Shouldn’t Biya leave higher judicial council alone?
As head of state and
commander-in-chief of the armed forces, national leader of the ruling CPDM and
chair of the higher judicial council which appoints, promotes and sanctions
erring judges, Paul Biya is saddled with a lot of work. He however does it so well that he even
recently got the treasured prize for peace, offered by the Pan African Lawyers’
Union which was presented by former president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki. The Guardian Post
showers Mr. Biya with warm encomium but submits he can rise to the highest pitch of statesmanship if he relinquishes the crushing load of
heading the judicial council and safe the country from the mounting suits being
filed abroad against his regime.
His seat at the judicial
council has also raised criticism that there is no separation of power between
the Judiciary and the executive which is not good for the growth of the
country’s nascent democracy.
Added to that, the litigants also argue that as head of the judicial council,
anyone who sues the government at home cannot have a fair hearing. It would be
like the defendant being an advocate and judge at the same time in a case
against him and the decision in such a matter would be a foregone conclusion.
That was the
thinking of the Southern Cameroon National Council, SCNC when it took the
Yaounde regime to the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, ACHPR also
called the African court.
The government,
whose eight-man defence delegation was piloted by the minister delegate at the
ministry of external relations in charge of the Commonwealth, Dion Ngute argued
that the case should be thrown out because the plaintiff had not exhausted the
legal jurisdiction at home. But after being told that the head of state was
also the boss at the higher judicial council, the commission sided with the plaintiffs.
That decision
has opened the floodgates to other Cameroonians instituting cases against the
government abroad. In such instances, heads and tails the government would lose
because of the excessive legal cost involved in foreign litigations and
damaging publicity.
Among the
latest Cameroonians taking the Biya regime to the African court include the sacked
chairman of the Douala Ports Authority, retired Colonel Edouard Etonde Ekotto. Through
his lawyer, Assina Engoute, the plaintiff is demanding reparation for abusive
detention. He spent some six years at the New Bell prison in Douala on
allegation of embezzlement but was set free on April 30 this year following an
appeal he filed at the supreme court.
In admitting
his case in which he is claiming hundreds of millions, the African court in a
May 29 correspondence gave the Cameroon government 60 days to submit a defence
to the suit. “I have the honour to let you know that during the 55th
ordinary session held from April 28 to May 12 in Luanda, Angola, the Human and Peoples’
Rights Commission of the African Union (the
commission) examined Communication 415/12 – M. Edouad Nathanad Etonde
Ekotto Versus Cameroon declared in conformity with…the internal regulation of
the commission, you are requested to send your observations on the substantive
matter of this communication to reach the secretariat within 60 days from the
date of this notification”, the commission ordered.
Michel Thiery
Atangana who was given presidential parole after 17 years in jail for charges
of embezzlement has also sued three top government officials abroad for abusive
detention. And there is no guarantee that the stream of cases will not continue
to flow to international courts based on precedence at the African court that
the judiciary in Cameroon cannot be said to be free from the executive as long
as the head of state is also the boss at the higher judicial council.
The late Albert
Mukong of Prisoner without a Crime
fame also sued Cameroon abroad and got a hundred million francs for
compensation.
In its ruling
on the SCNC case, the commission ruled that the SCNC would not have had a fair decision
at home. It recommended that the higher judicial council should be “reformed by
ensuring that it is composed of personalities other than the president of the
republic, the minister of justice and other members of the executive bench.”
That advice
remains unheeded. Would the government say the current arrangement makes for a
free judiciary in the country? Would the judiciary not be more credible, more
free a power as stipulated in the constitution, if the council is headed by
legal minds appointed from the civil society? Shouldn’t the Bar Association
play a role to lobby to ensure the judiciary is free from such criticism?
Any policy that creates room for Cameroonians
to take their cases against the government abroad is an indication that the
established forms of political contention, such as petitioning office-holders
and the judicial system are hollow and ineffective. It exposes the regime to
international ridicule as its dirty garb is washed on the global stage.
At The Guardian
Post we are convinced President Biya, doyen of the African political scene will
get more prizes and enhance our democratization process if he throws away some
of the loads he carries and concentrates on the crucial duties of head of state
and commander of the armed forces. That will boost up his personality and the
international image of the country being bashed from several angles including
even at the ongoing FIFA World Cup tournament.
Luc Magloire, Robert Nkili grounded in power conflict
By Sylvanus Ezieh Acha’ana in Yaounde
Following a communiqué signed last Wednesday by the minister of trade,
Luc Magloire Mbarga stepping up the minimum taxi fare from 200 – 250FCFA, a
cold war is said to have developed between him and his counterpart of
transport, Robert Nkili.
Nkili who apparently did not
feel comfortable with Magloire’s move hurriedly signed a similar communiqué
from Yaounde instituting the same rule as did Luc Magloire. While Magloire took
the decision on a campaign mission in Douala to convince businessmen and women
not to sanction consumers with exorbitant prices as a result of the fuel price
hike, Nkili for his part signed the communiqué in Yaounde shortly after that of
Magloire was read on state radio.
Even though neither Nkili nor
Magloire has made any open statement as to whether who of them is gratified
with the right to decree the increase of taxi fare, wide opinion holds that Luc
Magloire Mbarga may have stepped into Nkili’s shoes to execute functions that
do not fall within his area of competence.
Meanwhile Magloire’s lackeys
are arguing that as minister of trade, he is in charge of prices, which give
him the competence to intervene in the price control of any domain. But his
critics have refused to see any reasoning in the argument raised by his
advocates. This school of thought argues that as trade minister, Magloire is
concerned with the control of prices of local commodities and not prices of
services.
A Yaounde-based teacher told
The Guardian Post that he was yet to reconcile the action of the trade minister
with his actual competences. He regretted the fact that a government minister
of Magloire’s standing could go this far to usurp functions that are not
officially his.
Albeit in Douala on a mission
to sway traders from taking advantage of the fuel price increase to swell
prices of local commodities, Magloire has come under stiff opprobrium after
last Wednesday’s communiqué.
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