Opinions of Sunday, 15 November 2015

Auteur: Felix Teche Nyamusa

Urgency of SDF constitutional amendment: Answering Mbah Ndam

My party, SDF, legal adviser – Hon Mbah Ndam in a recent press outing found no fault with a portion of the Nyamusa 19 October, 2015 “Proposal for amendment of the SDF constitution” on none accumulation of positions by the national chair (and his /her deputies) and the national secretary general ( and his/her deputies)

Mbah Ndam according to the Horizon newspaper of Friday 6th November 2015 said the party constitution was clear that the chairman steps down from his position only when he becomes president of the republic – this may be the spirit of the current constitution which logically was meant only for the first public elections the party got involved with in 1992 following her launch in 1990.

But with the passage of time up to over two decades now (1992 – 2015) this portion of the constitution would have long been reviewed because other militants some better equipped for leadership than the incumbent chair are interested in the public position the chair has interest in as well and thus must stand primaries on a level field with the incumbent.

Human nature being generally vindictive, party potential voters for such primaries involving the incumbent chair will logically be intimidated from freely voting their minds’ choice for fear of eventual victimization by an incumbent who loses the public position yet by constitution maintains his/her chair position.

Further the chair constitutionally has authority on party projects, occasions, finances which he/she may illogically use to the disadvantage of any other party adversaries! This absurd party practice of posts accumulation by some officials is a serious setback for our organization whereby the right party torch-bearers for public competitions will hardly be gotten thus weakening militants’ enthusiasm, participation in more party activities and lacklustre(to say the least) performance in public elections and other chores .

Hence our suggestion like obtained in global democracies that those in such demanding positions counterpart to SDF national chairperson (and his/her deputies) and national secretary general (and his/her deputies) should not go for primaries or elections for any government or public positions again or accept appointment for same.

However if they so cherish any public positions they have to first resign from their current party posts in order to embark on the public position of their desire - no eligible militant for any election of our party can ordinarily be barred from standing polls - reassuring Mbah Ndam, we guess! This is all contained in the amendment proposal to NEC to be deliberated at party convention.

Like obtained in democracies equivalent party positions like those of SDF national chair and national secretary general and their respective deputies act their various parties umpires , they oversee the production of party slogans, policies, campaign messages , ensure massive militants recruit ….

However, fellow Cameroonians, this necessary reinforcement of our party will urgently and imperatively lead to the ultimate application of the Cameroon constitutional last resort to send parking the reactionary incumbent Biya CPDM regime: the pro CPDM ELECAM must be scrapped, the antiquated Cameroon constitution revamped to ensure separation of powers and prevent the regime in place from solo exploiting Cameroon to below the surface before we get even remotely close to the all important 2018 elections . Furthermore knowing the regime history of fidgeting with the electoral calendar, the necessity of SDF NEC summoning an urgent extra ordinary convention for our buttressing is full-scale!

May God guide SDF, Cameroon!

Felix Teche Nyamusa, SDF 2018 Presidential hopeful (pending primaries).