The death of John Fru Ndi
The news fell late in the evening of June 12. SDF founder Ni John Fru Ndi passed away after illness. The leader of the undisputed party who had fought major rivalries with Paul Biya’s party breathed his last. A painful departure for those close to him, but more so for his political family, which is currently in a tailspin, some accusing others of having diluted party ideology and to have moved closer to the ruling party, the CPDM.
Recall that John Fru Ndi was born in Baba II, near Bamenda, in the North West region of Cameroon. He was educated at the Baforchu Basel Mission and the Santa Native Authority before leaving for Nigeria to study (at Lagos City College) and work in 1957. In 1966, he returned to Cameroon and began selling vegetables before running a bookstore in Bamenda, the Ebibi Book Centre.
He has also made a name for himself in the sphere of football. He led a football club from 1979 to 1988 and the branch of the Lions Club International in Bamenda from 1987 to 1988. He was a candidate of the ruling party, the Democratic Movement of the Cameroonian People (RDPC), in the constituency of Mezam Central in the 1988 legislative elections, where he was beaten by another CPDM list.
John Fru Ndi then founded the SDF in 1990. He was elected national president of the SDF at its first ordinary national convention, which was held in Bamenda in May 1992. to President Paul Biya, losing with 36% of the vote against 40% for Biya according to the official results (in the stronghold of Fru Ndi, the North-West region, he officially obtains 86.3%).
This election was condemned as fraudulent by the opposition, and Fru Ndi and Maigari Bello Bouba, the opposition candidate who came in third place, unsuccessfully requested the annulment of the election by the Supreme Court. Long in rivalry with Paul Biya, his historical opponent has for a few years approached him, hence the tensions within the SDF.
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