Should The SDF Join the Biya Government?

No Need Joining 
The SDF should not join the government because Biya has all the powers and is likely to corrupt and render the SDF ineffective. The government will impose and the SDF will have to move the way the government wants. I do not see any basis for SDF joining the government. It should remain in opposition even for 30 years. The population, even the world knows that the SDF won. Take the case of Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, he was in opposition for 20 years and today he is President. The SDF or any party that joins the government is bound to lose its strength and image.
Thomson Stephen Nchah - Man on the street

Vox Pop Conducted by Chris Mbunwe,Joe Dinga Pefok, Kini Nsom, Nformi Sonde Kinsai, Francis Tim mbom,Effa Tambenkongho,Mirabel Azangeh & Leocadia Bongben

Fru Ndi Should Confer With Colleagues…
Whoever is thinking of that should go to the National Chairman, so that they think properly the type of government they want to join, in which case, we want to work for efficiency and effectiveness. It is critical that the Chairman, as a democrat, confers with some of his colleagues and then makes a decision.
Tasi Tang Lucas - MP

SDF Should Take Up Some Ministries And Learn
I fully subscribe to the idea that the SDF should join the government. The SDF needs to learn many things within the administration. They should take up some ministries in order to gain experience in administration. I think the current President of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, succeeded because he was in government for long as an opposition member.
Dr. Richard Ghogomou Tanwi - University of Yaounde I

SDF Entry Is Inconsequential
I don’t want SDF to join government at all. Such a move is tantamount to accepting defeat from the CPDM. If the SDF joins government, it will also mean that they have endorsed the October 11 Presidential election, which was heavily rigged in favour of the CPDM candidate, President Paul Biya.
Since the SDF candidate has proven that he won the election, he should form his own government and look for help and let some foreign powers back him. The SDF’s entry into the Biya government will be inconsequential. The question is: whose programme will it follow?
Blessing Mejuin - Teacher

It Depends On The Agreement
I doubt that there is a stalemate. The CPDM won a clear victory according to the results proclaimed by the Supreme Court. And I don’t know why they would want other parties to join them, except they want to change the direction of their policies.
If they are now thinking about bringing development in the country like the President indicated… (as far as I am concerned, that is the only speech he has made for all the 22 years that he has been in office). If they want the SDF to join so that all of them can put their hands on deck, and try to build the country, which is in a very catastrophic situation, I agree. But it would depend on the terms of the agreement.
As we talk, nothing has been said yet. What a President in this kind of situation should do is to call his political opponents and tell them this is the kind of direction in which he wants to steer the country. But as of now, we are only hearing rumours in the streets. I think we lack dialogue in this country. If the President wants dialogue, it will come. If the SDF is joining the government, it should not be drowned like the UNDP, UPC and other political parties that have joined the CPDM government.
Prof. Bole Butake - Lecturer,
University Of Yaounde I

Nothing Is Going To Change
Joining the government would mean implementing the CPDM policies. If the SDF joins the government, it will not be able to come up with its own policies and, in my opinion, nothing is going to change.
Lesly Afesi - Staff, Guarantee Express, Yaounde

The Level Of Governance Matters
It depends on what level of government we are talking about. The SDF started with local councils, and then Parliament, which are part of the government. I think it should join the government since they had started working in partnership with the government. The advantage of joining such a government is that they will now fight from within. Know that there is a Cameroonian way of looking at things. Some people might hastily draw conclusions that these would-be SDF Ministers will go in to swell their pockets. But let's keep aside these thoughts and show examples that if you are appointed a minister, you are appointed to serve the state. By doing this they will be good examples vo those ministers who only think of their stomachs.
Hyacinth Nchinda - Teacher, GHS Mankon 

It Is A Double-edged Sword
The idea of joining a broad-based government or not, by the SDF to me is a double-edge sword. On both sides, there are advantages as well as disadvantages. The SDF has a large following because it has been very critical of this government throughout the years. By joining the government, does it mean Biya has changed? Is this change to suit the whims and caprices of the SDF or Biya’s CPDM? The SDF might collapse like the UNDP, if  it joins government without well-thought out conditions. Alternatively, if the SDF has to join, Fru Ndi, should not be part of it.
If Fru Ndi is out, he will keep watch over what the ministers are doing. If the supposed ministers are given a free hand, they will show their abilities, and where they prove wanting Fru Ndi or the SDF can sack them.
Barrister Jerome Mbaku

Serious Conditions Must Be Posed
If the SDF must join Biya’s government, it must be on very serious conditions. One of such conditions should be the type of ministries. For example, the SDF should request the following ministries; Defence, Finance, Territorial Administration, Prime Ministry and Mines and Power or Agriculture.
Thomas Kum - Trader

Biya Has A Comfortable Majority
I think Paul Biya has a comfortable majority that makes it even more comfortable for him to rule without any other party. But during his inaugural speech, he said everybody should put hands on deck. Does he mean that he can welcome the SDF that has been in the cold since 1992? Is the SDF willing to join? Someone told me that when you beat a child for the first time and he cries, you beat him the second time and he cries, you beat him the third time and he does not cry, then be prepared for something awful.
Michael Ndi - CRTV Staff

Some Questions Must Be Answered
So many questions are begging for answers before I give a response to this one. First, why does Biya want the SDF to join the government after scoring 71 percent at the last Presidential election? The electorate has given an approval to his method of leadership. Secondly, if the SDF has to come in, whose programme are they going to execute? If they are coming to execute Biya’s plan of action, then why have they been opposing Biya for all this while? The next question is whether the SDF members are coming into the government just to replace CPDM ministers or to have their own share of the national cake, or is the policy of the government for them to come and execute a change? On what platform? This platform should be made available to the people, and if we are going back to a one-party system then we should also agree that what the SDF was advocating and what the CPDM stands, for have been merged into a single system for Cameroon.
Simon Nkwenti - CATTU and Civil Society Coordinator
      

SDF Should Stay Out
In every country, there should be an opposition and that opposition should not be in government. This is because the ills of the government will be blamed on the opposition. Cameroon is not so desperate at this point in time for a coalition or broad-based government to bail it out. The SDF should stay out of the coalition and remain a vibrant opposition party outside the government.
Lumumba Mukong - Manager Amembom Consulting

SDF Should Prepare For Future Elections
Join the government, yes, but on what terms? Is it to effect the changes they have been preaching, or is it to reap from the mess and betray the cause of Cameroonians? From these two perspectives, I must say the Biya regime will not give them the chance to effect any change. If they were to be given the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation or Justice, and allow them to operate independently, then they should join the government. Let the SDF stay out, consolidate itself and prepare for the next election like a formidable party.
Jude Jokwi - Taku’s Chambers, Buea

The Alternative View Will Be Compromised
In every country, there is the need for a strong opposition, which gives an alternate view on how things ought to be done. My fear for SDF getting into the government is that the alternate view would be compromised, especially as they may not be able to implement their own policies.
For one thing, when you get into the government in this country, you follow the policy of the party in power, which is the CPDM. In view of what we have gone through in the last 22 years in this country, I think it would be wise for the SDF to stay out.
Dr. Dopgima Fofung
Polyclinic Bonanjo, Douala

SDF Should Get Oriented For The Third Republic
We are at the last mandate of the President, looking at our constitution. We would soon be (it can be in the next ten or 15 years) be witnessing the rule of another President, and it is very important that we should not miss any episode of the transition. If Biya missed these last seven years of his’, Cameroon would have missed the beginning, and even compromised the Third Republic. What so ever he has promised to do to Cameroonians during his last seven years, to me, is very important? That is why I think the SDF should join the government so as to get an orientation of the new Cameroon.  We cannot be envisaging a new Cameroon (Third Republic) without ending the second very well.
Barrister Alice Nkom, Douala

SDF Should Not Think About Joining
If the SDF must remain an opposition party worth its name, then it should not join the government. We have seen the UNDP and factions of the UPC doing this, but that is not what the SDF should ever think about doing. The most urgent thing for the SDF to do now is to preserve its dignity (of numbers because it registered the highest votes of all opposition parties) They should mount a powerful intellectual machinery. Intellectual machinery, to me, is that which would be able to think for others.
The real issue is that they should not go there without having got on concrete terms.
Albert Ledoux Yondjeu, Journalist,
Radio Equinoxe

SDF Can Make It Within The Gov’t
I am for the SDF joining the government. With the absence of an Independent Electoral Commission, as well as with the type of electoral law currently in operation in the country, it is certain that no opposition party in Cameroon can win a Presidential election.
I also think that it will be gainful for the SDF, both in terms of experience and figures to join the government, and continue the fight from inside.
Also, we have had cases of leading opposition figures or parties that joined the government in some countries, and later succeeded to get the power still through elections.
Julius Timnain, PMUC, Douala

I Am Opposed To SDF Joining
I am opposed to SDF’s joining Biya’s bandwagon. In any veritable multiparty set-up, there must exist a credible opposition to the party in power to be able to criticise its lacklustre handling of the economy and other aspects of governance. Rather than the opposition parties scrambling to join the government, I would prefer that a one-party state be declared, because it is very obvious that from the advent of multi-partyism, we have proven that we are unable to manage it, especially our Francophone compatriots, because they do not know what multi-partyism is all about.
CPN Vewessee - Trade Unionist

No Need Working With A Bad Party
SDF should not join the CPDM. It is a bad government. SDF is the party we need.
Paul Talla - Businessman

Nothing Will Change
If the SDF joins the government, nothing will change. This is a bad system. There is nothing SDF will do. They will not allow them change the system.
Juvet Chu, Businessman

It Is A Futile Attempt
It will be a futile attempt because we have seen the bad faith of the government in place. Any party that has joined this regime has ended up dying. So, if the SDF wants to hasten its own death, it should join the devil and see whether in the next two years there will still be anything in this country like the SDF. Where is Bouba Bello today? The SDF should be careful. It is the only opposition party in Cameroon. Aligning with the CPDM means there is no opposition party in Cameroon.
John Teneng - GCE Board, Buea

Comments

[Janvier Tchouteu]

Late Dr Samuel Tchwenko, the SDF's ideologue, genuine revolutionary and union nationalist, and the only legendary figure to emerge from this phase of the struggle was the first SDF stalwart contacted by the Biya regime in an effort to lure the SDF to join the government. Fru Ndi etc urged him to attend the talks and make a judgment on the issue. Offered compensation for his clinic burnt by government agents in 1991, offered the post of prime minister with far-ranging powers to choose a cabinet etc, his response was to reject the makeshift offers, a position clearly spelt out to the rest of the SDF hierarchy in late 1992. "The objective of the struggle is to change the system and at no moment in the cause should the SDF accept handouts from the system, and the party should never indicate that it is desperate to be part of the status quo and the benefits of it," Dr Samuel Tchwenko had said categorically, believing at any moment that he could be assassinated.

The moment that the Fru-Ndi-led clique in the SDF hierarchy started engaging the Biya regime and the SDF for handouts back in the mid-1990s, was the beginning of the derailing of the SDF and the struggle. That was the beginning of the betrayals of the union nationalists and revolutionaries in the party, the so-called hardliners. And that was also the beginning of the betrayal of the struggling masses. The SDF needs to be fundamentally overhauled if it should regain its original status. And that means getting rid of the mafia-clique in the leadership. If not, it would continue on the path of its demise, just like the hijacked UPC of the 1990s, a dinosaur that lost its strength, focus and purpose.

Joining the government would be the last straw (tightening the hang rope's noose around the party's neck) of the SDF's suicide. And perhaps it would help the true essence of the struggle, because the true exponents of change would finally accept the harsh reality that there is no true opposition force against the anachronistic French-imposed system. And that would be the beginning for the struggling masses to go behind a force that genuinely is out to build a new, united, progressive, democratic and economically prosperous kamerun.

[Wilson Anung]

No! no! no! Now listen and listen good, we shouldn't get things mixed up or keep fooling ourselves till doomsday. Mr. Biya and his party was roundly and soundly defeated in the last Presidentials by Fru Ndi of the SDF, the main opposition party, marking the second of such defeat in 12 years. If we want to talk of any "merge", to begin with Mr. Biya should give the seat to the legitimate owner Mr. Fru Ndi and only after then can we talk about such a merge. At that level the terms of the merge will principally be decided by the SDF as the party in power. Anything short of this, even by an inch is obnoxious!

A universal fraud like Biya should at this point realize that Cameroonians are rife at the continuous state of mess in which a country like Cameroon with abundantly rich natural resources find itself. Cameroonians, live with your eyes open. Don't be fooled!

Wilson Anung, Montreal-Canada

[Che Sunday (Dr>)]

Cameroon does not have a functional democracy. What we have is a functional dictatorship under the guise of a democracy. If, under the present system, Biya is willing to allow the opposition parties to hold cabinet positions and answereable to their respective party bosses, not the presidency, then I would offer that the SDF accept his invitation. But because this can never materialize, I believe the best thing to do is decline his invitation.
Cameroon is so badly ruined economically that any party accepting to be part of the government will be accepting an invitation of participation in the looting process.Such grand thievery has its reward in that the culprits spend the rest of their lives looking over their shoulders. Is that what the SDF has been working for over the years? I don't think so. Stay away from this government. It has no good intentions for its own stalwarts, let alone outsiders.

[Joseph Nkeze]

The main reason given by the SDF for contesting the parliamentary elections was that they wanted to change the regime from within. After several years of trying hard, they are still in the status quo. It is hard to change a corrupt and inefficient system. The rule: If you can't fight join them, does not always work in politics, especially in entrenched regimes.
Biya has seven years to go. By the 4th year, many within the CPDM would have begun the fight to succeed him. Only a strong party, with a strong platform would be able to successfully defeat the appointed puppet. The case of Kenya is something to study, because Biya will likely appoint his successor, and try to prop him in power. Only a strong opposition would prevent this.
Joining the government does not benefit the collective will of the people. It benefits the individual minister and his cronies/members of his family or clan. Bello Bouba represents nobody but himself; so does Koddock and the others who have joined the government.
Some people are talking about the details of the agreement before the SDF should join or not. We all know the case of the Tripartite agreement, when the Government refused it never signed any agreement. There is no Gentleman's agreement when dealing with this regime. Biya does not respect agreements and treaties. Come to think of it, Biya had more than 71% of the votes, and is under not pressure to share his power. He will look for a few greedy members of the SDF, motivated by their personal interests to join his government. Of course, they have to implement the Government's policies. Biya was elected by the people on a platform of his policies, and SDF or no SDF, you cannot change the policies from within.
It is extremely troubling that the SDF says only Fru Ndi has the right to negotiate with Biya. This is dictatorship within the SDF, and should be condemned. It is only by debating ideas within the party as we are doingin this web blog, that leaders of the SDF can make informed decisions that will not further alienate the already alienated and disenfranchised Cameroon populace.
Trust me, if the SDF joins, the motivation to support this party would be gone, and the SDF will spiral into that bottomless pit that other parties have gone into.
Joseph Nkeze

[Random Freedom]

After 22 years of uninterrupted plunder, a French-controlled junta of thieves and evil-doers want to subscribe unsuspecting men and women who've been put by their policies in economic want to join can share the blame of the juntas failure. This is a trap. Anyone from the SDF or opposition that joins LRC "large consensus" is unwittingly becoming an accomplice to the crimes and evil deeds of evil men and women controlled from Paris.
With "75%" of the vote, Biya does not need the so-called opposition, unless he himdelf does not believe his own lies.

[Fon Emmanuel]

My cooment is directed to Dr. Richard Ghogomo who suggests trhat the SDF should join the government and learn. i see why you are a teacher in Yaounde Univedrsity I. You were one of those stupid Ph.D holders in inthat universilty you and your likes have abused over the years. What in your poor mind can anybody learn from the Cameroon government? What can the Cameroon government system oiffer as a lesson to anybody on this earth. With all your learning sir, you are suggesting that people should learn anythiung from Cameroon government? Or are suggesting the art of bribery, corruption, blackmail, falsehood, human rights abuse, murder? I made this comment to you only because of that academic title you attached to your name. I would not have bothered. Where did you get it from anyway? My God! So if somone asks you to suggests a government to learn anything from your mind would direct you to Mr. Paul Biya's government. Are you blind, deaf, or dumb? What can one learn from a government that can not even operate a simple urban transport system to help its workers? how many things should I cite to make your mind open. take a look at the decay around you Dr. Ghogomo. Look at the delapidation of our road network, schools, hospitals, sports infrastructure, etc. Assess the level of morality in the society, duty consciousness at the work place etc. etc. and you ask the SDF to go and learn. Please look for another reason
Fon Ngang

[neba funiba]

Mr. Fon Ngang:
Thanks very much for the critique of Dr. Ghogomu. That is how it is in Cameroon--so do not be surprised if the so-called Dr. Ghogomu is seeking for a way to become a Head of Department in the so-called Yaounde University. It is only in Cameroon that university lecturers abandon classes and go out to campaign on behalf of a dictator who will not venture out of Yaounde, and in return gain promotion. Anyone who does not understand what I mean, look back at peter abety, john agbor tabi, and emphraim ngwafor, etc., etc. These jokers got promoted to professors and then to ministers by constantly singing biya's praises at pseudo political rallies. It is only in Cameroon that you can gain rapid promotion from when you obtain your PH.D. and start teaching as an instructor to a professor not as a result of internationally-recognized scholarly publications but as a result of political party affiliation. Ghogomu cannot tell if anything is wrong with the system in Cameroon because the wrong is the norm in Cameroon. Think about it, the system in Cameroon is grounded in the politics of personalization and patronage (the politics of clientelism), and falsehood. So by Cameroon's standards Ghogomu is right when he wants the SDF to learn from the kleptocratic regime in power. Biya learnt so well from Ahidjo--see where Cameroon is today: one of the most corrupt nations in the labyrinthine history of mankind. Ghogomu wants the SDF to join government and learn from the regime so that the cycle of neopatrimonial politics should stay alive. Mr. ghogomu, tell us where exactly you got your PH.D. and the discipline. The PH.D. epitomizes the highest level of independent and critical thinking in academe; therefore if by your critique the biya regime is a regime that should be admired and emulated, there is reason to question the authenticity of your academic qualification. Cameroonians will never stop being docile and living in falsehood with the likes of this ghogomu.

[Janvier Tchouteu]

Late Dr Samuel Tchwenko, the SDF's ideologue, genuine revolutionary and union nationalist, and the only legendary figure to emerge from this phase of the struggle was the first SDF stalwart contacted by the Biya regime in an effort to lure the SDF to join the government. Fru Ndi etc urged him to attend the talks and make a judgment on the issue. Offered compensation for his clinic burnt by government agents in 1991, offered the post of prime minister with far-ranging powers to choose a cabinet etc, his response was to reject the makeshift offers, a position clearly spelt out to the rest of the SDF hierarchy in late 1992. "The objective of the struggle is to change the system and at no moment in the cause should the SDF accept handouts from the system, and the party should never indicate that it is desperate to be part of the status quo and the benefits of it," Dr Samuel Tchwenko had said categorically, believing at any moment that he could be assassinated. The moment that the Fru-Ndi-led clique in the SDF hierarchy started engaging the Biya regime and the SDF for handouts back in the mid-1990s, was the beginning of the derailing of the SDF and the struggle. That was the beginning of the betrayals of the union nationalists and revolutionaries in the party, the so-called hardliners. And that was also the beginning of the betrayal of the struggling masses.

[Mbah]

SDF in or out of govenment now means nothing. SDF has already lost the popularity it had in the 90s. For the next parliamentary elections, they will only get less than the barely 21 seats they have todoy. We keep on saying ´Biya must go` while he is winning.