A King with no Clothes On: Being a Prime Minister in Cameroon

During a 1998 discussion on the defunct Camnet listserv, one subscriber inquired about the powerlessness of Cameroonian Prime Ministers compared to their French counterparts:

In the French system of democracy, which is the inspiration for Cameroon’s 1996 constitution, there is an executive President and an executive Prime Minister with the latter still appointed by the President (in consultation if he is from the opposition party) yet there is no evidence of powerlessness in the system. Where then is the missing link of this type of democracy in the case of Cameroon, where the Prime Minister is supposed to be powerless?

My reply below from 11 years ago, which is still valid today, shows why the Cameroonian Prime Minister, unlike his French counterpart, is largely a figurehead:

While the French constitution of 1958 was designed for a modern democracy with a powerful President accountable to the various branches of government, its Cameroonian copy has been explicitly designed for a pseudo-democracy where the President is omnipotent and virtually unaccountable to anyone. In fact, one would not be far off the mark to describe the system put in place by Cameroon’s 1996 constitution as monarchical in nature (what Mbu Etonga once described as the “Imperial Presidency”…)

A cursory look at the constitutional role/powers of the Prime Ministers in both France and Cameroon will shed some light on this issue:

Article 20 (1) of the French constitution of 1958 clearly states that: “The Government shall determine and conduct the policy of the nation.”

Article 21(1) further stipulates: “The Prime Minister shall direct the conduct of government affairs.”

In other words, the French Prime Minister is not just an errand person for the President, but an actual Head of Government who designs and implements policies based on his party’s political agenda; a party that may very well be different from the President’s.

Article 19 of the French constitution goes even further by giving the Prime Minister the power of countersignature over certain official acts of the President. Therefore, the French Prime Minister wields real executive power.

The Case of Cameroon

Article 11 of the 1996 constitution states that: “The Government shall implement the policy of the nation as defined by the President of the Republic.”

Article 12 (1) adds that: “The Prime Minister shall be the Head of Government and shall direct its action.”

The Prime Minister is therefore merely a nominal head of government charged with implementing general policy as outlined by the President of the Republic.

What we have in Cameroon is a Prime Minister who is stripped of any power of initiative because he is constitutionally obliged to implement only those policies defined by the President. He has no independent authority in determining the policies that guide the nation. Whatever authority he has is merely delegated.

Simply put, the PM runs errands for the President, and does not make policy... even if he is from a political party with parliamentary majority whose policies are diametrically opposed to that of the sitting president!!! This system therefore contains seeds of a potential institutional crisis in the event where the presidential majority is different from the parliamentary majority, and the President and Prime Minister come from opposing and even hostile political parties.
 
The Prime Minister’s limited powers have been further reduced by a series of presidential edicts since 1991 which have effectively dispersed a good chunk of the PM’s powers to other centers of authority. For example, Decree No. 92/070, of April 9, 1992, reorganizing the Presidency of the Republic states that the General Secretariat of the Presidency:

• Receives all directives concerning the definition of the nation’s policy as defined by the President (remember, this is the constitutional duty of the PM…)
• Ensures that the decisions of the President of the Republic are implemented
• Supervises the effective realization of programs approved by the President and confided to heads of ministerial departments
• Prepares cabinet meetings in collaboration with the services of the Prime Minister (art 2)

According to the same Decree, the SECRETARY GENERAL oversees:

• The coordination of the action of ministries and services attached to the presidency
• The writing of draft bills to be submitted to the national assembly, in collaboration with the Secretary General of the Prime Minister’s office or concerned ministers
• The preparation of cabinet meetings, and commissions presided over by the President (art. 4(1)

Mention should also be made of Decree No. 92/069 of 9 April 1992, reorganizing the government which stipulates in Article 6 that the President appoints individuals to practically every key position in the Administration, from the Ministers to State Inspectors and Controllers, while the PM cannot appoint anyone higher than a Senior Divisional officer (Cameroon Tribune no. 1407 of April 13, 1992).

Add to this a series of presidential decrees which at various times in the past two decades have stripped the PM of direct control over key ministries and placed them either under the  direct control of a Vice PM or the Presidency, and it becomes obvious even to the casual observer that the king really has no clothes on…

Excerpt of the Constitution of the Republic of Cameroon

Article 10
(1) The President of the Republic shall appoint the Prime Minister and, on the proposal of the latter, the other members of Government...

(2) The President of the Republic may delegate some of his powers to the Prime Minister, other members of Government and any other senior administrative officials of the State, within the framework of their respective duties.

(3) Where the President of the Republic is temporarily unable to, perform his duties, he shall delegate the Prime Minister and, should the latter also be unavailable, any other member of Government to discharge his duties within the framework of an express delegation of some of his powers.

Article 11
The Government shall implement the policy of the nation as defined by the President of the Republic.

Article 12
(1) The Prime Minister shall be the Head of Government and shall direct its action.
(2) He shall be responsible for the enforcement of the laws.
(3) He shall exercise statutory authority and appoint to civil posts, subject to the prerogatives of the President of the Republic in such areas.
(4) He shall direct all the government services required for the accomplishment of his duties.
(5) He may delegate some of his powers to members of Government and to senior State officials.

Comments

[Posted on Camnet]

Accepting a prime ministerial position in Cameroon is an exercise in anxiety, which may not be worth a bucket of warm spit. You live in perpetual fear of the inevitable and the palpitation is heightened because the end can be anytime and for no reason. Young people should do it for the adrenaline rush, the fun and adventures. But I don't know how somebody in his or her sixties and above would want to submerge his or her dignity under the psychedelic pleasures of the president.

Every few years, an old man goes through the tortured ritual of being sacked as PM as the president becomes bored, restless, paranoid or futuristic, depending on which mallam you ask. What actually goes on in the head of the new PM - the next day after his appointment, the spectacle of primitive exuberance by elites and villagers alike paying pilgrimage homage to the homes of the newly minted PM and others shaking anatomies at various stages of inebriation, thanking God for Biya, is a combination phenomenon for psychologists and anthropologists to study. You bring in a hypnotist if the PM thinks merit is necessary for staying power.

The ministerial slew has few safe bets but it is no better. I have wondered about these things. But, somehow, I am amused by the spontaneous joy Biya brings to the villagers who have been remembered by the appointment of their son. A tragic unawareness.
MsJoe

[Ma Mary]

Ms Joe sometimes you are Maureen Dowd, at other times Camille Paglia and at best yourself. In any case, every time you are always a jolly good read. Do you have your own blog? Why not ask Dibussi to set you up.
It is not worth accepting ANY post in the Cameroon government because they appoint you by radio and sack you by radio. It is all an exercise in humiliation and trepidation, designed to control and to turn all people into maggots.
It appears people appointed to the position hedge their bets by raking up as much loot as possible, because there is not such thing as honor when you are finally canned and flushed.

[Wonja Elive]

Well, I rather see it differently.

In the first place I think it wrong to call him a Prime Minister, and then say he is powerless. To me it is almost a "constitutional misnomer", whatever this means. Rather he is a Vice President. Cameroon has NEVER a Prime Minister.

[Mola Mboa]

Except the Prime Minister of West Cameroon and the Premier of Southern Cameroons.

[Dango tumma]

every thing about cameroun is fake,
their independence day 01/01/1960 is never honored, yet they celebrate may 20th as national day, they say their country was colonized by germany, false, it was colonized by the french, they say southern cameroons is a part of their country, false, southern cameroons is another country who had hers own independence from UK 10/01/1961. the germans had no colonies but territories
and kamerun was made up of five diffrent
states all are independent countries today.CAMEROUN call the plescite union
as re-unification, false infact its unification, since both countries were never one in history. They call victoria LIMBE , false the right name is victoria , the citizens of this town never held a council vote to change the name of the belove town. ahijo did that by just a radio annoncement. north west, and south west
are what cameroun called its provinces
false, these citizens never held any vote to change the name of their country from southern cameroons to north west and south west provinces, the again cameroun swithch again 2009 to region, and soo on
you can see the lies and eveil in this african despotic republic. some one have to stop them by force and stop them now, because they are getting away with murder and eveil simply because the have a military .