. They were merciless; they didn’t hold back their claws. They appeared to be on a demolition mission.
People have a right to support whoever they choose, but how on earth could people with even a modicum of knowledge of politics think that a certain ephemeral candidate — who is English-speaking, propped up by an obscure “francophone” party — is better than Osih?
I have nothing against forgiveness. I am a practicing Christian, so forgiveness is the stick I lean on, even though I don’t forget. I forgive even those who drag me and insult me on social media, and I say, “Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.” So forgiveness is in order, especially when a “sinner” asks for it.
But how could any Anglophone federalist think that the alternative candidate — a ‘Monday morning quarterback’ — is safer for federalism than Osih and the SDF?”
It was at that point that I relativized my regard for some Anglophone men of letters.
As a political analyst, I don’t just repeat theories from books. I apply them to real context. With that perspective, I had analyzed that the SDF (or any opposition coalition) didn’t stand a chance in this election. Everybody who reads me often knew this position of mine.
But I approved of the SDF running, to make a statement, to set their boundaries, hoping to make a good sweep in the imminent local elections. I have been in political spheres for long, and I know the SDF and its MPs are the only ones who have, at any one time, taken it upon themselves to articulate the issues affecting the “Anglophone constituency”.
But what do they get in return? Betrayal and backstabbing — not from outsiders, but from those they consider “friends”, akin to the betrayal Julius Caesar suffered at the hands of his friend, Brutus.
Not satisfied with having contributed to the SDF’s disaster, the same people who shouted “Down with Osih, down with the SDF” have taken their cynicism too far. Now blaming the SDF for not bringing out its P.V.s or return sheets to “validate” an imaginary victory of a “devil” that supposed Christians chose to vote for. What convenience? Which SDF? The same SDF that you people said has no right to exist?
I pity the SDF, for the simple reason that I watched throughout how their voice was weak. How they could not stand up to defend their own. How they allowed insults and blackmail to sail smoothly on social media without a fight, without much challenge.
The question I ask those who attacked their “brother” in favour of the devil: Will you have the courage tomorrow to call for Anglophone unity in politics? Will you be able to look people in the eye and say, “This is the time for Anglophones”, as some of us had already prepared the agenda for 2032? My dear brothers, it will be difficult. Because many will look back to 2025 and say, “You betrayed us then; why do you think we should go along with you?” Unless everybody simply forgives… I rest my case.