Shadow Cabinet appointment

Untold Truth between Fru Ndi and Agbor Balla

The Social Democratic Front (SDF) and its charismatic Chairman John Fru Ndi, pulled unprecedented crowds in the nineties and were veritable threats to the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM).

Today, the appointment of Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla, a human rights advocate as Justice Minister in the SDF Shadow Cabinet has exposed the deep cracks of egoism and illegality within the leadership.

The sad saga began when John Fru Ndi, announced the appointment of Agbor Balla , a lawyer, as SDF Shadow Cabinet Minister of Justice.

It was a déjà vu appointment given that unlike in the United Kingdom with a parliamentary democracy where a Shadow Cabinet exists, it is never heard of in a presidential system like the case in Cameroon. As such the appointment was not a scoop.

But eyebrows were raised when days later, on June 18, Agbor Balla sent a letter that went viral on the social media to the chairman turning down the offer: “I however regret to inform you that I am unable to accept this appointment” and added:

“Mr Chairman, times have changed from the 1990s. The challenges our people face require new solutions and new approaches…..The country for the time being needs leaders who can reach out to all Cameroonians beyond party lines to work together for a better future”.

Even before he rejected the appointment Prof. Ndiva Kofele Kale, SDF legal adviser who Balla was to replace at the Shadow Cabinet had in media reports expressed the need for “cleansing at the helm of the party….. That would have been in keeping with our fundamental principles and values and in conformity with our social democratic tradition and practice …Truth, be told, these leadership changes have long been overdue”.

The truth was told at last June’s National Executive Committee meeting in Mbouda, West Region, where it emerged that the chairman had acted in “illegality”.

At the June NEC, delegates indicted the Chairman for violating its own laws in reshuffling the Shadow Cabinet without due consultation. A statement issued after the NEC meeting by 29 top officials including the second and third national vice chairpersons noted that: “Some NEC appointees do not meet the five year seniority requirements and are not even party activists”.

They noted that the Chairman’s “nonobservance of the principle of consultations” provided for by the SDF law “is a breach of the procedure for appointing the members of this body (Shadow Cabinet). These consultations have never been made, either in the regional executive committees or at the level of the unit of advisers.”

The officials further pointed out that the SDF statute gives co-option powers “exclusively to the National Executive Committee and not to the National Chairman. And this co-optation is done within the framework of a statutory meeting duly convened and sanctioned by a resolution of the NEC clearly bearing the names of the co-opted persons and not in a press conference.”

Fru Ndi did not comply with those legal provisions of the party and the million dollar question is: why did he by-pass the provisions? Articulate observers find the answer in the ongoing lobby by the SDF to join the CPDM government. The cat was first let out of the bag on May 29, by Hon. Forbi Nchinda, MP for Mezam Centre Constituency (Bamenda and Bali), on CRTV .

“Let me remind you that the SDF has always stood for joining a union government….Personally, I think it will be a good thing for the SDF to get into government,” Forbi Nchinda stated.

He spelled out the advantages of such a utopian dream as: “If we join a union government, it will be exposure to us. It will be good practice and our people will get to know the functioning of government just as we have learned the functioning of parliament and the councils.”

He added: “…It will also permit us to place our supporters in government structures so that they too can grow politically. I will be ready to support any move that will see the SDF joining government, but it must be negotiated… ”

He concluded that Fru Ndi has the final decision. The chairman in his reply to Agbor Balla which was also on the social media confirmed subterranean plans for a “transitional government” explaining that “since January 2022 …. Discussion on potential transition government picked up”.

Why did the chairman in his angry letter to Agbor Balla have to indicate that talks were ongoing for a union government? Some pundits say the chairman might have been considering offering Agbor Balla a slot in such an impending reshuffle to get under the skin of Prof. Kofele who the CPDM regime and even the SDF considers an uncompromising hardliner.

The reason it took Balla more than a week to reply is being explained by some articulate analysts that he stands a better chance being appointed a minister in such a “transitional government” whenever it comes to pass as a civil society activist than on the wings of the SDF that has lost steam in the national political scene.

From whatever perspective the saga is dissected, the exchange between Chairman Fru Ndi and Barrister Agbor Balla is just the very thin veneer of the egoistic lobbying behind the scene to be included in Biya’s impending government reshuffle long overdue.