Editorial

Our MPs, senators:Hand-clappers, contractors or people’s representatives?

Cameroon’s pioneer senators have just concluded their first anniversary in the national assembly together with parliamentarians some of whose longevity in the House runs into decades. But what they do in the legislature remains a cult of incomprehensibility to most of their constituents. 

Like real politicians, they are quick to draw support from the constitutional provision which allocates to them the duty to debate, pass laws and “control government action”.

One of the ten bills passed aims at bringing some discipline in the legislature where there is often trivial polemics between the party in power and their opponents. At the closing session, senate president, Marcel Niat Njifenji gave the assurance of collaboration between parliamentarians and senators which also extends to the executive. He said there was also teamwork in their deliberations irrespective of political leanings in conformity with what he added was assigned to them by the head of state. 

A UDC parliamentarian later debunked the claims on grounds that private member bills presented by the opposition are always rejected by the CPDM majority even before they get to the floor of the House for consideration.

The discord among the ruling party parliamentarians and the leading opposition SDF was demonstrated by the undiplomatic walkout of the SDF parliamentarians when the visiting speaker of the Ivory Coast parliament, Guillaume Soro addressed the House. It was a vivid illustration of the division among parliamentarians.

But there is more to being a member of a national assembly than just endorsing bills or storming out in protest. They are, including even the 30 senators appointed by President Biya, answerable to the masses they represent. They owe them that obligation.

For the just ended session, ten bills were passed by both senators and parliamentarians. Ask any constituent what those bills were all about and chances are that an overwhelming majority of Cameroonians wouldn’t know.

 The lively-debates that make parliament which derives its name from the French word parler, are alien in the second realm of the estate.  Both Houses are devoid of exciting debates that would interest the electorate or media because most bills are passed almost unamended.

It is only during the question-and-answer period that some of the honourable men and women, usually from the opposition bench ask pertinent questions. It is only an opposition parliamentarian who questioned the transport minister, Robert Nkilli why the same plane bought by Congo was sold to Cameroon airlines at almost four times the price!

It was again an opposition parliamentarian who asked the prime minister, head of government, Philemon Yang why some senators and ministers still hang on to jobs that are incompatible with those in the legislature or the executive branch.

What did the CPDM with its sweeping majority say, even as a follow up question to the answers both ministers failed to give appropriate replies? The electorate who “voted” for the CPDM MPs deserve the obligation to know what takes place in the Glass House.

Ten bills were passed, fine. Who in their constituencies knows the details in the bills which will soon become law and the impact on society? The scanty media reports are not enough and are so because no soul-searching debates take place.

Politicians have mortgaged their consciences to so-called “party discipline”. John Grant British Labour Party Parliamentarian and journalist in his book, Member of Parliament, points out that “the public wants to know, has a right to know and should be told what is going on” in the assembly.

We at The Guardian Post subscribes to that view especially as the media give very little coverage to the boring somberness of the House activities.

It is the obligation of senators and parliamentarians to get to the grassroots and explain to their constituents what happened in the House after each session. What did some of the assembly people do during the session given that a lot of them sit in the House for five years without ever making a contribution except to vote and clap? Many do not just as much as attend sessions and merely hang on in ministerial cabinets begging for contracts. Others go to their constituencies only on the heels of the next election.

One of the bills when promulgated into law might curb the rate at which some members of the Assembly keep away from sessions. It will also address the issue of incompatibility and procedures for parliamentary commission of inquiry.

The Guardian Post welcomes such a commission, but when it goes functional, the results of its investigations should be made public to be relevant, which is also one of the ways of serving the people, not individuals.

Isn’t it nasty sense of unaccountability to the constituents and selfishness lurking behind the mentality of some “honourable” politicians that senators from Mezam, Meme and Fako, for example have not held thank-you rallies or “home comings” more than a year on the job?

Even those who have done so, how many of them have publicly given account to their electorate how they spent the eight million francs micro project money or the 15 million francs their Upper House colleagues say is for “senatorial intervention”? Isn’t it tax payers’ money they should account for?

By the way, in a system with strict separation of powers, would they even accept such money which will be interpreted as intruding in the executive domain with their micro-projects? Have many of those they represent not cried out that in the pursuit of fame and wealth, much of the money is just misappropriated? 

Who among them has even bothered to pressurize the executive to conduct by-elections when a member is called to glory as stipulated by law? Those are issues parliamentarians and senators owe their constituents and the Cameroon public as a whole, an obligation to address on the field to at least keep the veneer of honour they wear.