THE SENATE: Just One Possible Positive Point Ayah Paul Says

By Ayah Paul

Aside from senility and the already demonstrated senatorial subservience to the executive, with the palpable result that the senate could be a more retrogressive rubber-stamp chamber than the national assembly, the one positive consequence of the putting in place of the senate in seventeen years of moving “progressively” could be the early tabling if Bills.

Cameroun has been most notorious in lawlessness in the conduct of state business relative to legislation in particular. Whereas by the law Bills are required to be tabled weeks before the commencement of a parliamentary session, even the deaf know that even the finance Bill has often been tabled in the last week of the session. The result has been that as many as 14 ministers at times have appeared before the Commission on Finance per day to “defend” their appropriations. Damn too farcical!

Now that the senate is in place, and must, as per the constitution, examine Bills enacted by the national assembly, the executive must table Bills early enough for examination by the national assembly. Where this new dispensation may be wholly superficial or completely watered down would be where the executive avails itself of the atavistic constitutional prerogative to declare the examination of a Bill by parliament a matter of urgency. Even then the repeated resort to the procedure of urgency would be abusive and render the prerogative un-exceptional.

It is submitted that any conspiracy between the two groups of parliamentarians to betray the confidence reposed in them by the people to legislate to the betterment of the nation may not be countenanced this time around. They may wish to apply their minds to the fact that biometric registration may “progressively” mature into a fatal bullet! Fatally determinant!

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