In a month’s time, the militants of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) will know their new leader. The election will take place at the party congress scheduled for the end of October. The deadline is approaching. Three members of the party have submitted their candidacies before the National Executive Committee before the deadline for admissibility of candidacies expired on 24 September. Gordon Zama, Jester Shewa and Joshua Osih are vying for the presidency of the party.The latter, better known to the general public, is the current interim president. He was co-opted by the SDFʼs executive committee following the death and burial of the partyʼs chairman, Ni John Fru Ndi, Paul Biyaʼs historic former opponent, while he held the post of vice-president. Joshua Osih, a member of parliament for the Sdf, worked alongside the former chairman for many years, which allowed him to be invested as the party’s candidate for the presidential election on October 9, 2018.

Joshua Osih’s increasing closeness to the chairman, whom he assisted until the last moments of his life, has attracted opposition from a group of leaders and activists who claim to be from the original Sdf. Gathered together in the G27+, the 34 members of the Sdf have lodged four appeals with the courts in an attempt to overturn the decisions of the National Executive Committee and the Chairman. They were finally expelled from the party. Since then, this resistance to the process of appointing Joshua Osih as party leader has been dismissed or at least weakened.

Gordon Zama, the Sdf’s presidential candidate, is convinced that his potential can take him to the top of the party. The former chairman of the Fako constituency in the South-west region is gearing up for a battle with Joshua Osih.