Government Social Democratic Front Chairman Cameroon
Description of Work:
For over 15 years, John Fru Ndi has been at the forefront of Cameroon’s political opposition.  The oldest in a family of 16 children, Ndi was born on July 7, 1941 just outside of Bamenda, Cameroon.  He has lead the Social Democratic Front (SDF) as its chairman since the party’s founding in 1990.

 Having studied and worked in neighboring Nigeria, Ndi returned to his hometown to start several entrepreneurial ventures.  He started selling vegetables and moved onto opening a newspaper stand. Momentum started to carry him into new fields such as a bookstore that expanded to a chain brand and into sports management where he became President General of the P.W.D. Football Club in 1979.  He remained in business until Cameroon’s 1998 single party parliamentary elections.

Despite his loss, Ndi quickly regained composure and founded the SDF. He then campaigned for the Cameroonian presidency in 1992. He lost to President Paul Biya by four percent of the vote in an election that was contested to be fraudulent. After his party’s boycott of the 1997 election, Ndi ran again in the 2004 election to get second place.

After winning the second highest number of seats in the 2007 parliamentary elections, Ndi requested to be recognized as the opposition leader by the Biya regime.