National Assembly Session: Constitutional revision not on tentative programme Bill on decentralization high on agenda.

Courtesy: The Herald

Is President Paul Biya up to his usual tricks by disguising his intention until the last minute? or he
is yielding to widespread opposition at home and abroad over his intention to modify the constitution?
A programme of next month’s session of the National Assembly that has been leaked to The Herald, by dependable intelligence source, does not include a bill on the controversial revision of the constitution.

But our informants who usually know the programme of the house in advance said that if the bill will show up at all during the March session, then it would be brought in only at the last minute to avoid a leak. On the contrary, it is a bill on decentralization and one other bill that our source did not name that are on the tentative agenda Our informants did not give us any details on the
content of these two bills. But it is believe that the decentralization bill is to render operational the
work government plans to devolve power to urban and local councils.
On the proposed constitutional revision, Paul Biya is unpredictable. If he will table a bill in that regard, he would most probably have to keep it until the eve of the date of tabling.
And given the overwhelming majority of the CPDM in the house the bill could be passed in the twinkle of an eye by acclamation.
That could be on the last day of the session. Meanwhile, it has emerged that Paul Biya showered the bureau of the National Assembly with money during last
November’s session.

It is believed that he did this to create a conducive atmosphere within the assembly in preparation for the eventual passage of the bill on the controversial revision of the constitution to facilitate his stay in office beyond 2011.
For no other evident reason, he gave free car allowances ranging from 8 million to 60 million FCFA. Money which is free and non reimbursable.

Ordinary parliamentarians received 8 Million France each, bureau secretaries 30 million, questors 40 million, vice presidents 45 million, Senior-Vice president 50 million and the president 60 million FCFA.
New bureau members received at least 2 million FCFA home furnishing allowance.
This reporter also learned that in addition to these generous allowances, some parliamentarians were appealing to the president to reimburse all payments that they had made on their car loans.
Furthermore there has been a movement within the assembly pressing the government to increase the monthly salary of MPs and the micro-finance yearly allowance of 8 million FCFA.