A constitution is the fundamental law of the land that defines essential political principles of the nature and extent of a government. It sets up the framework, procedures, duties and powers of a government and regulates the relationship between the executive, legislature and the judiciary, just as it defines the relationship of institutions within those branches.

A constitution sets limits to the exercise of governmental power and guarantees certain rights to the people.

And the constitution of the Republic of Cameroon fits within this definition.

Recently, a segment of the Cameroonian public spoke out strongly against the absence at the same time of President Biya and House Speaker, Cavaye Yegue Gibril from the home front. Their justification for speaking out was that the absence of both men from the national territory did not only create a power vacuum but inevitably resurrected the ghost of presidential succession in Cameroon.

Yet, there were others who quickly dismissed as pointless the concerns advanced above. To this block, the presence of the Prime Minister on the national land during the absence of the Ngoa-ekele and Etoudi tenants from the country arguably made up for any open ground their absence may have created.

This debate, to me, raised two critical questions affecting the way forward for our country than it meets the ordinary eye.  Without doubt, the debate has just sparked anew the unsolved problem of constitutional succession in Cameroon.

The real questions then become whether or not reforming the fundamental law of the land is eminent or inevitable?  Whether or not Cameroon should adopt its own model for succession? Whether or not it is even necessary to have an office of Prime Minister?

Let me admit first that answers to these questions may not be the silver bullet that will solve all our problems, but they may provoke a national discourse that may go a long way in encouraging the kind of healthy dialogue that is necessary for a country in need of change to arrive at a national consensus on the unsolved question of succession.

Why amendment may be inevitable

Even though the constitution defines the relationship of the office of Prime Minister within the executive branch, the Prime Minister lacks constitutional powers of his own.

An important lesson to learn from the public debate earlier discussed in this paper is that both sides turned a critical blind eye on the fact that the Prime Minister, though head of government is not an elected official.  And because he is handpicked by the President, the Prime Minister's appointment comes without executive and legislative powers.

This could have been possible before. But after the enactment of the 1984 constitution, Article 5 did away with the post of Prime Minister while Article 7 established the speaker of the National Assembly as the presidential successor.

More so, provisions of 18 January 1996 constitution (Law Number 96/06) on the succession question makes no secret the president of the Senate or his Vice will serve as interim president in case a sudden power vacuum occurs.

But the senate exists only on paper. Since the creation of a bicameral legislature, senate elections have not been held. Cameroon continues to function as a de facto unicameral state, with the National Assembly the country's only legislative body.

Again, as clearly established, the present constitutional arrangement flatly fails to address either in full or in part the hot button question of presidential succession in Cameroon.

Several countries address the succession question by either establishing that the "speaker of the House" or "Prime Minister" would succeed the president in case a power vacuum occurred.  And these models may have probably worked well for such countries because of their specific socio-political conditions.

As the adage goes, "one man's meat is another man's poison;" Cameroon has before either made Prime Minister or speaker of the House, the constitutional successor to the president and it has not worked. The succession question still remains hanging over our heads and places the country in a state of uncertainty, God alone knows if something terrible suddenly happen to President Biya!