African parliaments must insist on credible elections!.

Speakers and Presiding Officers of National Parliaments of Independent Sovereign States of the Commonwealth, CSPOC, in Africa, will begin their conference in Yaounde tomorrow. 

The objectives of the conference, which is traditionally held under the patronage of the Head of State, are to maintain, foster and encourage impartiality and fairness in parliament and promote knowledge and understanding of parliamentary democracy and develop parliamentary institutions.

Parliaments in all Commonwealth countries, within the dogma of separation of powers, have the authority and mandate to scrutinise the executive realm of state to ensure their policy and action commensurate with the needs of the governed.

With the advent of modern parliaments, the legislative prerogative is to act as custodian of the electorate’s trust. As such, it is tasked with ensuring executive accountability, through a rigorous parliamentary process that invariably assesses the performance of Ministers.

Various research and media reports are indicative that in recent times, parliamentarians do not seem to attach the same importance to guaranteeing free, transparent, credible and fair polls.

Taking Cameroon, the host country as a case study, just last week when the June session of the National Assembly came to an end, the Speaker, the Rt Hon Cavaye Yeguie Djibril, in his closing address, had no kind words for his peers.

He said: "...As the nation's representatives, we were elected by the sovereign people to primarily pass good laws and check government’s oversight. These are the two main tasks we were elected to accomplish”.

The Speaker, in the presence of Prime Minister Head of Government, Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute, and other members of his government, conceded, without mincing words, that: “I wish to strongly condemn...increasing cases of misbehaviour by Members of the National Assembly”.

He cited some of the naughtiness of the dishonourable MPs to include the lack of camaraderie, individualism, tussle for position and double-crossing, amongst other vices.

Cavaye expressed regrets that it was unbelievable to even think that the nation's representatives now pursue objectives that are incompatible with their very essence as law-makers.

On another occasion during the November session of Parliament for the 2021 legislative year, the Speaker lashed out at Members of Parliament for clapping through the 2022 Finance Bill that was tabled by the government bench.

After noting that the national budget was adopted at the level of the committee without any amendment or rejection, the Speaker accused them of “not doing their work,” but staging scenes to show off to the electors.

Cameroon’s parliament, though a case study for this editorial opinion, is not the only sad saga in African parliaments. Many have engaged in more degrading and undemocratic monkey business of tinkering with their constitution at the beck of the executive to extend presidential mandates.

There are still electoral laws in many Commonwealth African countries in which flawed electoral processes are embedded, yet some of the Speakers and presiding officers attending the Yaounde conference have done nothing. 

Such parliamentary laissez-faire, riddled with ineptitude to allow bad laws crafted to unduly favour candidates of those in power, has often resulted to fatal electoral violence and even military coups in some countries.

At the Rwanda CSPOC conference in November 2021, a Speaker from Kenya, challenged his peers "to insist on free, fair and credible elections in electoral polls in several countries across Africa to ensure peaceful transitions”.

How many of the Honourable Speakers and presiding officers from some 24 African countries who will be attending the Yaounde conference tomorrow, many of who are already in the country, will affirm that their parliaments diligently play the oversight role?

Do some not just dance to the tyrannical music played by the executive? How many parliaments in Africa have set up Parliamentary Commissions to investigate some executive malfeasance common in the continent? How many have prevented the executive branch from dictating to parliament to manipulate their constitutions to prevent peaceful alternation of power?

The Guardian Post needs not remind the Honourable Speakers and Presiding Officers of National Parliaments of Independent Sovereign States of the Commonwealth in Africa of their role and duties, which they have assigned to themselves, which are brought to focus during their regular conferences.

In as much as we commend the initiative, we hasten to add that they will only be squandering tax payers’ scares resources if at the end of the Yaounde conference, the speeches they make, which traditionally gyrates on independence of parliament  and government oversight, are not translated into action.

That action should include scrutinising laws to ensure free, fair, transparent and credible elections and blocking all attempts to amend constitutions, even for benevolent dictators, from getting a third term, which is today an abomination in any democracy. 

Make no satire about the president of the host country being on a seventh term! After all, Cameroon is also in the Francophonie. The Guardian Post wishes all delegates fruitful deliberations to advance the democratisation process i