Gross insubordination duly established

Tutu Muna

Tutu Muna now counting her days in gov’t
Only divine intervention can save Ama Tutu Muna from getting the sack as minister of Arts and Culture any time soon, after she was indicted of gross insubordination vis-à-vis the Prime Minister, Philemon Yang and especially the Head of state, President Paul Biya.
By Essan-Ekoninyam in Yaounde
Against the instructions of the Prime Minster, Head of Government for the minister of Arts and Culture to stall all actions she was undertaking in the direction of finding a solution to the cacophony in the music sector of the country, Ama Muna defied the PM and went ahead in Mbengwi, on 28 April 2015, to create a new musician’s rights body-the Civil Society of Cameroonian Musicians known by its French acronym SOCACIM. Then as if that was not enough, Ama Muna in express defiance of the PM’s authority proceeded to grant SOCACIM licence (agrement) to manage authors’ rights and other related rights of the B category.
    According to legal advisers at the PM’s office, by creating the new musicians’ association and giving it the licence to operate, Ama Muna only put her self at variance with her boss the PM and by extension the president of the republic.
    It should be noted that Ama Tutu Muna created SOCACIM even when the President of the republic had instructed the PM to look into the cacophony that now reigns in the music sector of the country and suggest solutions to them. Ama Muna by passed the ad-hoc committee created by the PM to study the issue and make its findings and suggestions to him. The ad-hoc committee that went to work on 21 April 2015 was still busy with the PM’s assignment when Tutu Muna hurried to her home town in Mbengwi and created the new musicians’ body.


Philemon Yang furious
    As soon as the prime minister got information that Ama Muna had created SOCACIM in defiance of his office and authority, Philemon Yang immediately instructed the SG of the PM’s office, Louis Paul Motaze, to write to Ama Muna and instruct her to withdraw within 48 hours her decision granting licence to SOCACIM.
    In his letter to the MINAC, Motaze wrote inter alia: “The prime minister has learned by way of a communiqué duly signed by you, on 18 May 2015, of the award of a licence for to a company SOCACIM, for the management of author’s rights and other related rights of the B Category……….The PM, Head of Government has instructed me to urge you to withdraw within the next 48 hours of the signing of this letter, the teams of your communiqué, as well as the decision of 15 May 2015 mentioned in the communiqué which grants the said licence to SOCACIM.”
    According to legal experts at the PM’s office, “by granting licence to an association that was hastily and illegally created, Ama Muna acted in violation of article 20 of the Prime Minister’s decree No 2001/956 of 2001 which states among others that: “licence can only be granted to an association that makes a request for same only when the association satisfies the following conditions (…) is constituted according to existing legislation and in respect of the laws in force.”
    The PM’s legal advisers also drew the attention of their boss to the fact that “by granting licence to one author’s rights body when other similar bodies in the domain have not been dissolved, the MINAC acted in violation of article 75(2) of the presidential ordinance no 2000/11 of 19 December 2000 relating to author’s rights, which states inter alia: “only one association can be created in a particular category of author’s and related rights”.
    Worse still, the PM’s legal advisers noted that by granting licence to an association that was created in Mbengwi during the minister’s visit to that town, and after the minister had received instructions that no such meeting should be allowed to hold in Mbengwi, “the minister acted in complicity in an act of manifest insubordination vis-à-vis the PM and in violation of paragraph 5 of the general instructions No 002 of 1st October 2002 bearing on the organization of government business.”
    Adding salt to injury, the legal advisers point out that by granting licence to SOCACIM without prior investigation as to the circumstances of its creation and without duly informing the PM of the result of such investigation, Ama Muna simply acted in violation of the “obligation to inform”, as contained in the presidential decree of October 2000.
    Finally, by granting licence to SOCACIM even when the PM was actively in the process of executing an instruction of the Head of state relating to the management of author’s rights, Ama Tutu Muna placed herself frontally in defiance and insubordination vis-à-vis the head of state and the head of government,” legal officers at the PM’s office said.

Enter Romeo Dika
    In the suggestions made to the PM by his legal advisers, they urged the PM to suspend the activities of the syndicate of Cameroonian musicians, SYCAMU which has Romeo Dika as its president. The legal experts observed that SYCAMU was an accomplice in the creation of SOCACIM, and besides, its president Romeo Dika went to the press and called for a rebellion against the authority of the PM.
    The PM’s advisers also suggested that the 2001 law bearing on the granting of licence to author’s rights bodies in the country be modified to make for the prior issuance of a prime ministerial visa before such licence can be granted, suspended, withdrawn or renewed by the minister of Arts and Culture.
    PM Yang was also advised to instruct the MINADT to outlaw the activities of SOCACIM throughout the national territory and the minister of social security to suspend the activities of SYCAMU.
    With the present stand-off between Tutu Muna and the PM, observers say only God can intervene and save Ama Tutu Muna from the wrath of the President of the republic. This can be expected because in the exercise of his absolute powers as head of state, President Biya has never stayed indifferent to acts of insubordination by any of his appointees.