OPPOSITION CULTURE
The government instantly declared the party illegal and from that moment classical opposition strategies were adopted.
Former President Ahmadou Ahidjo arriving in Washington DC, July, 1982.
conducted on a one-round single list system, which gave no possibility of winning to the opposition parties. The Presidential Election of 20 March 1965 conducted in the same manner, saw Ahdijo and Foncha running on a single ticket as President and Vice President and without any list presented by the opposition. Foncha, whether or not pushed by
the manoeuvres of Ahidjo, dismissed 10 members of his KNDP Party that included S.T. Muna and E.T Egbe. These members, under the leadership of S.T. Muna formed a new Party called the “Cameroon United Party (CUC) that gained instant popularity.
The death of multi-parties and the opposition culture In June 1966, Ahidjo called a meeting of the leaders of the major political parties in the two sectors of Cameroon, to agree to dissolve their respective political parties. This process was cemented on 1 September 1966 by the birth of the Cameroon National Union (CNU) with Ahidjo as National Chairman as well as the President of the Federal Republic of Cameroon. Cameroon formerly became a one-party state. The exiled wing of the UPC abandoned the embryonic opposition
culture and resorted to armed struggle. For 34 years, Cameroonians
lived under the yoke of one party. During the reign of terror instituted by the 1962 ordinance, major political leaders perished and the opposition culture that had flourished had been completely wiped out. The only thing that reigned was fear.
The re-birth of the opposition Politician Ni John Fru Ndi brought an end to the reign by launching a political party named the Social Democratic Front (SDF) and later became its National Chairperson. The immediate challenge was the creation of a viable opposition that would be a catalyst to the elimination of the one- party system. The founding fathers had made a fundamental option. Their goal as implicit in the manifesto was the creation of an opposition culture by which the dictatorship would be overthrown through the ballot box and not through armed struggle. It was a major challenge to take on board. The SDF undertook an extra- parliamentary strategy in order to realize its objectives.
Extra-parliamentary strategy The idea of launching a political
10 | The Parliamentarian | 2014: Issue Three - Cameroon
party was a strategy in itself. While this idea was in gestation, a group in 1989 led by Barrister Yondo Black in French-speaking Cameroon had held nocturnal meetings with the view to form a political party but they were arrested, tried and sentenced to prison terms by the Military Tribunal for having committed the crime of subversion. Thus, even though the constitution of Cameroon had provided that political parties would take part in the exercise of national sovereignty and a law of 1967 had actually provided for the formation of political associations, the government had demonstrated through the Yondo Black trials that it would not tolerate the formation of any other political Party in Cameroon. Force, tact and courage was thus an imperative if another political party had to see the light of day in Cameroon. On 26 May 1990, when Ni John Fru Ndi decided to mount the rostrum in Ntarikon- Bamenda in the north-west region and launch the SDF as a political party, there was no doubt that trouble would follow. There had been a prefectoral order banning the planned launch and Bamenda was under military occupation. However, Ni John Fru Ndi persevered and six people died as a result of the confrontation.
Street action, alliances and Coalitions In the beginning, Bamenda became the focal point in Cameroon as weekly unauthorized meetings, manifestations and marches were carried out. The military fought back, and many were maimed, arrested and subjected to inhuman forms of torture. The Chairperson persisted and soon moved out of the north-west into the west province where he was shot in the leg by the military. The increased excitement of a second political party spread to Douala and Yaoundé. The government finally surrendered and by the parliamentary session of November of the same year, laws that came to be known as “the liberty laws” were adopted and promulgated on December 199O by the President of the Republic. The government authorized the formation of political parties but refused to recognize the existence of the SDF. Consequently, other political parties were formed.6
As the proliferation of
political parties gained ground, the SDF moved on to the formation of coalitions.7
Coalitions formed In 1991 under the subtle instigation of the SDF a coalition between political parties and civil society associations was formed. The Chairperson occupied the post of Vice-President in its executive organ that came to be known as the “Directoire” but was actually its motive force as demonstrated by the famous match to the Presidency in 1991 and the enforcement of the ghost towns and ghost countries. Ghost town or Ghost Country intensified whenever and wherever it was announced that Ni John Fru Ndi was in town or in some part of the country even though he had not actually moved from Bamenda. The coalition was betrayed at the Tripartite.8 The parties that refused to sign the Tripartite Agreement soon regrouped
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