BY ATIA TILARIOUS AZOHNWI
Constitutional Laws Lawyer and Professor, Ndiva Kofele Kale is heading the seven-man South West Social Democratic Front (SDF) list to the March 25, 2018 elections into the Senate.
The SDF Legal Adviser and Shadow Minister of Justice will be going to the Senate to represent the interest of the entire Cameroon people and those of the South West senate constituency in particular.
In fact, upon the creation of the Constitutional Council, Professor Ndiva Kofele Kale told The SUN:
“I hope the constitutional council whose primary role is to serve as an oversight on the constitutionality of laws passed in by parliament will do its job diligently. For example, the law on the suppression of acts of terrorism cuts into fundamental rights and freedoms. If that law is challenged, one will hope that the constitutional council will render a judgement that takes individual rights over state’s interest in “suppressing terrorism” because it is a delicate balance.
“You find that there are certain human rights that cannot be derogated. The right to free speech is a protected right. And even in a state of emergency, when you derogate such a right, you do so with caution because they are restrictions and constraints. We hope that the Constitutional Council will be able to find such a delicate balance to favour the rights of individuals.”
The Law Professor of international repute, Ndiva Kofele Kale was born in Lagos (Nigeria) in 1946 to venerated Cameroonian politician, PM Kale.
Professor Kale did his primary education in Buea and before moving to seek educational nourishment in Nigeria and later in the United States of America.
Professor Kale received a B.A. degree from Beloit College and M.A., J.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Northwestern University. He majored in public and private international law and concentrated on fighting global corruption and protecting the people’s right to a corruption-free society.
The legal luminary taught at the College of Law, University of Tennessee. He has since taught in hundreds of universities across the world with his finest moments spent with his students of law in the United States of America.
His passionate drive to fighting corruption and economic crimes inspired him to write the “Balancing Competing Rights and Interests in Prosecuting the Crime of Illicit Enrichment”. In this thesis, Professor Kale condemns the predation of the peoples’ resources by corrupt political leaders.
Prof. Kale, a revered Bakweri Traditionalists and kingmaker in Mokunda joined the opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) party in 1991. He has since served as legal adviser to the party and as the party’s shadow minister of justice. He missed being the party’s first vice national chairman when he lost to the party’s presidential flag bearer, Joshua Osih.
He nurtured, matured and gave exposure to the SDF in the heart of the Bakweri paramount dynasty, Mokunda. He dared the late Nakuve, SML Endeley to launch the Mokunda-Vasingi ward of the SDF at the sacred wrestling field in Buea Town in the mid 90s.
Professor Kale also got plenty of national and international attention during the trial of his client, Marafa Hamidou Yaya, Cameroon’s erstwhile Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization. The professor of law has since been fighting for the release of the ex-Minister of Interior.