Revealed : How the CPDM began negotiating with the SDF

Martin Belinga Eboutou may have been right to claim that, the chair of the SDF was a credible interlocutor. But he was wrong to think that, the vice chair of the SDF whom at that time, was Souleymane Mahamat had a similar influence or carried any credibility within his party. Like the ruling CPDM party, the opposition SDF also has her own fare-share of radicals. The extremists or radicals within the SDF are of the opinion or think that, any person who is French-speaking, is dubious and thus not deserving to represent them. They don’t even bother to draw a line between northerners and southerners. Extremists within the SDF are comparable to the extremist ideologues of the ruling party in their prejudice and bigotry. Furthemore; hardliners within the SDF, who most often, don’t even hold any elective post or are not even members of the National Executive Council (NEC) are of the opinion that, Cameroonians and in particular English-speakers, have been marginalised for too long by the current regime. They are therefore in no disposition to dialogue with the government, if on the table; the present government has no plan to relinquish power. It is therefore very difficult for both sides to seat in the same room to negotiate on anything.

But Mr Eboutou, galvanised by the instructions and honour that the head of state has mandated him, wanted to negotiate with the SDF at all cost. For his obsession like most ideologues of the ruling party, is the perpetuation of the ruling party in power. Their only fear is the SDF and they are ready to share-power with the SDF. This is not because they desire, but because of the formidable mobilising capacity of the SDF and its ability to distablise the country if they wish. But while Eboutou was determined to negotiate with the SDF, he never cared about other elements of the radical opposition. It was not a surprise, for it was their deep ingrained philosophy, as already mentioned, to ignore other elements of the opposition. However, the only difficulty that Eboutou had was how to contact the chair of the SDF directly. In such occasions, there were plenty of intermediaries, but none succeeded. Officially or according to the myths and legends allowed and floated by Dr Njambe, he (Njambe) alone, was the one who could, and also took the initiative to contact the head of state to offer his services as mediator. But the reality is slimly different. Njambe’s name came up as a mediator between the government and the SDF, when attempts by all other other intermediaries to meet John Fru Ndi or Souleymane Mahamat failed.