The former SDF Scribe and lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in the University of Yaounde I died on July 3, 2016 after a protracted illness.
The news fell like a bombshell amongst the political class in particular and the Cameroonian public in general early July 4, 2016 that Professor Tazoacha Asonganyi, once the charismatic Secretary General of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) Party, passed away on July 3, 2016 at the Yaounde General Hospital after a protracted illness. Sources close to his family revealed that he had been hospitalised for over a month.
There was shock and disbelief in many quarters as the seasoned politician had been present recently on mainstream and social media, dishing out sound analytical views on social and political topical issues. Considered by admirers as a radical politician who could neither be influenced nor bought over, Prof. Asonganyi was also a prolific writer. In his last publication - a memoir - launched in 2015 and titled “Cameroon: Difficult Choices in a Failed Democracy,” the seasoned politician revisited the fight for democracy in Cameroon, while explaining events that marked the country’s transition to democracy and the actors involved.
Prof. Asonganyi was prominent in the political life of the country, especially while he was Secretary General of the SDF party from 1994 to 2005. He parted ways with the party when the National Executive Committee (NEC), in an extraordinary meeting in Bamenda in January 2006, voted for his dismissal after finding him guilty for going public with serious declarations against party leadership. Remaining politically unaligned for the rest of his years, Prof. Asonganyi pursued his 30-year career as a Biochemistry lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in the University of Yaounde I.
Born in 1949, Tazoacha Asonganyi attended the reputed Saint Joseph’s College Sasse in Buea from 1964 to 1969 and the Cameroon College of Arts, Sciences and Technology (CCAST) Bambili from 1969 to 1971. He enrolled in the Faculty of Sciences in the University of Yaounde in 1975 and obtained his “Licence” three years later before pursuing studies in the University of London, where he obtained a PhD in Biochemistry. He leaves behind a wife, four children and many friends to mourn him.
