The begging-bowl disorder which has engulfed the Cameroon community in the Diaspora is now a pandemic which requires urgent attention with a view to eradicating it.

This disease is always visible when someone dies, and the family creates a WhatsApp forum to beg and pester friends and acquaintances for resources to celebrate the late person’s life.

This week in the United Kingdom, it is the turn to do the honours for the fallen hero of Anglophone Cameroon, Chairman Ni John Fru Ndi who sadly passed away at his residence in Yaoundé on Monday the 12 June 2023.

Chairman John Fru Ndi founded the Social Democratic Party in Cameroon in 1990 and has been widely credited with the advent of multi-party politics in Cameroon.

However, for the last twenty-five years, the Chairman has formed a profitable political business with the CPDM regime. His scandalous association with Paul Biya has earned him over US$12.5 million in the process and made him a very rich man.

Why then are his children and family in the UK about to engage in the laborious activity of petitioning for funds in his name?

Habit and Greed, I guess!

John Fru Ndi’s family is demonstrating the same traits he possessed. He was selfish, self-centered, stingy and devoid of emotions.

The actions of his children and family in England are consistent with the personality of the fallen man. So, over the next few weeks, security officers, health-care assistants, nurses, container loaders and the unemployed within the Cameroon community in England will be harassed and shamed to make contributions to celebrate the life of a man who earned more than US$12.5 million from politics and possesses a few foreign bank accounts where some of his stolen treasure and loot are hidden.

This publication has gathered that some friends have advised the family in the UK not to engage in this public begging disgrace but like the Chairman, his children were not persuaded by such genuine attempts to make them see sense in their looming foolishness. Dignity, a rare currency, is not what they possess and care about.

Self-awareness is evidently not this family’s forte, and it is no surprise that a WhatsApp forum has now been set up to achieve their questionable and disgraceful aims.

Money is needed to bury the dead, but to go about it by compelling the poor to pay for the celebration of the life of a rich man like John Fru Ndi is plain wrong and despicable.

As the apple never falls far from the tree, the descendants are doing what they inherited from their master—financial greed!

It may be normal for the families of people with humble and modest bank balances to seek community support after they die, but there is nothing normal for a very rich man’s family to do so.

Fru Ndi’s family is not poor financially, but it is poor mentally. Their mental poverty is robbing them of the dignity they are supposed to have given their late father’s political status in Cameroon.

In a descent society, a man of Fru Ndi’s status should be given a state burial, making it possible for the poor to have a break.

But Cameroon’s poor, many of whom have fled poverty and are hiding in England, will not know any respite as Mr. Fru Ndi’s family engages in a humiliating game of overt begging and desperation.

Fru Ndi, a man who triggered a wave of hope and optimism in the early 90s when he challenged Paul Biya, Cameroon’s current and sit-tight president, has quit the political stage with very negative ratings due to his incestuous relationship with the ruling party.

He will however be remembered for the courage and charisma he demonstrated in the 90s. May his soul rest in peace!

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman and Editor-In-Chief