2025 presidentials: What Cameroon legislators should do.

For The Guardian Post, it is a resolution that underscores the convergence of technological advancements and innovative approaches to build a resilient democracy in a country like Cameroon in particular, with presidential election that has been variously described as "risky," slated for next year.

There have been reports by the International Crisis Group on how the social media in Cameroon heightened political and ethnic tensions unleashed by the disputed 2018 presidential election.

Arrey Elvis Ntui, the ICG’s senior analyst for Cameroon, said hate speech and inter-ethnic tensions have increased since the October 2018 poll. He added that the hate speech problem could endanger Cameroon’s stability.

"The country is currently dealing with a separatist insurgency in its Anglophone Regions. Also, the army is dealing with the Boko Haram insurgency in the Far North Region of the country, with nearly daily attacks. Cameroon cannot simply afford to allow the ethnic and political tensions it is facing to rise to levels where they could constitute inter community violence".

Those are some of the problems the IPU resolution on democracy and human rights was intended to resolve. That cannot succeed at the international level without beginning at home as charity demands.

In the past, the Cameroon government blocked internet in the North West and South West Regions, but that created more problems, especially in the downturn of the economy than solving the problem.

The National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism, NCPBM, has over the years been on the field, preaching the doctrine of "living together" and condemning hate speech without significant success.

With Artificial Intelligence now into play, though still at the very low ebb in Cameroon and with elections in the horizon, there is the urgent need for legislators to put some of the resolutions of the IPU into practice and not dump them on dusty shelves.

That will be in tandem with the resolution calling on “parliamentarians to the urgent plea by the UN Secretary General to recommit to multilateralism for global peace, justice, and sustainability”.

How can that peace, justice and sustainability be achieved in Cameroon with impending elections? As has been said time without number by international election observers and credible opposition leaders, the Electoral Code in Cameroon should provide a level playing field.

The obstacles, as have been pointed out, include: disenfranchising young people of age 18 and 19, absence of single ballot papers, rejection of polling station results from the opposition in legal disputes and the independence of ELECAM from the Presidency to which it presents its report.

Despite the complaints, the ruling CPDM government has not amended the Electoral Code, to reflect the concerns for a level playing field.

However, legislators can and should exert their independence from the executive realm by passing a private member's bill to amend the country’s Electoral Code.

They were urged to place a high priority on debates related to Artificial Intelligence and to ensure their policy responses keep pace with advances in AI technology.

Beyond that, Cameroon legislators should also "urgently review legislation and regulations to ensure no loopholes in existing protections for democracy, human rights and the rule of law have emerged due to advances in AI technology".

Cameroon was among over 1,500 other participants from some 134 sovereign States that took part in the various items on the agenda of the Geneva assembly. Its participation should be reflected in the actions back home as law makers who "control government actions".

Without that, attending international conferences like that of the IPU and failing to implement its resolutions would just be to waste the taxpayers' money and facilitate social media conspiracies government cannot control, especially with the advent of Artificial Intelligence. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3267 of Tuesday October 22, 2024