NI JOHN FRU NDI AND ALBERT CHO NGAFOR

Ni John Fru Ndi, is of course, the chairman of Cameroon’s leading opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), and Mr Albert Cho Ngafor was the self-made man who became an icon in the provision of bilingual private education in the North West of Cameroon. Both are from the Baforchu family of villages which include Mbu, Santa Mbei, Baforkum, Baba II, Ndzah and Ngyen Mbo. After the introduction of multiparty politics in the country, the chairman maintained the SDF party which he had been very instrumental in founding, while Mr. Ngafor stayed with the CPDM. As we know, in the early days of multiparty politics, there was a lot of tension between the two parties and its members. Even so, Ni John Fru Ndi and Mr. Albert Cho Ngafor did not allow party differences to spoil their ties. It was within that context that the story I am about to tell about the two men happened. The chairman lost his father and faithful to the brotherly tradition linking the former with Mr. Ngafor, the latter went to condole with the chairman. This was recounted to me afterwards by Mr. Ngafor. When he arrived at the graveside, he found the chairman busy with a spade. When the chairman saw him coming towards him with the spade, he held out his hand for him to see and said: “Sorry, Mr. Director, my hands are soiled.” In reply, Mr Ngafor also stretched out his hand and said: “Sorry, Mr Chairman, mine are about to be soiled.” As Mr Ngafor said so, he shook hands with the chairman, collected the spade and continued the work the chairman had been doing. When I heard the story I said to myself: “ What political maturity!”