Senator Henry Kemende Comments on Transition within the SDF

- Says its Time for the Older Generation to Think Differently! 

- Praises Late Honourable Mbah Ndam for Job well Done in the SDF

Senator Henry Kemende has hinted that Transition within the Social Democratic Front SDF from the older to the younger Generation is just a natural course of things that cannot be altered. The old he said must as prescribed by nature always give way to the young. For the party to move on smoothly, those of the older generation still hanging on he insists will have to begin thinking differently and in a way that ties with the ways of thinking of militants at the base who constitute the greater segment of party militants. The Senator also paid glowing Tributes to the Late Honourable Mbah Ndam who passed on recently.  He was interviewed recently in Yaounde during the Senate Session that just rounded up in the Nation's Capital. He begins by talking about those qualities of the Late Honourable Mbah Ndam that he will hardly ever forget?

Senator Barrister Henry Kemende

............

"In fact, he was a Legal Icon and a reflection of who a true legislator is supposed to be because he has been in Parliament for close to 25 years. He taught me Law at the University of Yaounde, specifically Civil Procedure  and he was a square peg in a square hole when it came to matters of Civil Procedure because he was a Legal Practitioner. When he taught me Civil Procedure in the Late eighties, I found myself in the courtroom because his tone, pronunciation and his mastery of the Subject Matter made you to admire becoming a Lawyer. He made you to live the Courtroom Atmosphere by the way he would make us to feel practice and that's why he was a good teacher first of all to begin with."

............

How were your early contacts with him and what impressions of him did you get?

............

After we took part in the launching of the SDF in 1990 though we were rounding up at the University of Yaounde I saw in him a true politician, a true defender of the people, a true defender of Human Rights and a voice of the voiceless. In Parliament when he spoke at the rostrum, you felt that he was truly representing the people because he will articulate the problems that you are facing. He never sounded artificial like some people do, sounding as if they were talking to Europeans. He on the contrary sounded very original. You saw somebody articulating with all the conviction of a Lawyer who believes in his case. You saw somebody articulating your case and you really felt you had a representative. He carried out that role for 23 years until the crisis set in. 

............

How do you think he impacted on the way things are done in Parliament during his more than twenty years in there?

...........

I can only speak as somebody who observed from a distance. You know there is the Lower and the Upper House. I am of the Senate and they are of the National Assembly. I cannot say I have actually lived him in the same hall intervenining for bills but when it comes to Speaking to the population I can imagine what he does when speaking in the Lower House. I think he has taught our brothers East of the Mungo what Parliamentary Democracy is all about. It is not just a matter of endorsing whatever the government comes in with. It is an institutional issue and when the government comes in with a bill it doesn't matter which Political Party one belongs to. It is a matter of scrutinizing the Government so that when the bill comes out into Law, it will make the people  much more comfortable better than they were before. He never undermined the other colleagues from the other Political Parties. 

............

 What was that extra touch that he brought into the SDF party?

............

He encouraged some of us to think that we could take Front Line Stage in the Politics of this country as it is normally supposed to be because in the world, Lawyers are leaders, Politicians and Presidents. He transformed the party from being the party of the layman to a party in which you had people who could be the backbone in terms of legislation, interpreting the Laws even of the very party. We needed such a brain to be able to handle even NEC Meetings and even other events where intervention of Jurists were needed to interpret the Constitution of the SDF.

Senator Henry Kemende in an Interview with Francis Ekongang Nzante

 

............

Many people are of the opinion that the party is transitory at the moment. Many people think the party is shifting from the first phase to the second phase of its existence. What's your take on this?

............

We have seen the passing on of people like Dr Sigha Asanga, Ngwasiri, Joseph Banadzem, Justice Nyoh Wakai and now Honourable Mbah Ndam. It is but normal. It is a natural process. If you don't want that process to take place while you are alive, it will take place naturally. It is the way of nature that the old shall give way to the young. It sounds a warning bell to those who are still left that either they look at things differently the way the younger generation like us look at it, or they just surrender and give way. This is because they will soon discover that their ideas do not correspond with those of people at the Party base who constitute the majority of the party now. They will soon discover that they are operating at the analog level while we are already in the digital age. 

............

You certainly have a message for Late Honourable Mbah Ndam' Family and for the SDF Family as well...

............

 The message for the immediate family is to take heart and that what has happened to him will happen to each and everyone of us. They should not also care about what his critics are saying. Certainly, the life of a politician requires that he makes enemies and as he makes enemies, he makes friends too. They should focus on the friends of Late Honourable Mbah Ndam. If they focus on his detractors then they will feel that life has no meaning. They should look at the positive side of the late man and be consoled by those who have good words for him like us. Those who are judging him have no rights to do so. They are neither his God nor his maker. To the SDF family I call on them to take this as a lesson that life is vanity and that when they are given a task to do, they should do it diligently. When we are called to serve the people we should do so with all our hearts and should not always think only of the self. Honourable Mbah Ndam spent years serving the people and I don't think he had the time to enjoy himself. The message is that we should serve the people and make the world better than we met it and that we should be forward looking. We are going through the challenge of our lives as politicians and as members of the SDF. The challenge of our lives as Anglophones and as Cameroonians. The challenge Late Honourable Mbah Ndam faced was that of handling the Anglophone Crisis without stepping on any toes. It has been a very tricky one for him because you see yourself serving one side and abandoning the other and considering yourself as not serving the Republic or serving the Republic and seeing yourself as not serving "the people." People who were not party militants got into the show and started dictating to him who was voted on a party platform. It became really tricky. Honourable Mbah Ndam was who he became because of a particular system he was voted to serve. A revolution does not need the institutional setup of what it is revolting against to succeed. A revolt that is bound to succeed does not need the support of the institutional setup that it is fighting to succeed. It pushes its way through making everybody to comply.

Interviewed in Yaounde By Francis Ekongang Nzante 


Edev Newspaper: francoeko@gmail.com/ Tel: +237696896001/ +237678401408