|
|
Cameroon: Constitutional Amendment - Opposition Accused of Striking Deal With Govt
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Post (Buea)
17 April 2008
Posted to the web 17 April 2008
Peterkins Manyong
The Social Democratic Front, SDF, and the Cameroon Democratic Union, CDU, have been accused of striking a deal with government over the recent constitutional amendment.
But Hon. Joseph Mbah Ndam, one of the Vice Presidents of the National Assembly, has refuted the allegations, maintaining that he and fellow SDF MPs have not betrayed Cameroonians.
A government insider, who preferred not to be named, revealed to The Post that the parties struck a deal with government. He insinuated that participating actively in the debate on the revision of the constitution was a tacit approval of the amendment bill.
The SDF has been faulted for tabling a bill to amend and supplement some provinces of the 1996 Constitution whereas the party's MPs were supposed to maintain the stand of the Cameroonian people that there should be no amendment at all.
Deal?
A two-page document titled Take Special Note On Cameroon Constitution addressed to heads of diplomatic missions in Cameroon tried to buttress the claim. The document states that Article 26 (3) a, b, c, d, of the 1996 Constitution deprives the National Assembly of the powers to amend the Constitution.
The document also cites Article 36 (1) (a), which states that "The President of the Republic may, after consulting with the President of the Constitutional Council, the President of the National Assembly and President of the Senate, submit to a referendum any reform bill."
Therefore, sending a bill to parliament (which is the National Assembly and the Senate) for the amendment of the constitution is illegal and anti-constitutional.The document rather recommended the setting up of a Constitutional Revision Commission manned by political parties and civil society leaders.
The parties to be represented are those who took part in the 2002 and 2007 twin elections alongside prominent civil society personalities, to study articles of the constitution that warrant amendment to present to Cameroonians through referendum following Article 36 (1) (a).
Our source disclosed that Article 26 was injected into the constitution when the opposition had a majority with 92 MPs as against 88 for the CPDM after the 1992 parliamentary elections. Biya feared that the opposition could use their majority to amend the constitution and include articles that could make it easy for Biya to win the October 1992 elections.
This reporter learned that the two-page document, stating that parliament lacked the jurisdiction to amend the 1996 Constitution, was drawn up by Cameroonians in the Diaspora and copies given to the diplomatic community, some political parties including the SDF.
The Post also learned Fru Ndi handed the copy given his party to Hon. Mbah Ndam who used it to strike a financial deal with the Biya regime. It is this same document, which Tabi Awonor has used to sue Biya at the Supreme Court.
Mbah Ndam Refutes Accusation
Mbah Ndam told The Post that he had never seen the document. He said he was not aware that Awonor had sued President Biya at the Supreme Court. He also denied that he and fellow SDF MPs took part in the debate at the Constitutional Laws Committee because they were bribed or supported the idea of the bill.
"If the SDF never tabled the motion as it did, people would have still seen it as a sign of complacency. Whatever we did, nothing would have changed," he said.Many have questioned why it was Mbah Ndam and not Hon. Joseph Banadzem, SDF Parliamentary Group leader, who championed all activities related to the bill.
The CDU has also been accused of compliantly in the plot by first tabling a bill calling for the amendment of the constitution even though it recommended the omission of the controversial Article 6(2).
Whatever the argument it may advance, the parliamentary opposition should not have started the move, calling for constitutional amendment, our informant said.It is noteworthy that SDF National Chairman, John Fru Ndi, called on his MPs not to boycott the session during which the bill was to be tabled.
|
Fru Ndi, who had earlier said at a press conference that his party could not champion the struggle to pre-empt Biya's life presidency, later recommended a constitutional conference when the rest of the country was against any amendment of the 1996 Constitution.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 The Post. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
