The national chairman of the main opposition party in Cameroon, Ni John Fru Ndi has announced that he will not be running for the 2018 presidential elections in the country.

Speaking on Thursday at the special congress of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), the party which he founded and has led since 1990, the 77-year-old Ndi said he took the decision in order to leave the stage for the younger generation.

“I will not present my candidature for the presidential election, I want you to choose who is best to be the flag bearer,” Ndi told the congress.

Ndi, who has been embroiled in a war of words with secessionists in the Anglophone region who wanted the SDF congress moved from Bamenda to Yaounde had maintained that he remains an Anglophone citizen who is not pro-secession.

With the pronouncement by the veteran politician, it is now left to be seen if 49-year-old Joshua Osih, who is currently the Deputy Chairman of the SDF will seek to be nominated as the party’s presidential flag bearer.

President Paul Biya is expected to seek another term in office after over three decades in charge of the Central African nation which is currently under the threat of secessionist movements in the country’s northwest and southwest Anglophone regions.