CI-NEWS

“Regional Councils will be endowed with deliberative powers”: Fon Lekunze Nembo Andreas, Traditional

2020-08-24

No: 525

“Regional Councils will be endowed with deliberative powers”: Fon Lekunze Nembo Andreas, Traditional Ruler/Senator, South West Region.

Cameroon’s political machinery will soon be endowed with yet another democratic structure- the Regional Council. Can you tell us, what will change concretely?

Truly Cameroon’s political machinery is going to change significantly from what it has been since the adoption of the law on decentralization in 1996. Great strides have been made since the advent of the Major National Dialogue in the direction of effective implementation of decentralization in Cameroon. This is happening now because the government has seen the urgent need to devolve powers to the people in its continuous process of perfecting its democracy and bringing decision making quite closer to the masses. Concretely, much is going to change especially through the local structures inscribed in the General Code on Regional and Local Authorities; like the Regional Council endowed with deliberative powers in selected areas of public life and most especially the House of Chiefs that further gives local entities the opportunity to actively take part in decision making at the regional level.

What do you tell skeptics who fear that Regional Councils will remain a rubberstamp of the executive?

The General Code on Regional and Local Authorities clarifies all doubts and speaks for itself in the direction of clearing most if not all doubts still being nursed by some skeptics. To say the regional councils could be a rubber stamp is a fallacy and gross exaggeration because until December 2019, Cameroon was a Decentralised Unitary State as it is today, yet the regional councils and all other structures that came with the General Code on Regional and Local Authorities did not exist. As for the obsession that some state institutions are rubber stamps, it will be proper for proponents of his school of thought to read their papers on political systems and constitutional law more profoundly in order to come to terms with the existing truth that; “Cameroon is a young but sure democracy endowed with functioning structures”.

Some critics say the implementation of the highly awaited special status for the North West and South West Region is delaying. Are you of the same opinion? What can be delaying it from getting full swing?

In my humble opinion, I’ll rather suggest that we remain positive and also rely on the text of application that sets out the modus operandi for implementation. However, there’s no need being pessimistic because the flesh in the Special Status will only come from the functional strength of the democratic structures outlined in the General Code on Regional and Local Authorities. As it is often said, “A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step.”

Interview Culled from Cameroon Insider

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“Regional Councils will be endowed with deliberative powers”: Fon Lekunze Nembo Andreas, Traditional