By Ndi Eugene Ndi
Where is the Senate President, constitutional successor of President Paul Biya? This is the question on the lips of some Cameroonians five days to the opening of the first ordinary session of parliament for the 2024 legislative year.
The two houses of parliament, the Senate and the National Assembly, will convene on Tuesday March 5, for the first ordinary session which will be marked by the election of new executive members of both houses, in addition to the routine scrutiny of bills and control of government action.
Since he last chaired the closing plenary of the third ordinary session of parliament for the 2023 legislative on December 9, Senate President Marcel Niat Njifenji, who will clock 90 this October, has vanished from public view.
Hardly will a top-ranking national dignitary like Niat miss the traditional New Year wishes ceremony to the Head of State, President Paul Biya – though the importance of the said event is questionable. But Niat was nowhere near the Unity Palace at Etoudi in Yaounde for this year’s event that was held on January 5.
As has been tradition, the second personality according to state protocol usually follows after the Head of State has received New Year wishes, but as if to confirm reports that he has been in a state of permanent incapacity, Niat has not organized the event yet.
Permanent incapacity
There have been persistent rumors on the death of the Senate president since December 2023 just as was the case in 2020 though, but a source within the Upper House of Parliament said the head of the institution that went operational in 2013 had just joined the Secretary General in permanent incapacity.
The SG of the House, Michel Meva’a Meboutou, who slumped onto the red carpet shortly after he wished President Biya happy New Year at the Unity Palace in January 2015, has not set foot on the institution since returning from a health evacuation last year, according to our source.
Meboutou, who will be 85 in June, has been in a precarious state of health which prevents him from returning to his office. Reports hold that his physical condition deteriorated to the point where he was unable to walk.
Though not going to work, we learned the former minister has refused to delegate powers to his deputy. Last year, the president of the Senate placed him on permanent incapacity, according to a bureau order seen by NewsWatch, and stated that Meboutou will continue to benefit from all his advantages as SG of the House. Among the advantages enjoyed by Meboutou, who sources say is one of the surviving uncles of President Biya, we learned is a monthly functioning budget of FCFA 5 million as well as FCFA 1.5 million fuel allowance which his deserted cabinet continues to receive.
The Deputy SG of the Senate, former Governor Bernard Wongolo has only been signing documents “for and on behalf of the Secretary General of the Senate” since his appointment.
With both the political and administrative heads of the law-making institution nowhere in sight, tongues are wagging if the pioneers will be replaced when elections are conducted in the days ahead. Worthy to note that the president is elected while the SG is appointed by the Head of State.
Similar situation at National Assembly
At the Lower House of Parliament, the National Assembly, business has not been flowing well too. The 84-year-old Speaker Hon. Cavaye Yeguie Djibril has been mired in a number controversial administrative scandals including reported interference by his influential Director of Cabinet in administrative matters of the house and opaque financial management. Between October and November last year, reports emerged of missing millions at the law-making chambers.
The perceived atmosphere of roadblocks in the management of the National Assembly became open when controversial decisions were read on state radio on Thursday November 9, 2023.
The decrees bearing Cavaye’s name and signature appointed a new Director of Cabinet and a Private Secretary at his secretariat. But while those whose names were read on radio were getting set to take office, the House Speaker, issued a release same day, rejecting the appointments.
He had described the abortive appointments as the handiwork of individuals whom he said, then, were bent on destabilizing the smooth functioning of the National Assembly.
Reports hold that Cavaye’s collaborators have been taking advantage of his fragile health and inability to thoroughly control documents within the house to make certain appointments without his knowledge and prior approval.
Same media reports hold that when the Head of State learned of happenings within that tainted the image of the lawmaking institution, he was unhappy and to please him, Cavaye who has been Speaker of the House since 1992, rushed and appointed the former mayor of the Sangmelima Council in Biya’s native Dja and Lobo, Andre Noel Essian, as Secretary General of the house.
However, it will appear the Head of State is not still happy with the long serving Speaker. In what many saw as a sign of divorce between the two long-serving politicians, the Biya administration recently banned the organization of a conference on rising famine in the Far North – an initiative that was spearheaded by Cavaye.
Some political observers are of the opinion that by banning the high-level conference, Biya was sending a subtle message to Cavaye ahead the National Assembly bureau elections in the days ahead.
