Commissioner in charge of disputes at the General Secretariat of the Cameroon Peoples’ Democratic Movement CPDM, Senator Francis Nkwain quits the stage at 82.
His last public appearance was during the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) held from October 2 to 10, 2014 in Yaoundé during which he played an active role as a member of the Organising Committee.
Francis Nkwain, a member of the Central Committee of the CPDM will be remembered for defending the party at all fronts as well as edifying his fellow party members through his write outs and the interviews he granted to the party’s media outfit L’Action. The last of such was “The CPDM Shapes up in Competition : Charts Way Forward,” in which he examined the importance of the decisions that the National President Paul Biya took on September 11, 2014 on discipline and creation of new units. He was reacting as one of the Vice Presidents of the 2013 Ad Hoc Discipline Commission. This article was on the heels of another, “L’Action as a primary source of knowledge to CPDM militants and sympathizers,” which he wrote when the newspaper turned 20.
Mr. Nkwain, a diplomat, was a die-hard CPDM militant. In 1996 at the second ordinary congress of the party he was elected substantive member of the central committee. Eleven years later he earned the confidence of the party hierarchy and was once more appointed in 2007 to the post of commissioner in charge of disputes.His qualities of good negotiator and orator were always made use of by the party especially in difficult times. One of such was in 2002 and 2007 where he was sent to Meme Division in the midst of uneasy calm during the reorganisation of CPDM’s basic organs. It should be recalled that Senator Nkwain served as the Central committee’s delegate to the North West region on countless occasions.Francis Nkwain continued to enjoy the support of his party till his death. In 2013 he was sent to the South West Region to select CPDM’s candidates for the senatorial elections, little did he know that he will be appointed same year by the President of the Republic as CPDM Senator from Boyo Division, North West Region. At the Senate he served the house as the first-ever President of the Foreign Affairs Committee. He was gearing up to celebrate the ascension of his National President, Paul Biya to the office of Head of State come November 6, when death snatched him away. Francis Nkwain was particularly elated to work on the CPC which could only happen thanks to his hard work which led to Cameroon’s admission as a commonwealth member in 1995 when he was Deputy Minister in the then Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Head of State, Paul Biya tasked him with Cameroon’s file, which saw the country pass from observation status to member of the club under his stewardship.
