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| Biya |
Biya intentionally blocks election of
parliament bureaus
The constitution of the bureau of the two
houses of parliament (senate & National Assembly) at the beginning of every
parliamentary year in March is now uncertain. President Paul Biya who decides
the membership of the bureaus has travelled abroad without releasing the names
of candidates to occupy strategic posts in the bureaus. Until he sends the list
of names from abroad or returns home with it, the two houses of parliament will
continue to wait.
By Ojong Steven Ayukogem in Yaounde
The reality about the absolute control of
parliament by President Paul Biya is now being felt with the resumption of the
new legislative year that began on Tuesday 14 March.
Every
year new bureaus are constituted by President Biya himself for the upper and
lower houses of parliament. This is usually done on the first Friday following
the resumption of both houses. But this year President Biya has decided to
travel abroad without releasing the names of his candidates for strategic posts
in the bureaus of parliament. This absence of the president only blocks
activities in parliament, as the bureaus of both houses cannot be constituted
until the president returns or maybe he decides to send the lists by mail.
Also, bills cannot be examined until the bureaus are elected.
A
source at the national assembly said everything depends on the president’s
discretion; he either sends the names from abroad or he decides on them when he
returns.
Yet,
it is widely believed in parliament circles that the president will have to
return home himself before constituting the lists which will permit the
elections to hold in both houses. That only keeps the atmosphere both at senate
and national assembly very uncertain.
Usually
the president calls a meeting of the polite bureau of the ruling CPDM before he
decides on the lists of candidates for positions at the senate and N.A.
The
current uncertainty is heightened by popular speculation that there will be
significant changes in either one or both bureaus this year. It is believed
that either the senate president or his counterpart of the National Assembly
may be dropped. This is because of talk in political circles about a possible
reconfiguration of the power structure of the state to give Anglophones a
higher up position in order of precedence in the state protocol arrangement.
This
is because Anglophones have for some time now been agitating and complaining
very bitterly that they are being marginalized and discriminated against in the
sharing of the national cake. One of their complaints is that the post of PM
that has been reserved for them is the fourth in order of precedence in the
country.
Anglophones,
perhaps out of ignorance, say they would prefer the senate presidency because
it second in order of precedence apart from being the constitutional interim in
case of temporal or permanent absence or incapacity of the president of the
republic.
But
knowledgeable commentators say this request of the Anglophones is blind and not
well thought out. The commentators argue that even if the senate president
comes before the PM in order of precedence, the post is relatively empty in
terms of relevance and content.
For
one thing Cameroon operates a Presidentialist system which engenders a
preponderance of the executive over the legislative and judiciary. That is why
analysts posit that even though the senate presidency is more exalted, the
person with real powers is the PM, who has wide ranging appointive and
regulatory powers.
An
observer remarked that the clamour of for the senate presidency by Anglophones
is perhaps because the sitting PM has rendered the star building unattractive.
But this is a subject for yet another debate.
Be
it as it may, it must be underscored that the statutes of both houses of
parliament give no deadline for the election of the bureau, even if no bills
can be examined before the new bureaus are put in place. Exceptionally, however, parliament could elect an
interior committee to direct deliberations.
But
again, all these depend on President Paul Biya, who by virtue of the
constitution of the republic has the yam and the knife.
It
should be noted that by virtue of the constitution, the President of the
republic is above parliament; he can only address the parliament but cannot
take questions from parliamentarians.
What’s
more, the president has powers to suspend the bureau of parliament or even
dissolve the parliament when circumstances so warrant.
President
Biya is expected back in the country any time before Friday that is if he
doesn’t take advantage of his stay in Europe to also do his routine medical
checks.
Pic
President Biya is in Italy for a state
visit
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