Nkendem Forbinake
11 April 2008
column
Yesterday was particularly eventful in the House. For good reason. No one, even within the ranks of the Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM) or, worse still, in opposition ranks had expected that the Amendment Bill will go through.
And even when anyone acquiesced, the condition was that amendment should go very far beyond Article 6(2) which seemed to be the target of the changes in the first place. Many people considered the six-odd other amendments in the draft bill rather too insignificant, even though they dealt with such important matters as the order of succession, the way and manner of going about impeachment of a President-in-office or, of one after having left office. Other issues, such as the necessity to run a second round in case no candidate came upfront with a 50-or-over result in the first round of an election, as proposed by the united opposition (SDF, CDU, MP put together) came up for heated debate.
In the face of their waning fortunes and their inability to stop the overweight vote in favour of the draft bill for adoption un-amended Social Democratic Front found no other option than to walk out long before the draft bill came up for adoption in the general plenary. The draft bill went through as a letter in the post office. And, as per the procedure of the House, there couldn't have been any hitches since an unqualified majority expressed itself in favour of the draft bill.
The minority in the House is arguing over the wisdom of adopting a bill only on the premise of legality while legitimacy is largely unattended because, according to them, taking into consideration the views of the minority could have given legitimacy to the draft and, by so doing, adding to its legality.
As the two sides could not really argue, MPs of the Social Democratic Front walked out on the business of the plenary session to express their exasperation. A political mode of disapproval? Yes. But any effect on the legislative process? No.
The summary is simply that, whatever, the outcome of the Constitutional Amendment Bill, Cameroon will, in the next few weeks, go into a new political dispensation. There is no doubt that the draft bill adopted will quickly receive the accent of the President of the Republic who, in the first place, initiated to draft following pronouncements he made in October in his France 34 interview and in his New Year's Eve address to the nation on December 31, 2007 in which he clearly stated his determination to amend the Constitution.
Come what may, and against all odds, Cameroon will go into a new era Constitution-wise, in the coming days or weeks.
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