I have this love/hate relationship with French. It is not an easy language to learn, especially when it comes to writing the language down. I also find it very snobbish and aristocratic and sometimes far removed from the more rustic nature and coarseness of English. However, the French language has this one beautiful thing about it; its expressions.
Sometimes when I speak in English I have to switch to French because I cannot find an expression in English that is suitable enough. One of such is “prendre une deculotté”
To say that the Social Democratic Front a pris une deculotté in these last elections would be quite the understatement. The paltry figures we saw coming from the polling stations were quite surprising. I mean, some people in my entourage had been a little sagacious and had told me it might be that way but I had been stoic in my denial. And then I was proved wrong.
For the younger ones amongst us, or those who have not really followed Cameroonian politics, you may not know this, but we have a lot to thank the SDF for.
I remember faintly in late 1991 when John Fru Ndi came to our small town. I was a toddler then and was sitting on the shoulders of one of our neighbours’ watching a man speak to a large crowd that had gathered at the main town square. I remember his leg was bandaged. Or was it his hand? Anyway, there was a rumour going around that an attempt had been made on his life and he had been shot. The story went on to say he had caught the bullet with his hand and had shot it back at the policeman. A totally fabricated lie which my small mind believed.
But such was the aura of Ni John Fru Ndi at the time. The man was a rockstar and had almost single-handedly ushered multi-party politics in Cameroon. And he won the 1992 elections. Unfortunately, he was thwarted out of it and the rest,, as they say,, is history.
So I maintain that we have a lot to thank the SDF for; like for all these so-called parties that are covering the political landscape. We have ELECAM, as flawed as it is, thanks to them. Hell, we even have transparent ballot boxes thanks to the SDF. A lot of the democratic gains that we have had today is thanks to the SDF as they have been able to twist the arm of the CPDM –infused government quite often.
But qu’est-ce qui n’a donc pas marché?
Without going too far we can see that the Anglophone Crisis really hurt the SDF. Not only did their base not vote, but we got to see how vital the Anglophone people are for the party. Infighting within the SDF too caused a lot of problems. Joshua Osih was chosen as the candidate very late, barely a few months to the elections. This further stained the already loose-hanging image of the SDF. Also, John Fru Ndi’s strong hold on power and his initial desire to run for the presidency bore an eerie resemblance to… the CPDM.
Add to that the fact that the SDF took no clear position in the Anglophone crisis from the onset and you have another source of bitterness from their electorate. Hon. Wirba did not have a very strong and vocal party support and by the time the SDF MPs were dancing and singing on the house floor in protest, SCACUF had already taken hold of the Anglophone problem. It was too late.
Their refusal to coalesce was perhaps the final nail on the coffin. I’ve already said in a previous article that we may throw the word ‘coalition’ around as much as we want, it is not easy to form one. You have the party’s philosophical ideas to consider, the political programmes, the members of the executive committee’s opinions, the members of the party’s opinion and even just simple relationship dynamics between, say Joshua Osih and Maurice Kamto. There is a lot of power play, as you can see, that makes coalition hard.
Added to that it is somewhat understandable that the SDF took the high ground and demanded to lead the coalition. They are a much older party and I mentioned earlier, a lot of the advances and pseudo advances we have in our democracy today is thanks to them. Why would they have left Kamto to lead the coalition? That is why we need a two-round election in this banana republic. If we did, Kamto who has now emerged as the leader could have an alliance formed around him with more clarity.
So what’s the way forward? How can and what should the SDF do to rise from the ashes like the phoenix and regain its place in the firmament?
1- First of all I think the first thing, and not a small thing either, to do is to back Maurice Kamto. At this point, it doesn’t matter who anyone voted in the elections. The winning horse is clearly Maurice Kamto. Not only have election results shown that he has the votes, but his recent outings, press conferences, and the brouhaha at the Constitutional Council deliberations yesterday have created a wave of unease amongst the ruling class.
He has occupied the media space both on and offline. He has a clear claim to the Iron Throne and the only way the SDF can redeem its image at this point is to take the proverbial L and clearly back Maurice Kamto in the aftermath of the proclamation of the results.
2- Secondly, the SDF needs to reorganise its base. By reorganise I mean that it should do an overhaul in the ranks of its militants. The SDF is too far removed from young people under 35 and the staunchest supporters of the SDF today are those who have been supporters since 1992. The party needs to rebrand itself and start getting younger Cameroonians back into its ranks.
Their attractiveness has waned in the eyes of young people and they need to start using social media more and using young people (just as Kamto is using Wilfried Ekanga) to push forth its message.
3- The SDF needs to practice a lot of soft campaigning. By soft campaigning, I mean not waiting for electoral years to be out there. They need to do more now; organise business conferences, organise job fairs, give talks at university campuses, work with NGOs, organise workshops for entrepreneurs, give pro bono legal, engage in political discussions on the digital space, start a podcast,... etcetera etcetera. And not only should they do this, but they should also COMMUNICATE this via all the channels available to them.
I could go on but I want to hear from you. What is the way forward for the SDF? How do they put the shine back on their armour? Let us meet in the comments section.
- Wandji Wilfred.