WAFFO MONGO - Emmanuel KENDEMEH
14 March 2008
interview
Professor Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, Minister of Forest and Wildlife, Political Scientist.
Is this the best moment to revise the Constitution?
The Head of State's declaration on the issue of constitutional reform was and still remains a response to the requests that have come from the base of the populations of Cameroon as to the necessity to reform the constitution. All that the Head of State said in his declaration is that he is not insensitive to the debate. He reiterated that changing the constitution is in line with the demands of democracy. If you limit the mandate of for example the Chief Executive, in a way you are violating the will of the people and democracy is necessarily premised on the will of the people. It is not the Head of State who has requested that there is the necessity to reform the constitution but the people of Cameroon who through motions and other forms of expression have said there is need to reform the constitution.
There is no moment in the history of the evolution of any democratic society when anyone can say this is the best. The best moment is when the people say this is the time. The people of Cameroon have expressed the will to have the constitution reformed. I heard the other day, the National Union for Democracy and Progress (NUDP) say they want the constitutional reform. The Cameroon Democratic Union (CDU) through its National Chairman say there are things that can be changed in the constitution. The majority party in Cameroon, Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) through its Sub-sections, Sections and through its Central Committee has expressed the need for the constitution to be changed.
What do say to people who believe that the idea of reforming the constitution is intended mainly to keep President Paul Biya in power for life?
Constitutional revision is not limited to one article. This is the mistake some people keep on making just because the CPDM has focused on Article 6 paragraph 2. It does not mean that when the bill to change the constitution is sent to Parliament or introduced in whatever form only one article will be concerned. The Constitution can be changed through parliamentary procedure, referenda or though decrees. When the bill is introduced, I can assure you that the people of Cameroon who want constitutional change will not limit themselves only to Article 6 (2). Let no one make the mistake that the clamour for constitutional change is limited to Article 6 (2). I can assure that the will of the people of Cameroon is that when the constitutional reform bill is introduced, it will not be limited to Article 6 (2). The debate for constitutional amendment is beyond article 6 (2). It is beyond an individual. Anyone who sees the debate from the point of an individual is seeing it from a very narrow-minded perspective.
Who can change the constitution?
Different established democracies do change the constitution in different ways. The best way is best for the people of a particular democracy. In many European countries and North American democracies, the change is done through parliamentary procedure. That is the case in France, USA, Canada, and many Latin American countries. Parliamentary procedure as a method of changing the constitution is as democratic as any other method which resides in and is premised upon the will of the people. France has for example changed her constitution 14 times and only once or twice was the change through referenda. Every other time, it was changed through parliamentary procedure. In the case of United Kingdom, the constitution has always been changed through parliamentary procedure (representative democracy). In the USA it is changed through the mixture of State Assemblies and the Senate and the Congress.
These structures must speak together for constitutional change to take place. In other democracies some choose the method of the national referenda. In the case of Cameroon, one of the Constitutions was changed through a referendum. We should not feel that if we change the constitution through Parliament, it will be less democratic than in a referendum. Whatever method is used, it is important for Cameroonians to know that in almost all cases, constitutional change is always initiated by the executive power. In the case of the presidential system, it is the President or the Presidency. In the case of the parliamentary system, it is the Parliament, Prime Minister or the Chancellor.
Is it normal that the 1996 revised constitution be amended when all its provisions have not been implemented?
It is very normal in the sense that historically, this has been done. Practically, at anytime that the people express their collective will to change the constitution. Even if this is one minute after the constitution has been adopted, it is their will. Do not forget that democracy is premised on the will of the people. Democracy is by definition the will of the people and at anytime the will of the people is expressed, it is still democracy. Historically, the American constitution of 1787 came about only 11 years of the constitution of 1776. The first amendment in the American constitution took place in less than two years after it was promulgated in 1787. Americans continued reforming the constitution, three years later, seven years later and ten years later. Americans have amended their constitution 26 times.
There is nothing wrong when the people decide that they want to change any part or all of their constitution after it was adopted. You do not wait for all the articles or parts of the constitution to be applied before you say it is time to change. When the people say it is time, then it is the best time. The 1996 Constitution has been applied to a large extent. The 1996 constitution is the most human rights-conscious constitution Cameroon has ever had. The 1996 constitution has changed the texture, structure and content of the Cameroonians State.
Your last word
The constitution is the instrument of the collective will of the people which determines what they want and what they do not want, who they are and who they are not. For it to be changed depends on the collective will of the people. If it is the will of the people and I think it is the will of the Cameroonian people to amend some aspects of the 1996 constitution, so be it so that democracy can continue in the country.
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We do not decry the fact that the constitution be revised but we do insist on the notion that it should not be done now for the the sake of keeping one person in power forever.We need a change, we need a new leader whoever he is does not matter. We need a president. "too much of a thing is a disease"
Mr Ngolle Ngolle is just playing Goebells there. He talks about the will of the people. I understand that he is referring to the frauded will that gave them 153 Parliamentary seats. Come to think abou it. Douala, according to Ngolle Ngolle and his cohorts talking about the will of the people is said to be over 80 % in control of their CPDM. And results from polling sheets presented by Sous Prefets showed that all military camps in Douala voted for the CPDM. How comes it that 15 % of unarmed "apprentice sorcerers" placed the crushing majority that included… [Read Full Text]
Mr. Ngolle is a political appointee and not an elected official. He has no Political base, So who are the people he claims to be speaking for? Mr. Ngole is not a product of a British style representative Paliamentry system where both the Prime minister and cabinet ministers are drawn from elected representatives,so he has no authority to speak for anybody but himself and the Corrupt and failed Biya regime that appointed him minister. Similarly situated persons like Ngolle use the title of professor to decieve people in to thinking that they can thiink better. His interview uttterance are at… [Read Full Text]
Mr. Ngolle is a political appointee and not an elected official. He has no Political base, So who are the people he claims to be speaking for? Mr. Ngole is not a product of a British style representative Paliamentry system where both the Prime minister and cabinet ministers are drawn from elected representatives,so he has no authority to speak for anybody but himself and the Corrupt and failed Biya regime that appointed him minister. Similarly situated persons like Ngolle use the title of professor to decieve people in to thinking that they can thiink better. His interview uttterance are at… [Read Full Text]
Mr. Ngolle is part of the morally bankrupt kitchen brewed pseudo-intellectuals who specialize in professing dishonest and patently wrong ideas, which they cannot defend among their peers in the world. Most profoundly distorted ideas they prpound is an insult to Africans and appears to suggest that whatever education africans have, it does not impact how they see or treat each other. The current fraud being pepetrated by the likes of Ngolle, Kontchu kuomeni, Mono njana, Tabi etc is driven by the consuming desire to maitain or be given an appointment in the rottenly currupt and doomed regime of Biya … [Read Full Text]
CAMEROUN/BRITISH SOUTHERN CAMEROONS TWO DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, TWO DISTINCT COULTURE, TWO DIFFERENT DATES OF INDEPENDENCE, TWO DIFFERENT WORLD VIEW, TWO DIFFERENT DESTINY, BUT THE FRENCH CAMEROUN RULER WHO TELLS THE WORLD THAT ITS (ONE COUNTRY), EVEN AS HE WITHNESSED BOTH SEPERATE COUNTRIES AT THE AGE OF 31. SOO, IS HE TELLING THE TRUTH TO HIS PEOPLE AND THE WORLD? NO. SINCE 1961, THE REAL HISTORY, OF BOTH COUNTRIES HAD BEEN WASHED AWAY, AND REPLACED … [Read Full Text]
If it is actually the Will of the people as he declares, then let the constitution be left alone because the people are not ready for any amendment now.That can be done after the next presidential elections.Stop talking about the will of a people are in effect are not ready for any changes