National Assembly Radio, TV should make MPs sit up.

Several democratic countries have dedicated television channels that broadcast their parliamentary proceedings, to increase transparency, accountability, and public engagement. 

As Parliaments pursue efforts to be open and accountable, screening of the plenary sessions provide an easy step for the electorate to evaluate the performance of their representatives in debates.

For years, Cameroon's Parliament has been criticised as "rubber stamping", implying that bills submitted by the government are passed as presented with hardly any debates or amendments. 

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Rt Hon Cavaye Yeguie Djibril, has on a number of occasions observed the dishonourable behaviour of some of his peers.

For instance, while closing the June session in 2023, 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 the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute, and 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 tomfoolery of the dishonourable members, meaning the lack of camaraderie, individualism, tussle for position and double-crossing amongst other vices.

The Speaker expressed regrets that it was unbelievable to even think that the nation's representatives pursue objectives that are incompatible with their very essence as lawmakers.

He explained that although the Members of Parliament have legitimate personal ambitions, their egoistic aspirations should not jeopardise the serenity and proper functioning of Parliament.

It was just one of those innumerable times the Speaker had mustered the audacity to tell his ignominious peers the bitter truth.

During the March session of 2022, Cavaye was furious that the debate session on the presentation of a bill regulating human health research in the country was late. 

The attendance was at the lowest ebb and the seating scheduled for 9:30a.m. started an hour late.

In opening the debate, the Speaker scolded his colleagues for boycotting the sessions: “They are not here...the other day, you were 38 in number. You are supposed to be at least 100 of you in a Parliament of 180 members”. 

“When you will go back to your villages and if they ask you what was said at the National Assembly, you will be murmuring...and you won’t have what to say,” Hon Cavaye mocked at his peers, and advised that: “Please come back, you were elected to come and sit here and not to loiter in Yaounde”.

Another case was during the November session of Parliament for the 2021 legislative year, when the Speaker lashed out at MPs for clapping through the 2022 Finance Bill, that was tabled by the government bench.

After noting that the Finance Bill 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.

Many of them do not attend sessions to scrutinise bills because they are also businessmen and use their parliamentary privileges to lobby for contracts in Yaounde and hustle to be given preferential payment of their bills.

Such Parliamentarians chasing their egoistic interests have been been humiliated, harassed and insulted in ministries. 

There was the infamous case where in one of the miniseries, the minister's bodyguard blocked MPs who wanted to see his boss without booking an audience.

A fracas ensued as the guard violently pushed the Parliamentarians away. He reportedly seized a file from one of them and tore it. 

The Secretary General in the same ministry also insulted them while threatening to call the police to arrest them.

There is also the bizarre instance in 2008, when security officials are said to have handcuffed an MP after seizing his passport. 

The number of instances Parliamentarians, who brag of being immune, have been humiliated, disgraced, insulted and harassed in the country are countless. Most of that has been happening in Yaounde during sessions.

That era of laissez-faire will soon be over among Cameroon dishonourable parliamentarians. 

In an announcement on the eve of the crucial March Session, which opened yesterday, the Speaker said the National Assembly of Cameroon will soon have its own television and radio stations.

The fiat, registered as No.2026/004/AB/AN/CAB/PAN, noted the media organs will "among other things, modernise and optimise communication regarding the activities of the National Assembly in general and those of its members in particular".

It is a laudable initiative to make recalcitrant Members of Parliament sit up. But to fulfill its role, reporters should be given the liberty to give live coverage to parliamentary activities, in and out of the House.

The two organs should emulate the example of Canada, another bilingual country, where its parliamentary media organs operate as a non-partisan, gavel-to-gavel, and unedited broadcast of proceedings, designed to act as an "electronic Hansard", and a faithful, audiovisual record of debates without hindrance by the ruling party hierarchy.    

The article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3728 of Wednesday March 11, 2026