SDF: Chairman Fru Ndi's Speech on the occasion of the party's 32nd anniversary
On the occasion of the 32nd anniversary of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), this Thursday, May 26, 2022, the national chairman of the political formation, John Fru Ndi addressed a speech.
CHAIRMAN FRU NDI'S FULL SPEECH
Another year has gone by and this gives us a renewed opportunity to celebrate the birth of our great party, the SDF. This day marked a turning point in the lives of all Cameroonians as well as the African continent. Today, we celebrate 32 years of struggle for a better, more equitable, and just society.
We celebrate the collective decisions we have made to make our government and institutions more responsive to the needs of the people and our sincere desire to truly preserve our national unity and cohesion, not by chanting empty words, but by making sound suggestions and proposing policies for a system of governance that best ensures this noble quest.
On this day, 32 years ago, we made a courageous decision to assume the responsibilities of building the nation of our dreams, one of prosperity and solidarity that places the Cameroonian people at the heart of every decision, honors our identities, preserves our culture, celebrates our diversity, and bequeaths to posterity strong institutions, all imbued with a culture of mutual respect, the rule of law, and a full-fledged democracy that ensures that we are united in our purpose and destiny.
Today, 32 years later, these legitimate aspirations are still awaited as we are not yet in power, but we are nevertheless still very concerned that all the issues we highlighted as urgent at the birth of our party are still very significant and can only be resolved through our collective contributions.
My warmest congratulations go to you, valiant soldiers of social democracy, vanguards of equal opportunity, defenders of social justice, and relentless nation builders. Fearless by birth, you have withstood some very trying times and deserve to be celebrated for holding the fort until now. Happy 32nd Anniversary!
Dear members, supporters,
Dear Cameroonians,
In previous anniversary messages, I have had the opportunity to highlight some of the seismic achievements that our great party has been able to accomplish under very difficult conditions. I am not going to enumerate these innumerable feats, but I mention them as a reminder that these were not the achievements of any individual, but of our hard-fought collective actions.
These accomplishments were achieved through a mixture of popular and unpopular decisions, with a clear objective of ensuring that the party stays in the relevant debates and remains true to its mission of bringing positive change to Cameroon. Our strategy of boycott or participation is defined by the objective to be achieved and before that, there is a progressive build-up to a point where we are convinced that the final decision will ensure that we achieve the set objective, that a very strong message is sent to the powers that be enabling our country to evolve into a more egalitarian and free society.
It's not an easy path to take. We had to educate ourselves and we had to raise the standards, not only for the conquest of power but also for the transformation of our political discourse, the elevation of our political thinking, and the full engagement of every Cameroonian to adopt a path that preserves lives and secures our nation from disaster - the force of argument as well as the building of consensus instead of the propagation of dissension.
Extremism is incompatible with nation-building, national unity, and social democracy. Our true radicality lies in our ability to mobilize and unite, and that remains our challenge.
I am proud to say that we have taken this challenge seriously over the past 32 years and today, with unions rising up across the country, from teachers demanding respect for their rights to lawyers protesting the non-respect of our bi-juridical system, Cameroonians are no longer in the dark and can no longer be politically manipulated.
Since our birth, we have been the party that has supported Cameroonians from all walks of life, winning their hearts by fighting for their rights and instilling hope and confidence in our nation. We have always had a simple and clear message that we can do the seemingly impossible if we come together, with a clear vision and through a system that efficiently allocates our resources so that every Cameroonian can be part of this great destiny of development. This is our message on federalism, not limited to the politics of form, but much deeper to enable us to emerge as a giant on the continent.
Cameroonians have believed in it from the beginning and even more so today. They have massively voted for this agenda, but political opportunism has prevented us from reaching our true position.
Today, you are all witnesses to the fact that the government is forced to go back to the drawing board, having fully experienced all the weaknesses and failures that we have been denouncing for 32 years.
These failures have unfortunately gone to the extent of pushing some Cameroonians to take up arms, which could certainly have been avoided with the implementation of SDF policies either by being in power or by being listened to by the government. We believe that federalism with appropriate financial equalization is the solution to the current crisis in our beloved country. On the lips of every Cameroonian today, there is a clamor to return to a federal form of governance, a subject that was previously taboo.
Congratulations once again to you, astute militants of the struggle, you must take full credit for this tremendous breakthrough.
Thirty-two years ago we introduced multipartyism and today we are certainly on the right track to introducing a federal system that is desired and will be accepted by every son and daughter of this nation. We must therefore continue to be the visionaries of this country and the real engine of our local development.
We must roll up our sleeves and accomplish our mission of "building the country we want".
Cameroonians place their hope for a better future in our Party. They want the strength of our diversity to be harnessed for the good of our country.
We call on all the sons and daughters of this country to join us to achieve this goal.
It is on this note that I would like to close this message of encouragement. We are currently conducting renewal exercises within the Party to rejuvenate our structures.
We invite all party members and Cameroonians in general to be part of this exercise. This will enable us to redeploy on the ground. We are a party ready to govern and we will govern.
We will implement our policies that will transform this country once in power, but to do so, we must unite, find consensus and stay focused on the mission of building our country by talking to each other in a way that we Cameroonians understand.
I want to thank all those who have stood by us throughout this journey. I would especially like to thank the "Think Tank SDF Europe" for all their work.
We will emerge better and stronger after this exercise of renewal that we have put in place.
Long live the SDF party
Long live our beloved nation Cameroon
Ni John Fru Ndi, National Chairman