By RFIPosted on 16-12-2019Changed on 16-12-2019 at 10:47

The examination of the new decentralization bill should continue this Monday in Cameroon. It was presented Friday, at the opening of an extraordinary parliamentary session which should last fifteen days. And arouses many reactions.

Among the provisions which are the subject of debate: article 246 according to which the future “city mayors” placed at the head of urban communities must henceforth be “indigenous” personalities. A dangerous provision estimates Maximilienne Ngo Mbe , director of Redhac, the Network of human rights defenders in Central Africa, while we are already witnessing an increase in community tensions in Cameroon.

She asked that she be withdrawn outright from the text: “ It is absolutely essential that parliamentarians do not vote for this law. For us, it is an aberration to say the mayor is indigenous. The eligibility of each citizen goes in the direction of: do I live, do I pay, am I a citizen, do I meet conditions? So adding a notion of aboriginal is only creating cleavages, a withdrawal of identity that we already note and which describes the living together of Cameroonians.

" We are all Cameroonians "

" When we have not already settled the question of the North West and South West , we should not add ," she said . We have a lot of problems right now, we can't afford that. Above all, we human rights defenders cannot tolerate this kind of discrimination. We are all Cameroonians with our diversity, but in harmony, and each Cameroonian must feel good where he is and must be eligible and voter where he is. Because the law gives it to us, including the African charter for democratic elections and governance. "

Cameroonian MPs began this Friday, December 13, the examination of a new bill intended, according to the authorities, to " accelerate and deepen the decentralization process ".

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