Cameroon's Parliament: Another rubber-stamp bureau
March 20, 2014

The Lower and Upper Houses of Cameroon's parliament just elected their bureau for the 2014 year. Nothing new came out of the elections and it is regrettable that Cameroon's National Assembly has established a regrettable reputation as a rubber stamp Parliament where party discipline takes precedence over the supreme interest of the people and the state.

Mokun Njouny Nelson writes.

The incumbent bureau of both the National Assembly and the Senate has witness no change following elections that held at the start of the 2014 March session of both houses. The much heralded and awaited change at the helm of the National Assembly never came to pass.

Against all speculations Hon. Cavaye Yeguie Djibril was re-elected as Parliamentary House Speaker after 22-long years. While it was evident that the House speaker would come from the CPDM party, pundits thought this session was going in for a surprise change at the help of this august Assembly. But old habit die hard and party discipline and directives had to be respected and so who could dare challenge Cavaye's candidacy that surely came from the office of Cameroon's supreme commander?

It is regrettable that Cameroon's National Assembly has established a regrettable reputation as a rubber stamp Parliament which is governed by party discipline. For years now, Cameroonians are aware that party discipline at the National Assembly takes precedence over the supreme interest of the people and the state. This is so because like in the argument in Gulliver's Travels, any "Johnny just come" who enjoys popularity or has money can buy his/her way to Parliament. The implications are that many of those who enter the National Assembly through the influence peddling spend their five years mandate sleeping and clapping to declarations and texts they never participated in drafting thus sacrificing the entire nation. Bills are tabled and rubber stamped into law without reasonable intellectual debates. While others pass time staging "walk outs" in protest of this or that due to party discipline, others would adopt bills to later regret in snacks, bars and restaurants where they spend micro project grants.

Many analysts are yet to be convinced of the necessity of a Senate to this country. That notwithstanding many hoped the Senators would be more refined personalities in society, role models; all these to be reflected in the exercise of their senatorial functions. Unfortunately after close to a year, the population is yet to know what they really do that is different from what the parliamentarians do.

Why is it rare to find that specie of people with character and conscience in Cameroon so that this country can gain its rightful place that nature has provided but unfortunately de-natured by greedy man?

If the answer is not in our hands and in sight then, I am afraid this country may just be heading towards a situation similar to that of biblical Sodom and Gomorrah of old. GOD FORBID