In remembrance of Justice Nyo-Wakai

BUEA, British Southern Cameroons 26th. September, 2012. In remembrance of Justice  Nyo-Wakai. By Vincent  N  Feko SDF  Founding  Member When the roll call of the few surviving Social Democratic Front (SDF) Founding Fathers will be made at the burial of the late Justice Nyo-Wakai, I will, regrettably on account of poor health that has taken control of the body, not be there to answer, present. But the soul and the spirit that account for at least 66.66% of me will surely be there. That comforts me. Justice Nyo-Wakai goes to the Great Beyond to meet a host of those dear ones who preceded him. He will meet, for example, Dr Azefor, Dr Siga Asanga, Prof.Ngwasiri, Mr James Mbanga, and my mentor and elder brother, the venerable Albert Mukong, the primus inter pares of the SDF founding fathers. Then after the warm welcome there might be cross briefing on the activities and state of the SDF here and there.  Just fresh from this ephemeral world, he might also be given the honour to chair the SDF meetings there as he chaired them here in the Front's days of   gestation. Justice Nyo-Wakai began his civil service career in the Judiciary of Southern Cameroons where civil servants owed allegiance to the government of any political party that was in power. It was forbidden for civil servants to take part in party politics. But because the nauseating political environment at the time became unbearable, as it continues unabated to be, Nyo-Wakai, even as a Supreme Court judge, took the risk, like some of us did, to join a few to form the SDF. Fortunately not long after the SDF was launched he went on retirement and became one of the technocrats of the Front who accompanied the Chairman on his several American and European tours. The overwhelming popularity of the SDF and the countrywide anxiety for the message of change of the status quo as the SDF was preaching, threatened the regime and made the SDF a target for intimidation and destruction. And so, after the SDF won the October 1992 presidential election by a crushing landslide and the victory was confiscated by Mr Biya's CPDM as His Lordship DEPANDA MOUELLE, President of the Supreme Court, was later to confess in his famous statement of how the hand of the Supreme Court "was tied" to pronounce victory for the victor but apparently open to award the victory to the vanquish. As if that was not enough, a state of emergency was slammed on Bamenda, seat of leader of the SDF Chairman Ni John Fru Ndi, and the Chairman placed under house arrest.  Finding this still not enough, the Biya regime ordered the arrest of people who were suspected of one thing or the other among whom were a sizable cream of the Bamenda society including the retired Supreme Court Judge, Justice Nyo-Wakai. After torturing them in Bamenda, they were loaded in a large truck and transported to Yaounde under despicable conditions like those Mr Ahidjo transported in wagons without windows from Douala to Yaounde in 1966 and they arrived Yaounde with 36 dead!(U.S. News and World Report, 1966). For a man like Justice Nyo-Wakai who had all along been careful with his lifestyle and considering his advanced age, that was certainly too much for his frame and mind to support and bear. Those who knew Justice Nyo-Wakai before his ordeal know that what he went through never completely left him but in his magnanimity he continued to suffer the effects in silence and patiently awaiting the change for which he had risked his life. I had the opportunity of accompanying Mola Njoh Litumbe to Bamenda last year to pay him a visit shortly after his discharge from the hospital. I remember his beloved wife telling us that he had never suffered from illness as severe as the one from which he was convalescing. One could observe that he was really hard hit by that illness because throughout our conversation he did more listening than talking. That was, to be sure, the result of the cumulative effects of the regime's torture of 20 years ago, and how can that be ruled out as one of the contributory factors responsible for his death? Though he died still awaiting the profound change he has gone with the consolation that he is leaving the political environment in some ways a lot better than it was when the SDF started  the struggle 22 years ago. As a jurist of irreproachable character and conduct with years of rewarding experience both on the Bench and the Bar and a stint in politics, he towered in the legal profession both in Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun.  The SDF was proud of you and nothing will diminish the glow of that pride even with your demise.  May the peace of the Lord descend on you and abide with you for evermore!