One of the
principal duties of any government is to defend the constitution of the nation.
It is a primordial obligation. In taking up office, President Biya has gone
before parliament, on more than three occasions, swearing to defend the
constitution of the Republic of Cameroon, pleading to the Lord to help him to
do so. Philemon Yang as prime minister, head of government does not take oath
to protect the constitution, but in his peak official capacity, it behooves on
him to defend the constitution to the last drip of his blood, if he is a
patriot.
At a recent
question and answer session in parliament, Yang was asked by Hon. Awudu Mbaya
why some members of government and those ranking as such, in their droves,
still occupy dual functions in violation of the constitution when millions
wallow in unemployment.
Yang exacerbated
the conscience of patriotic Cameroonians when he replied that “from the legal
point of view, it is possible for an official to hold two or more posts
provided they are not incompatible.” As prime minister and with the legal angle he
took to answer the question, Yang cannot say he is not versed with the
constitution.
If he is not, The Guardian Post refers him to Article
13 of the 1996 constitution which stipulates that: “The office of member of
government and any other ranking as such shall be incompatible with that of
member of parliament, chairman of the executive assembly of a local or regional
authority, leader of a national professional association or with any other
employment or professional activity”. From the head of government’s
understanding of that provision, would he say it is “not incompatible” for a
minister or senator to be chairman of a government enterprise?
What is the
relevance of the logic of Yang’s “not incompatibility” when an official holds a
key post in the executive branch and another top position in the legislative
realm? Wouldn’t that be seen as a flaunting violation of the constitution which
forbids such officials from holding two or more positions?
Let’s take just
the case of the “pampered boy” of the Biya regime, Peter Mafany Musonge,
appointed by President Biya as senator. He is top official in the legislature
being the chief whip of the CPDM in the senate. Musonge is also grand chancellor
of the National Orders at the presidency, a position that goes with the rank
and trappings of minister of state. Would PM Yang, a legal mind and a devout
Christian of Etoug Ebe Baptist Church say before God and man, that those posts,
one in the legislature and the other in the executive branch are “not
incompatible”?
The president
himself is on record to have denounced accumulation of jobs. It reduces output,
stretches the holders to the seams of incompetent, and aggravates unemployment
and even under employment which the government is battling to provide solutions
to.
Wouldn’t have Yang just parried the question
by saying that it was beyond his competence to provide an answer rather than
groping to defend the indefensible? Why
not even say the multiple office holders will be replaced “ progressively” as
in the jargon of the regime?
Because of the
tightly-centralized nature of the regime where even a mere director has to be
appointed by a presidential decree, “there is no hurry” in Cameroon as the
Kenyans say in their tourist industry parlance.
Musonge was appointed prime minister when he was still the serving
general manager of the CDC, the second largest employer after the state. He held
the two very demanding jobs that were incompatible for one and a half years
before being replaced at the plantation.
Bernard Foju,
special adviser at the prime minister’s office with rank of secretary of state
combined the job with that of secretary of the CPDM parliamentary group for
over a year. John B. Ndeh held the posts of general manager of MIDENO in
Bamenda and that of minister of transport for over two years. There was the
scandalous case of Samuel Minko in the nineties who was general manager of
CAMAIR, general manager of REGIFERCAM and mayor of Kribi. In the morning, he
worked in the airline company, in the afternoon he took office at the railways
and by Friday he was at the Kribi council chambers. The result of such
duplication and triplication of office breeds inefficiency, deprives other
Cameroonians the opportunity to serve their country and stresses the multiple
post holders to a point of malaise. Most importantly, it violates the
constitution.
The
Guardian Post congratulates Hon. Awudu, a questor on the SDF
ticket, for that brilliant question which is truly a way of controlling
government action by exposing executive creep and wrongdoing. What is baffling
is why the other parliamentarians who represent the interest of the people
rather than that of the executive did not grill the prime minister further for
what many consider as a gaffe.
Garga Haman, a
former Biya regime minister who resigned because of the kid gloves used to
fight corruption in a televised interview put the blame for the accumulation of
compatible government jobs on the shoulders of President Biya’s collaborators.
They fail to draw the attention of the head of state to the provisions of the
law which forbids duplication of posts, he said.
The government
cannot say it is fighting unemployment especially among young people, and at
the same time continues to multiply jobs for retired and tired people while the
masses whack in penury.
At The Guardian Post, we hold that there is
too much duplication of posts by top government officials in violation of the
supreme law of the nation. We urge such office holders, not to be flattered by
the frail defense by PM Yang. Like all
human beings, they are not indispensible and should not take advantage of the
snail pace at which the system functions to keep many jobs that are a
disservice to the nation and bring stress to their health at an age they need a
good rest. They should not be so greedy to hang on till death do them part even
in violation of the law.
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