Tribute To Professor Ngwasiri: Go Well!

By Tazoacha Asonganyi in Yaounde.

Professor Clement Nforsi Ngwasiri(pictured) who passed away on April 12, 2008, was a man of profound beliefs. What is sure about him is that when he held a conviction, it was always difficult to move him from it!

We became good friends since October 1975 when we travelled in the same plane to London (UK) on Cameroon government scholarship for our postgraduate studies.
He had just graduated from the then University of Yaounde with a "Licence" in Law; I with one in Biochemistry. As it turned out, I did not have a clear address where I would stay on reaching London; he had the address of Mr (now Professor) Carlson Anyangwe who was living at Tabley Road in North London. That is the address at which we both stayed for the next month or two, until we moved to our own addresses in London!

We left Cameroon without having registered in any University. At that time, October was too late for a foreign student to be admitted in a University.
However, since we were Cameroon government scholarship students with a very sure source of fees, our case turned out not to be too difficult. Having arrived London on a weekend, we had to start the search for admission on Monday. Since Carlson was a student in the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), we left for SOAS on Monday morning but they dropped me off at University College (University of London) which was only a few dozen metres from SOAS to look for admission at the Department of Biochemistry. As God would have it, we all returned to Tabley Road that evening happy lads: Clement had got admitted in SOAS and I in University College!

After that, we spent a wonderful four years in London with friends like Carlson Anyangwe, Njianjek Azefor (RIP) and many others. We later formed a discussion group – Forum XX – where we discussed issues related to Cameroon and Africa. We also visited Pa Ntumazah regularly to be fed with the history of Cameroon from his perspective. When we both returned to Cameroon early 1980, I got employment with IMPM and he with the Faculty of Law of the University of Yaounde. We met irregularly with other friends like Dr Azefor, Dr Ayangwe, Mr. Albert Mukong, Dr Asanga, etc. to talk politics, until 1987 when we decided to meet more regularly.

Clement moved into centre stage by late 1989/early 1990 when the decision to launch the SDF had been taken. Since he was the Head of the Legal Department of DGRST (now the Ministry of Research and Innovation) he used the facilities at his disposal to mail hundreds of letters to all the 10 provinces to announce the imminent launching of a political party. I used to work with him in his office until late at night. We gave the impression to his Secretary that those were invitations to fans of PWD Bamenda, so she worked without any suspicion.

Then the Party was launched on 26 May 1990 with him as one of the Founding Fathers. To ensure accountable governance in the party, a structure called the "National Advisory Council" was created as a structure to which all the founding fathers would belong to act as an institution for checking and balancing the powers of the National Executive Committee. The first chairperson of the council was Retired Justice Nyo’Wakai. He was replaced by Prof. Ngwasiri following the Yaounde Convention of 1999.

In that position, he never realised early enough that the "leader" he associated with in the party was a master of political infighting and intrigue who preferred a flock of quarrelling, timid sheep to be led by an enlightened shepherd. So when he was set up to provoke what became known as the Ngwasiri/Asonganyi crisis in NEC, he never knew that he was playing the surrogate. When he came to realise it in by 2005, he apologised profusely for having lived in a spell for many years!

When he was criticised in NEC some time in 2003, he decided to resign as the Chairman of the Advisory Council and actually tendered a letter of resignation to Mr. Fru Ndi, the National Chairman. Because they reached an agreement that he should not resign, he continued in his functions as President of the Advisory Council until when he entertained a memorandum from some members of the party in 2005 requesting the council to look into some problems in the party. Then the rest of us officials of the party started hearing that he had resigned as chairman of the council in 2003! I believed him when he told me that he withdrew the resignation letter when Mr. Fru Ndi refused to allow him to resign. In his capacity as the President of the Advisory Council, he supervised my handing over at the Secretariat of the SDF on 29 December 2005, to the chagrin of those who wanted me to leave unceremoniously.

He confided in me that he would die without forgetting that the person in whom he had a lot of trust in the past turned around and told him with a straight face that he actually resigned as the President of the Advisory Council! It is now history that the problems that arose in 2005 resulted in the taking over of the management of the party by the Advisory Council, led by Prof. Ngwasiri. He organised a Convention in Yaounde on 26 May 2006; the night before the convention, Nzall Diboule Grégoire was murdered by those who did not want the convention to hold.Bitterness ensued that led to court cases, an attempt on his life, peddling of rumours about his death and much more …Again, history will remember that the main cause of the bitterness in the SDF at that time, has become the cause of the bitterness in Cameroon today – changing the constitution for one man!

The wretched consequences of laxity are all around us and cause people to long for moral prohibitions. This leads them to join "churches" that are stern and uncompromising in their demands and offer strenuous codes and dissuasive condemnation if they are broken.
It is in this context that Prof. Ngwasiri made an effort to "reconcile" with even those who hurt him the most and even wished his death.

Born in Medankwe village of the North West Province,he joined the university teaching corps in 1980. With the advent of the University of Buea, he was transferred there as one of the pioneer dons, but he later resigned because of the intolerance of divergent political views in that university. He was later elected Member of Parliament for Mezam Constituency during the twin elections of 2002. It is when he was serving that parliamentary mandate that he fell sick until his recent demise.

He was a strong believer in life after death, so there is no doubt that he is presently living a better life than the one he lived here on earth. I am proud to have had him as a friend. I have no doubt that his family has lost a wonderful son, husband, father and much more! Clement, go well!