SDF NEC co-opts Joshua Osih as interim Chairman, fires Kambiwa among other resolutions

The First National Vice President of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) party, Hon. Joshua Osih, has been co-opted as the new National Chairman of the party.

Osih was voted in during the SDF’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held in Yaounde on Saturday, September 9.

Since the SDF’s creation in 1990, Joshua Osih is the first person, aside from the party’s late founding father, Ni John Fru Ndi, to occupy the position of Chairman.

A release dated September 9, which Osih signed as the First Vice National Chairman of the SDF, states that his promotion to Chairman is backed by Section 8.6 of the party’s constitution.

This section empowers the SDF’s National Executive Committee to co-opt party members into certain positions in the event of vacancies.

By implication, the political figure, business mogul, and traditional ruler, Joshua Osih, now assumes the responsibilities of the late National Chairman, Ni John Fru Ndi, who died on June 12, 2023. This will be the case until the party’s elective national convention, billed for October.

Upcoming Elective National Convention Maintained

Although not spelled out in the NEC resolutions, the upcoming elective national convention of the SDF, where a new National Chairman is supposed to be elected, will be held as planned. The event is scheduled to take place in Yaounde on October 28 and 29.

The First Vice National Chairman told journalists that organising the elective convention was among the SDF’s top priorities.

Before Hon. Joshua Osih was co-opted National Chairman, some party militants had already declared their candidature for the National Chairman position ahead of the convention. But Osih has yet to make any public declaration of his intention to take the position.

In a press interview after the NEC meeting on Saturday, he did not come across clearly when asked if he would contest for the position of Chairman or not.

Osih told journalists that his electoral district in Douala will be the first to know when he declares his intentions to contest for the SDF chairmanship.

Before he died, the late charismatic Chairman, Fru Ndi, was bound to surrender the position he had held for nearly 33 years. He said he would step down during the elective national convention to pave the way for a younger person.

Chantal Kambiwa Dismissed Again

One of the fallouts of the recent NEC meeting was the dismissal of Chantal Kambiwa, who was one of the flag bearers of the SDF among those in the diaspora. She was also the Vice Coordinator of the SDF’s Socialist Women International.

Kambiwa was among 34 people earlier dismissed from the party in February under the label of G27+ for dragging the party Chairman to court and for engaging in other “anti-party” activities.

The NEC warned that she must cease to represent or act on behalf of the party again. The particular reason behind her dismissal from the SDF was not, however, mentioned in the NEC statement.

In other resolutions from the NEC meeting, the body approved the results of recent elections into the party’s regional bureaus in the South West and North Regions. It also obliged the party’s regional branches in the West, Littoral, and North West Regions to reorganise themselves by September 23.

The SDF’s late Chairman, Ni John Fru Ndi, is being hailed as one of the godfathers of democracy in Cameroon. His party spearheaded Cameroon’s return to multiparty democracy in 1990 and has continued to push for the respect of democratic values over the years.