No new message, but Fru Ndi invokes SDF’s glorious years

Written by Ro-Martin Fefeh

Saturday, 29 May 2010 17:25

BAMENDA—Fru Ndi’s speech on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) last week had been heard before: lashes at the regime and naked threats.

But it had one killer punch. Mr Fru Ndi invoked the rhetoric of the 1990s that nearly got him to Unity Palace in 1992, a call for drastic shift from the status quo. Timing was good: as in the ‘90s anti-Biya sentiments are high.

Addressing rallies here and in Bafoussam, he campaigned as he did with the “change” message for a three-year transitional government, the setting up of a federal system of government and the elaboration of an electoral code.

The only thing that was absent from the menu was the Sovereign National Conference, the national court that scared the hell out of the Biya administration and which may have forced the rigging of the 1990 poll.

On a list of six, the chairman also drummed his persistent stand for a more independent electoral commission that would be entirely in charge of elections - from voter-registration to the proclamation of results.

The speech sounded very much like the inaugural of Mr Fru Ndi’s presidential election campaign.

Delivered in Bafoussam, Fru Ndi addressed a region that is causing the SDF the most pain at this moment.

Secretary-General Elizabeth Tamajong was in northern Cameroon, another part of the country where SDF votes have been running dry.

Both party leaders made the case for a sweeping constitutional change that would be voted by a referendum during the period of transition.