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The story of the SDF as a political formation during the last nineteen years of its existence is also a story of deferred dreams, bungled chances, unfulfilled promises and dashed hopes.

how can  the SDF leadership - I was asking -   continue  to  exude the kind of near imperial arrogance that Mr. Fru Ndi recently spurted out following  the resignation of Akonteh?

As a political organization the SDF has also been considerably weakened by unsound policy decisions made without a proper analysis of the risks and the rewards involved. Two good examples are, first, the decision to call for a boycott of French goods (thus gratuitously seeking confrontation with an influential former colonial power); and second, publicly calling for the disbandment of the corps of Civil Administrators (D.Os, SDOs and Governors) as well as the National Gendarmerie.

Of course, in that position, he was the chief organizer of electoral fraud in Cameroon. But I am not one of those who would want to use the past misdeeds of Marafa to detract from what he is saying in his letters. In his letters he has raised many important issues, including corruption related to compensation for the victims of the 1995 Camair plane crash and the incompetence of some of those appointed as government ministers.

This transformation had to be the work of politicians. Yet, many in the leadership of the SDF who were supposed to transform intentions to reality seemed to see politics more in the context of demagoguery, petty rivalry, and time-wasting. Politics was never taken for what it is: an art that provides an alternative to violence and bloodshed; an art that provides formulae that allow people to overcome past failures and provide solutions to seemingly insoluble problems.

That in Côte d’Ivoire left the people Mugabe’ed or Kibakied, whichever you like. Do not mind the motions of support trickling there from ‘social democratic’ and ‘leftwing’ groupings. The Biyas, Wades and others of the same feathers are chuckling in amusement at the fact that they are usually confronted by noises about commitment to values like social justice, democracy, liberty, mutual obligation, opportunity for all, responsibility… The ‘left-wingers’ may retort that it is precisely because of these values that they refuse to hand-over power on a platter of gold to the other side, whatever the decision of the people. Pity for those who thought that ‘leftwing’ politics could bring progress to Africa; pity for Africa and the prospect for continental peace and tranquility…”