Jeff Ngawe Yufenyu
30 March 2008
Cameroonian Consultant on Governance, Edward Ngala, has said revising the Constitution in favour of a tiny class of people is wrong and can ignite an uprising in the country.
Ngala made the declaration to The Post in Bamenda, on March 25, while commenting on the current constitutional review debate.The international consultant said some ruling class around the world may revise a country's Constitution to strengthen their grip on power, while others do so to meet the challenges of their citizens.
The Cameroon Constitution, Ngala said, has many inapplicable and poor articles, which may need revision after genuine public consultations, not single party consultations. Some Constitutions, he went on, are poorly written, with the intention to facilitate future debates on their review. "This is the case with Cameroon," Ngala stressed.
According to Ngala, the experts who drafted the 1996 Constitution created lapses that are being now used to back its revision. He nursed fears that even after revisiting the 1996 Constitution, Cameroonians may still have to wait for more than a dozen years for its "progressive implementation."
Commenting on the generation gap in Cameroon, Ngala said the old generation rulers and politicians have taken the younger generation for granted. "There is no bridge being built anywhere for the transfer of power from the old to the young, be it within the ranks of political parties or in government circles," according to Ngala.
He described the old generation rulers and politicians as "graft booster Cameroonians" who cannot survive in any genuine competitive environment. They know very well that they are old, but continue to cling to power by uncouth means, Ngala said.
He also argues that power must change hands at one time or the other, in any genuine democracy, regardless of how good the performance of the ruler may be.
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