Longtime opposition leader John Fru Ndi joins ancestors at 81
By Hans Ngala
Cameroonian statesman and longtime opposition leader, Ni John Fru Ndi has died in Yaounde at the age of 81, just three weeks shy of his 82nd birthday.
According to a statement from the Social Democratic Front (SDF) party which Fru Ndi founded in 1990, the respected Anglophone leader died at 11: 30p.m. Cameroon local time.
The statement, signed by the SDF’s first national vice president, Joshua Osih did not give any further details but stated that “the funeral program shall be communicated as soon as it is established”.
Fru Ndi was born in Baba II near Bamenda in the then Southern Cameroons on the 7th of July 1941. He was given the title of Ni shortly after he was born.
Starting his career as a bookseller in Bamenda, he later entered politics in the late 1980s, running as a candidate for the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) after losing to another CPDM candidate, he would later create the SDF and being nominated as the party’s national chairman in 1992.
In the October 1992 presidential elections, he came close to winning the polls with a 36% count against 40% against incumbent Paul Biya, meanwhile, in the North West Province, he got 86.3% of the vote.
Fru Ndi’s Legacy
Fru Ndi will be remembered for his bravery in creating the nation’s first opposition party – 10 years after Biya’s rise to power. He was well-respected not just within the Anglophone community, but nationally. At the start of the current phase of the Anglophone Crisis in 2016, he tried to appease the Anglophone population and some even got angry with him for his decision that the SDF will not withdraw from Parliament according to popular demands, arguing instead that the party could make a stronger case for Anglophones by staying in Parliament.
He was kidnapped around Kumbo by some of the separatist fighter groups while on his way to the funeral of the late Hon. Dr. Joseph Banadzem on 28 June 2019 and was released a few hours later after some negotiations. A video later went viral, showing him in high spirits and drinking palm wine with some of the “Boys”. His bravery had once more made him to be respected even by the “Boys” whose philosophy he did not necessarily agree with.
Fru Ndi’s exit after that of Cardinal Tumi, leaves the Anglophone community with no other leader who had the same charisma and clout that those two had as most Anglophone leaders are either deceased or based in the diaspora.
His death comes barely six days after he announced that he was stepping down as leader of the party he founded over 30 years ago, a decision that was met with much respect from the Anglophone community and also nationally.
Fru Ndi was well-respected and could pull the Anglophone community together in times of national crises like few leaders could. During the National Dialogue in Yaounde in 2019, months after his kidnap in Kumbo, Fru Ndi stated that the best way to solve the problem in Cameroon was for the country to adopt a federal system of governance but he was told no by some in the audience but he then reminded them that they were sitting comfortably in Yaounde and had never been kidnapped by those boys and that he was in a better position to speak on those issues. He received applause from the same people who had tried to oppose him just seconds earlier.
During the 1992 inauguration of US President Bill Clinton, Fru Ndi was invited to the White House – a move interpreted by pundits to mean that the US government recognized him as the legitimate winner of the presidential elections that year in Cameroon. He and the Clintons were later photographed together at the White House.
Pa Fru Ndi will be deeply missed both by his family, Anglophones, and all Cameroonians at large. May his soul rest in perfect peace.
