Fru Ndi Gets Posthumous Honours At Official Burial

The late National Chairman of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) party was on Saturday July 29 interred in his Baba II village in the North West Regions after an official funeral ceremony in which he was decorated with the medal of Grand Codon of the National Order of Merit.

The Secretary General of the Central Committee of the ruling Cameroon’s People Democratic Movement (CPDM) party, Jean Nkuete, who represented the Head of State at the official funeral, placed the medal on the coffin of the late political fighter during the ceremony which was also involved military honours.

Speakers during the funeral event at the deceased’s village described him as a mighty politician who had a high sense of patriotism and love for country. Various eulogies from SDF bigwigs, both from home and abroad, family members and representatives from government institutions, were unanimous in their characterisation of Fru Ndi. Former Prime Minister, Philemon Yang, led the CPDM Central Committee official delegation to the burial.

Fru Ndi was described variously, including as a loving father and a bold politician who stood for the unity and prosperity of the country despite the temptations of his time.

After the religious prayers in Baba II, eulogies and other funeral rights, the remains of the 82-year-old were lowered into the earth in a grave close to that of his wife, thus putting a cap on a funeral ceremony which started in Yaounde on July 27.

Recall that the process to pay homage to Fru Ndi kicked off in Yaounde on Thursday July 27 with an ecumenical service which took place at the multipurpose sports complex. The Archbishop of Yaounde, Hid Grace Jean Mbarga, and the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, the Rt Rev Samuel Fonki Forba, were among other religious ministers who offered prayers for the peaceful repose of the soul of Fru Ndi.

While the Chairman’s body was being conveyed to Bamenda on Friday July 28, the funeral convoy made two stops in the West Region where hundreds of SDF party comrades as well as Cameroonians from other political party affiliations showed up to bow to the memory of the man who has been described by many as an incarnation of audacity and truth. The stops were in Bafoussam in the Mifi and Mbouda in the Bamboutos.

Later in the afternoon in Bamenda, there was another grand rally at the Commercial Avenue Grandstand in Bamenda where huge crowds defied a sit-at-home order by separatists and showed up to pay their last respects to the SDF founding Chairman. The meeting, described by organisers as ‘the final rally,’ was indeed symbolic as Fru Ndi held many crowd-pulling events at that venue. Different speakers during the event all praised the legacy of the fallen SDF leader who, in his life time as a politician, was a proponent of justice, peace and prosperity for all.