Rab’s World

Cameroon is officially finished! It’s in the constitution!

Parliament voted yesterday to amend constitution to lift term limits on presidency + make him … Paul Biya (or any other future head of state) immune from prosecution when he leaves office. Of course, Biya has to sign this into law. His dirty deeds will have to go unpunished by fellow Cameroonians. That sucks. This is a setback for democracy on the African continent…once again.

The bill, submitted just a week ago, was approved on Tuesday, April 6th by the assembly’s constitutional law committee which dismissed more than 20 opposition amendments. Opposition lawmakers, who criticized the bill stormed out of the chamber before the vote, Reuters reported.

Cameroon has effectively been officially sanctioned as a one-party dictatorship.  Many say the the corruption has now been legitimized. Paul Biya can officially rape the country for as long as HE likes or lives!

For example in a country like the USA; the 22nd constitutional amendment limits head of state (presidency) terms to 2 - four year terms consecutively or 8 years.

Cameroon presidency term is for 7 years. Biya was last elected (not without massive accusations of voter rigging) in 2004. Why would some president need 7 years… especially when he has done nothing noteworthy for history in all of his time (26 years now!) as head of state? This is not including his stint as Minister of State and Prime Minister for Ahidjo. How greedy can one human get?

Biya’s Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) enjoys a huge majority, controlling 153 of 180 parliamentary seats. The CPDM oversaw the introduction of a new constitution in 1996 which limited presidents to two seven-year terms. Biya’s second term under that constitution expires in 2011, but he made it clear in a New Year speech that he would like to stay on. The SDF has 15 seats, but they threw their voting power in the trash by walking out.

See Reuters article to support this.

What amazes me is that this country and the rest of the world are more fixed on the relatively tame party politics of the Democrats and Republicans of the USA. Lucky for us; Cameroonians en masse are a subdued people. This is not an insult but rather an observation. Cameroonians have not taken to the street on this particular issue. They have taken to the streets before; but not in mass against the ruling party. It is also lucky for us that they (the masses) have not taken the dark; protracted path of taking it to the ‘bush’. As far as I know; there is no armed rebel force in the proverbial ‘bush’ exercising violence to topple the Biya-dictated Cameroon government. The duping and the trickery of what happened in Togo a few years back when that president for life died was immediately challenged. Togo was shut down for months. The Parliament had to relent on their devious manipulation of their Constitution.

So… since term limits are lifted that means as the Haitians used to say. “Chef à vie! (President for Life!)”. I guess Biya will never be eligible for the Mo Ibrahim prize.

Good Luck my fellow Camerounais; you’ll need it in the next 20 years!