Gov’t imposes obnoxious Penal Code on the
citizens
Rejected outright by the Cameroon Bar
Council and condemned without reserve by opposition parties and the wider
public, the bill revising and supplementing the 1965 Penal Code was Wednesday
voted without qualms by parliament.
By Ojong Steven Ayukogem in Yaounde
 |
| Minister of Justice, Esso Laurent |
In what can be interpreted as calling the
bluff of the Cameroon Bar Council, MPs of the ruling CPDM party on Wednesday 22
June 2016 voted the bill containing the revised and supplemented Cameroon Penal
Code.
The
new penal code was voted in a plenary session presided over by the Speaker of
the national assembly, CavayeYeguieDjibril.
The
majority CPDM MPs voted the bill even as their colleagues of the opposition had
staged a walk out of the parliament hemicycle.
The
opposition MPs protested against the adoption of the bill which they described
as obnoxious and hurriedly drafted.
SDF
MPs said some portions of the bill needed to be deleted notably the section
granting judicial immunity to government ministers. They argued that ministers,
unlike MPs and the President of the Republic, are not elected by the people of
Cameroon; they are only appointed by the president of the republic who uses his
exorbitant discretionary powers to do so.
Because
ministers are appointed and not elected they are not answerable to the people
but to the person that appointed them, the opposition MPs argued, further
expressing fears that judicial immunity will only give the ministers latitude
and the lee-way to stealing from and plundering the public till, as most of
them are wont to do.
The
protest by the SDF MPs only served to reinforce and supplement that of the
Cameroon Bar Council that had earlier called for a withdrawal outright of the
bill from parliament to enable for a re-reading to be done on it by all
stakeholders concerned with the execution of the law in Cameroon.
Meeting
for an emergency conclave in Yaounde, the Bar Council issued a strongly-worded
communiqué condemning the bill and calling for its immediate withdrawal from
parliament. The president of the Bar and some of his collaborators also later
met with the Speaker of the NA to explain their grievances to him.
The
Bar Council not only complained that it was not consulted prior to the drafting
of the bill, it also pointed out several lacunae in the revised and supplemented
Penal Law.
Bar Council members observed for instance
that the English and French versions of the bill were incongruous and feared
that this could lead to divergent interpretations in different parts of the
country.
Besides,
the Bar Council argued that the Penal Code ought to be a consensual tool, whose
drafting should take into account the opinions and sensitivities of all
segments of the population.
Unfortunately,
the plea of the Cameroon Bar was undermined at best and rubbished at worst by
the majority CPDM MPs, who voted the bill without qualms.
But
it can be understood why the CPDM MPs voted in spite of the sustained protest
and condemnation of lawyers and opposition MPs. They did so in respect of the
doctrine of their party which compels them to ensure party discipline and to
take whatever comes from their party hierarchy as dogma.
For
their part, commentators have wasted no time in noting that the voting of the
obnoxious and highly repugnant penal code by parliament only demonstrates the
preponderance and condescendence of the executive over the legislative arm of
government.
Needless to mention that in Cameroon, by
virtue of the constitution the President of the Republic (executive) also
enacts laws by way of ordinances, apart from being the Supreme head of the
Magistracy (judiciary). Then
the president also single-handedly appoints some members and the president of
the senate and even that of the national assembly (legislative). This virtually
puts the Cameroon president above politics in his country. Habba!!
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