The
Regional Chairman of the SDF for the South West, George Ngeke Likiye has said
that though the party has tried hard to institute many institutional changes in
Cameroon, the present regime has been very stubborn and adamant to change.
Likiye
was speaking ahead of celebrations marking the 24th anniversary of
the party.
Amongst
other issues raised in this interview, he said there is no tuning back and that
the struggle must continue after 24 years.
It
is a compelling read; He spoke to the Sun’s Managing Editor, Norbert Wasso
Binde
Mr.
Regional Chairman of the SDF, we want to thank you for always being available
to answer our questions from The Sun Newspaper and Happy anniversary to your
party the SDF. 24 years old, what assessment can you make of your party?
Thank you very much, it is a pleasure to be here and
thank you for wishing us a happy anniversary. I think it’s been 24 years of ups
and downs; however the ups are more than the downs. For 24 years, we have
actually brought political change in Cameroon and up to this point, what we are
saying is that there has been a lot of improvement politically, economically
and of course, Cameroonians as well within this period have been able to speak
out their political minds and to say exactly what they want to say, so I think it’s
been 24 years of effective politicking, 24 years of penetrating through the
stubborn regime that we have that has been very adamant to change; we’ve been
able to persistently push the changes that Cameroonians actually need.
Don’t
you get the feeling that there is a sense of resignation with your militants,
may be they seem to be tired after 24 years; don’t you get that sense when you
go about?
Actually I don’t get that sense and I differ with
people who think that after 24 years people should be tired. It is a struggle
and that is why the SDF still constitutes itself as a front. Indeed 24 years is
a longtime, but not 24 years that has been wasted, it is 24 years of hard work
and so we should not withdraw because we are very close to achieving our
political goals. Nothing good comes easily, people have to work extremely hard
for it and so we believe that for 24 years we have done some work, but there is
still a lot that has to be done.
What
are some of the things you have identified that still has to be done?
There is lot that still has to be done. We have not
had a very good level playing field as far as elections are concerned.
Cameroonians are actually looking forward to a system where elections have to
be credible but up to this point, we regret to inform you that ELECAM is not
independent. ELECAM still has a lot of work to do and it has not been empowered
to function as a political monitoring body that is capable to organize
elections because they are dependent on the CPDM regime. ELECAM does not have a
budget of its own, it begs from the government and its structures are not
properly rooted in the entire country; there are certain areas where the body
does not exists and it lacks workers. Most of the workers especially during
elections are civil servants! We think that if there has to be an earthquake of
political change in this country, then, we look forward to seeing an
independent body that has the capacity to organize, monitor and pronounce
elections. This is actually the headache of this country.
Do
you think your electoral misfortunes can only be tide down to the weaknesses of
ELECAM, the field not being level etc? Don’t you see something not right within
the party? The party itself is not well structured, the SDF is sometimes absent
in many polling stations on election day; even during the period of making
lists, they don’t come up with solid lists; internal strife, bickering and so
on! Don’t you think all these have helped to weaken the SDF?
Well, these are normal activities within every big
political party like the SDF, and like I said before, there is still a lot that
has to be done. This lot also has to do with some internal arrangement within
the party and that is what the party is embarking on at the national level, to
ensure that we have credible people within all the structures of our
leadership. We are in the process of reorganizing the party, beginning from the
wards to the electoral districts, to the divisions and to the regions, and
eventually this will culminate to the national executive committee which of
course has to come in the next three years or so. I think that these are things
that have to be put together. You know the SDF is a very big party and we lack
adequate financial resources to mobilize the militants of the party in the
entire country, so certainly there are some areas that the party is not well
structured, but these are just very isolated and few cases. We think that in
the next political consultation, all these will be addressed.
During
the 18th anniversary of the party, one of the things you said was
that the SDF needs new leadership! Six years after, has the SDF had new
leadership?
Yes definitely the SDF has had a new leadership from
that time. We have had new people elected into the National Executive committee
during our last convention that took place in Bamenda. Also, there has been new
leadership in some electoral districts and other areas. However, we still need
to put people in certain positions to make things happen. It is true that some
people are tired, while others don’t have the economic resources to mobilize
the people and some others find it difficult to move within some enclave
terrain. We are in a process to ensure that leadership is changed in areas
where it is considered slow, to ensure that we energies our people through
constant meetings and telling them about the ideals and aspiration of our great
party.
For
the ordinary man on the street, the feeling is that the SDF is criticizing the
CPDM regime that its national chairman has been there for very long and should
change. Is it not the same argument that holds for the SDF?
Well I certainly don’t think that is the same
argument which holds for the SDF. Mr. Biya has been in power for over 30 years
and the SDF has been existing for 24 years. You see, the problem we have which
people don’t want to see is that it is the SDF that is actually pushing the
government to act on the wishes of the people and so we think that it doesn’t
matter what people say. The SDF has occupied a very important political role in
this country that has always been the watchdog of the regime. We can’t say that
changes are not necessary; the SDF will change its leadership when the
appropriate time comes. Cameroonians should still have faith in our leadership
because it is a powerful leadership, one that has a lot of confidence and is
able to point out to the government where the problem is.
Let
us come to your region. Before the September 30 twin elections of 2013, am sure
your victory list before the elections was very high, but after the elections
the list is very much reduced. What specifically do you think the Southwest
suffers, because the party seems to be in a bigger decline in the region! Do you
share our assessment?
Not really, I strongly differ with you if you think
that our party is in decline in the region. You will see that right now at
least, the party has been able to make some improvements from the past. For
instance in Fako division, previously we hadn’t even a single council, but
right now, we managed to have the Tiko council and the results in Tiko were very
good. In Limbe, we came close to winning but it did not go as we had expected
and in other areas like Buea, we were sure to win but did not make it. The
reasons why the SDF did not do so well especially in Fako division is because
of the fact that the authorities that be actually did not want to see the SDF
succeed in its political agenda. I mean the leadership in the region itself was
making open statements that the SDF cannot come to leadership at a time when
the Head of State was going to visit the Southwest region. They therefore did
so many improper things to frustrate the SDF party during the elections. I
would squarely tell you that the elections were bought; you know people were
trading with the SDF ballot papers. The senior elites of the CPDM who are
actually very worried about the SDF coming to leadership did everything
possible to expand their financial might to ensure that votes were bought in
various places. Cameroonians have to know that if the country has to change,
the change can come from any angle of our political spectrum and not
necessarily within the ruling party. It can come from other parties like the
SDF because we are all Cameroonians and our aim being to develop our country.
But what we saw during the election was that people were buying the SDF ballot
papers everywhere, and it was especially worse in Buea, as people bought for up
to FCFA5000 per SDF ballot paper when the voting had gone down to about 5pm!
But
it was also with the complicity of some SDF officials and militants!
Well, if it were done in complicity with some of our
militants, I will not blame you for saying so, but I think this is also the
corruption we are talking about, for the person who proposes to give the money
is the one who is corrupting the one who receives, because without the
proposal, there will be no acceptance. What we are saying is that this group of
people who are loaded with money snatched from the regime should stop doing
this because they are not helping the political atmosphere of this country. We
think that it is about time that the election body ELECAM carry out very
important reforms in the nearest future which will ensure that whenever there
is election, the winner is known as the winner, which in other words means that
we are clamouring for a single ballot paper, which will frustrate all vote
buyers as they will have nothing to buy anymore.
As
a regional chairman, what are your plans in the weeks and months ahead to
ignite the flame of your militants especially after the low spirit which
resulted from the last twin elections?
Actually we have had a very good plan of what to do
which is that we have to bring in new leadership in all the areas in the region
where we did not win the elections, to make sure that we bring people who have
plans to make us win in the future. We have started that in Limbe, because the
district chairman resigned due to his inability to have led the party to
success, which was quite positive on his part. Now we have put in place a
caretaker team which has to mobilize the people to ensure that in six-months we
have a new electoral district bureau here in Limbe, and same will happen in
Buea, Muyuka, in the entire region and of course we will expand to Manyu
division where the is need for us to actually penetrate the entire division to
ensure that we have a leadership in the three strong electoral districts we
have there. All in all, we are working towards bringing the party together
again and to ensure much success in the next political confrontation.
Is
your enthusiasm and verve still as strong as it was when you first became
district chairman and or regional chairman? Is your commitment still strong?
Have you not wavered?
No,
my commitment is even stronger than before, because I know exactly where the
problems are and those who constitute them. My strategy now is to see exactly
how to solve these problems in the various areas where they are. You know
political maturity comes with experience and that is what I have gathered.
