The eldest member of Senate and Chair of its Provisional Bureau, Senator Nfon Victor Mukete, has come under scathing criticisms for taking the call for President Biya to run for the upcoming Presidential election to the rostrum of the House.

Senators of the opposition are seething with rage that Senator Mukete used the Senate to advance the campaign of his ruling CPDM party. The Senator of the Social Democratic Fund, SDF, for the Adamawa Region, Paul Haman, came down hard on Nfon Mukete.

“It’s an unpardonable blunder that the eldest Senator used the rostrum of the Senate that belongs to all Cameroonians and all political parties for the CPDM campaign,” he lamented. The Senator of the opposition NUDP party for the Littoral Region, Pierre Flambeau Ngayap, described Nfon Mukete’s act as a “big disappointment”. He said it was the greatest abuse to the upper House of Parliament.

As Head of the Provisional Bureau, Chief Mukete chaired the opening of the ongoing Parliamentary session on March 10. In the company of two youngest Senators, the nonagenarian will conduct the business of the House until the Permanent Bureau of the Senate is elected in the coming days.

While opening the session at the National Assembly earlier, the eldest member of the House, Hon. Enow Tanjong, called on fellow MPs to put the common good above personal interest in all their Parliamentary actions. Some observers hold that such a virtue is rare in the Cameroonian Parliament, given that party discipline is allowed to surpass every other consideration.

Speaking to the press after Thursday’s opening ceremony at the Glass House, the SDF MP for Wouri, Hon. Joshua Osih condemned the regime’s maneuvres to push through another Constitutional amendment. Hon. Osih, who is also the Vice Chair of the SDF, warned that his party will not give in to any Constitutional amendment.

He said what he expects the regime to put in place is the Constitutional Council and other provisions as stipulated in the 1996 Constitution. To him, the Supreme Court cannot be allowed to continue to sit in for the Constitutional Council because it cannot fully guarantee the constitutionality of laws and issues in the country.

He warned the regime against taking the Cameroonian people that they represent for granted. Hon. Tomainou Adamou Njoya, the CDU MP for the Noun constituency in the West Region, regretted that every Constitutional amendment is tailored to eternalise President Biya and his regime.

The UPC MP for the Nyong and Kelle constituency in the Centre Region, Hon. Bapoh Lipot, was more concerned with his party’s entry into the Bureau of the National Assembly.

He told reporters that the fact that the UPC is not represented in the Bureau of the House was a violation of the Standing Orders of the National Assembly. To him, the Standing Orders recommend that the Bureau of the National Assembly must reflect the political configuration of the House.

Hon. Lipot, who is also the Secretary-General of the UPC, said such a violation of the internal regulations of the National Assembly was a big threat to democracy. After last week’s opening ceremony of the Parliamentary session, the permanent Bureau of the Senate and the National Assembly is expected to be voted in the coming days.