Politics
The Cameroon Bar Council is demanding the government to withdraw the Penal Code, currently under review by Cameroon Members of Parliament and Senators.In a statement after an extraordinary session of the Bar Council held on June 16 2016,the lawyers observed that there is no correlation between the French and English versions
(the translation is said to have been done using the google translator with all its deficiencies).
The Bar council condemns “the translation disparity between the French and English versions of the said bill with the consequential effect being the divergence in interpretation
and the likelihood of misinterpretation and application of the said text with the probability of creating chaos in the administration of Justice,” partly read the press statement.
The legal minds demand that the government withdraws the bill and bring it back only when the suggestions made by the Cameroon Bar Council is given due consideration.
The Bar said that it was never consulted before the submission of the draft bill to the National Assembly and wants a Review of problematic provisions,
the striking out of obsolete and unwarranted provisions and for the Draft Bill to comply with International Instruments ratified by the Republic of Cameroon.
The Bar council President Jackson F. NGNIE KAMGA is arguing that such an important document cannot be drawn up without the consultation and consent of lawyers, civil society actors and human rights defenders.
The draft code n° 989/PJL/AN was single handedly drawn up and tabled before parliament by the Cameroon government, presumably the Ministry of Justice with no consensus or consultation with lawyers and magistrates, argues the Cameroon’s Bar Council.
The lawyers are demanding MPs to take up their responsibilities and look into the proposals from the Bar.
PRESS OFFENCES PUNISHABLE
What is being observed taking a quick look at the draft 372 articled and 119 page bill is that ,while other countries the world over are depenalising for instance, press offences,
Art 305 of the draft code punishes defamation with six days to six months imprisonment and a fine of between 5000 Frs to 2.000.0000 million frs CFA.
The same code in its Article 198 said the punishment would be double for publications made through the media
BEGGING…PUNISHABLE
The penal code gives different fines and sentences for public drunkenness, gathering of more than five persons in public places, begging, (3 months-3 years imprisonment) insults among other issues hitherto seemingly unpunished.
On the protection of the women and children, Art 277 condemns male and female genital mutilation, rape sexual harassment, (Art 302) those who fail to send their children to school (355) or chase their wives or husbands from the house (Art 358).
Homosexuality remains punishable. Provisions for the punishment of domestic violence were not immediately spotted.
Although the government in the preamble of the draft bill said the intention of tabling a new code is to modernize and harmonize the two (Anglophone and Franchone) legal systems,
it remains unclear what the government is insinuating when it said mentalities and behaviors have changed,
with the changes being amplified by the new Information and Communication Technology.
With lawyers already demanding a withdrawal of the code, it would be appropriate for everyone to read the code and be aware of the fines and imprisonment that accompanies offences.
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- Solomon amabo
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After ‘A People’s Call for an Anglophone for Presidency 2018’; after articulating the 10 good reasons why our majority francophone brethren would vote for an Anglophone candidate; after putting paid to rest claims that a minority cannot influence a majority by assembling jurisprudential evidence that historically, minorities have successfully influenced majorities and even in more complicating situations than ours; today, we begin critical and profound reflection on how to transform the wishes of Anglophone Cameroonians into concrete reality.
Given that it is incumbent on him/her who creates a need to seek to ways and means of fulfilling it, and given that time is not on our side; the team at Cameroon Journalists 4 Justice Solutions, CJ4J, and A Common Future-Cameroon, has been putting in the extra hour and extra energy to create an enabling environment for the Anglophone candidate to have an easy ride to Unity Palace.
Given that the Anglophone for Presidency Campaign largely draws inspiration from the Obama Organizing for Action campaign, OFA, where for the first time in American recent history, a Presidential candidate refused government and other lobby groups’ campaign funds, we are working hard to replicate that success story in
Cameroon in 2018 by making sure our candidate does not accept any form of government funding.
To make sure our candidate goes to Unity Palace on a clean slate without dirtying his/herself with some of the stolen money circulating in political circles and without influence from established interest groups and lobbyists, and to ensure that our next President is entirely accountable to the poor masses that voted her/him; it is our hope that both material and financial resources are put at the candidate’s disposal to cover caution and campaigns throughout the 10 regions of Cameroon.
Lifting the caution fee and campaign burden off the shoulder of the selected candidate in the upcoming Presidential election would inaugurate a new era of transparency and accountability in the management of public affairs in Cameroon as well as reduce personal and government expenditure during elections for public office in Cameroon.
So, what would I do if I had 2 billion FCFA from just 2 million Cameroonians of goodwill at home and abroad in the run up to 2018 Presidential elections?
This is the kind of life-changing question that revolutionalized entrepreneurship thinking in the United States of America. Frank Wakely Gunsaulus, educationist and preacher in his famous sermon, ‘What I Would Do If I Had a Million Dollars’ demonstrated in triumphant detail that ‘where there is a will, there is the way’, as he worked tirelessly to correct defects in the U.S educational system. By the time he ended the ‘million dollar sermon’, good will Americans showed an outpouring of support by contributing one million dollars to enable him introduce a new educational system in America where students were to ‘learn by doing’. It was the average American citizen’s widow’s mite contribution to Dr. Gunsaulus’ idea that America is what it is today, not the billions from government or some funding agency.
We are counting on just 2 million committed Cameroonians at home to chip in FCFA 1000 to special accounts created at various credit unions in all parts of the country for this cause. This way, we shall realize a total sum of FCFA 2.000.000.000.
This notwithstanding, our well-wishers in the Diaspora would have to chip in a minimum of $20 in to an account that would be created out there. The expected CFCA 10000 Diaspora donation would sum up to a total sum of $200.000 x 550 = 110.000.000 FCFA. Everything being equal, we expect that by December 2017, our expectations should be met.
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- Gwain Colbert
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DUNGA-MANTUNG AS TRUCK FULL OF COFFINS HEADS TO NKAMBE
Savannah frontier Radio station Ndu (SFR)says a reporter approached the driver of the vehicle, one Ndeh Gabriel from Bamenda to know more about the coffins, ‘he just smiled and said he is taking them to Nkambe.
That the coffins are being purchased by the government so as to use in case of any death by a civil servant or military’,Ndeh said. The driver continues that after Nkambe he will go back to Bamenda and carry the ones for Wum and other Divisions of the Region.
It still unclear why the CDPM regime has decided to distribute coffins in every administrative Divisional head quarter of this English speaking part of this West African country and going by the drivers words Wum,Mbengwi,Ndop,Bamenda should be expecting theirs.
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- Eng David Aseneh
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Two years ago, an IMF official at a press conference in Yaounde said: “Cameroon spends more than it earns. Incurring huge debts is inevitable in such a situation." In a 2016 report, the world Bank named Cameroon as the most indebted country in Francophone Africa with an estimated public debt rate over 8%.It is now safe to say that part of the money is being used to fund Brenda Biya's lavished lifestyle in America.
The Cameroon's first daughter lives alone in a $26,000 (about 15 million FCFA) a month mansion in California, attends University of California, Los Angeles which charges a whopping $60,000 (about 34.6 million FCFA) in tuition (that if she didn't get a scholarship) and drives a $100,000 (about 57.7 million FCFA) white G class Mercedes Benz.
According to a real-tor, the home is worth approximately $10,199,522 (about 5.8 billion FCFA) if the Biya family wanted to purchase it and Brenda Biya has allegedly been living there since 2014. It might be worth noting that these are just her basic needs. Do the maths!
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- Eng David Aseneh
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Depicting the Special Criminal Court established to prosecute alleged corrupt government officials and the several Alibabas responsible for pilfering from the public treasury as the President’s court is no misnomer. We call it the President’s court because it is one instrument of power through which the President is reining in on perceived opponents from within his CPDM power conduit. An attribute of a genuine court is the fairness of the trial proceedings in cases which are brought before the court for trial. It is not the number of convictions entered against accused. A court is legitimate and recognized as such because of its exercise of judicial, executive, legislative and administrative independence. A court that is independent must be accessible to all citizens after all, is equality before the law, not a constitutionally protected value? The Special Criminal Court is lacking in these attributes of impartiality, judicial independence and accessibility. It is perceived more as the President’s Court than a Court of Justice.
Establishing this court was President Biya’s way of saving himself the embarrassment of being humiliated during his perennial trips abroad as the President of the most corrupt countries in the world. This ranking of the country as the most corrupt or one of the most corrupt countries had a potential to hamper President Biya’s personal pecuniary interests far from the borders of Cameroon. There was therefore a personal interest need to establish the court. Another personal interest need was to avail himself of a legal tool under his direct control to consolidate absolute power, blackmail potential rebels and competitors within the system and to stifle any form of institutional opposition. He perceived the court as a tool with which to whitewash his more than thirty years of corrupt governance and the rape of the economy.
Depicting the Special Criminal Court established to prosecute alleged corrupt government officials and the several Alibabas responsible for pilfering from the public treasury as the President’s court is no misnomer. We call it the President’s court because it is one instrument of power through which the President is reining in on perceived opponents from within his CPDM power conduit. An attribute of a genuine court is the fairness of the trial proceedings in cases which are brought before the court for trial. It is not the number of convictions entered against accused. A court is legitimate and recognized as such because of its exercise of judicial, executive, legislative and administrative independence. A court that is independent must be accessible to all citizens after all, is equality before the law, not a constitutionally protected value? The Special Criminal Court is lacking in these attributes of impartiality, judicial independence and accessibility. It is perceived more as the President’s Court than a Court of Justice.
Establishing this court was President Biya’s way of saving himself the embarrassment of being humiliated during his perennial trips abroad as the President of the most corrupt countries in the world. This ranking of the country as the most corrupt or one of the most corrupt countries had a potential to hamper President Biya’s personal pecuniary interests far from the borders of Cameroon. There was therefore a personal interest need to establish the court. Another personal interest need was to avail himself of a legal tool under his direct control to consolidate absolute power, blackmail potential rebels and competitors within the system and to stifle any form of institutional opposition. He perceived the court as a tool with which to whitewash his more than thirty years of corrupt governance and the rape of the economy.
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- Elangwe Pauline
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The populations of the towns of Fotokol, Waza and Mozogo, all located in the Extreme-North region of Cameroon, have just become the recipients of the Orange Foundation’s support, who offered them wells to lessen their burden in accessing drinking water. According to the local authorities, approximately 208 families will thus be relieved by this donation.
The above-mentioned towns, we learn, have the particularity of suffering from the shortage in groundwater levels, a reality which led to the failure of most of the village water projects initiated in this area. Additionally, there is the desert encroachment which further complicates the access to drinking water for the populations.
According to the management of the Orange Foundation, this donation of wells confirms the commitment of this structure to the populations in the Extreme-North, “subjected to the certainly insidious encroaching desert and the crimes of the terrorist sect Boko Haram”.
This terrorist organisation has indeed increased the attacks in this part of Cameroon in the past two years, leaving the local populations in an even more vulnerable situation, with some travelling several kilometres every day to search for drinking water.
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- Rita Akana
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Subcategories
Biya Article Count: 73
# Paul Biya and his regime
Explore the political landscape of Cameroon under the rule of Paul Biya, the longest-serving president in Africa who has been in power since 1982. Our Paul Biya and his regime section examines the policies, actions, and controversies of his government, as well as the opposition movements, civil society groups, and international actors that challenge or support his leadership. You'll also find profiles, interviews, and opinions on the key figures and events that shape the political dynamics of Cameroon.
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