By Kini Nsom
The Member of Parliament for the Akwaya constituency in the Southwest Province, Hon. Paul Abine Ayah, has indicted the system in Cameroon where the Executive President has overwhelming powers over parliament. "While the President is elected by universal suffrage for a term of seven years, Parliamentarians are elected by universal suffrage for five years,"
Hon. Ayah wrote in an article published in the journal of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Union, CPU, issue Number 4. Captioned: "A Cameroon case study: "Executive Presidency versus Parliamentary Executive," the article is a scintillating piece of mellifluous prose that is punctuated with expressive points of legal parlance.
Besides, it makes an objective juxtaposition vis-à-vis the ills and the virtues of a system in which Parliament is virtually a toy in the hands of an overbearing and all-power Executive. Ayah, who is the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly, takes exception to the disequilibria in the life spans of the Executive President and the Parliamentary President.
According to Cameroon's constitution, the Executive President is elected for seven years while the President of the National Assembly is elected for a short term of one year. As if that is not enough, the constitution gives the President of the Republic the powers to abridge, prolong or dissolve Parliament at will. Despite the fact that the people mandate MPs, the President has the right to sideline Parliament and appeal directly to the electorate by way of referendum if he deems it necessary.
"The constitution also confers on the Executive President powers to declare a state of emergency of siege whenever circumstances, appreciated solely by him, do so warrant!" Ayah wrote. In such a situation, he stated, Parliament ceases to exercise "state power" at least on its own motion.
The MP cum lawyer, who was elected into Parliament in 2002 on the ticket of the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement, CPDM, points out that even the powers of the Cameroonian Parliament to legislate have been seriously reduced by the constitution. He says even those areas so specifically enumerated for Parliament, can still come within the jurisdiction of the Executive President by virtue of the constitutional provision.
It says that Parliament can empower the Executive President to "legislate by way of ordinance for a limited period and for given purposes." Though this provision apparently looks innocuous, Ayah warns that such ordinances remain in force so long as Parliament has not refused to ratify them.
Although the constitution confers the right on both the Executive President and Parliament to introduce bills, Ayah observes that one can count on the fingers of one’s hand the number of private member bills ever enacted by Parliament.
While buttressing the point that Parliament is helpless in the hands of the Executive, the MP wrote, "While the constitution provides that the agenda of the House should be drawn up by the Chairmen's conference comprising Presidents of Parliamentary groups, Chairmen of committees and the Bureau of the House, the Chairmen's conference cannot conduct any business without the presence of a member of government.
" He added that such presence influences the business of the conference and is determinant in the admissibility of bills. Also, hardly any committee in the House meets without a member of government. According to the constitution, Parliament possesses no leverage against the Executive President.
It can pass a vote of censure against the Prime Minister, but the Executive President has a right to reappoint the same Prime Minister. Ayah notes that the only other weapon MPs have to control government action is question time in Parliament, which should be held once a week during sessions.
But he regrets that even when question time is held, a Minister required to answer a question may fail to attend.
Party Discipline
The ruling CPDM party plays a determinant role in pragmatic relations between the President of the Republic and Parliament. Since the President is also the Chairman of the CPDM party, MPs of that party are usually afraid to take any decision in Parliament that are against their party.
This is called party discipline. Further explaining the obnoxious policy of party discipline, Ayah wrote, "It is a matter of law that a Member of Parliament excluded from his or her party loses their seat in Parliament. And voting against one’s party, especially in a crucial vote, could justify exclusion.
In the end, this is sacred subservience to the party." While harping on the Achilles Heels of the law, the MP said it is the party that nominates candidates to stand for election to various positions in Parliament, including the Chair. In case of Parliament's refusal to vote the Finance bill, the constitution empowers the Head of State to authorise expenditure by one-twelfth per month.
Ayah also examined the opposing views of such a system; putting the pros and cons neck to neck. "Peace is also one of the essentials of democracy. If it can be achieved through an executive presidency like that of Cameroon, outside the West Minister style of lengthy parliamentary debates and stalemates too expensive for developing countries, there is no reason not to go for it".
Comments