No to re-introduction of Vice President without public debate.

President Paul Biya, as Prime Minister, benefited from it when the then incumbent, Ahmadou Ahidjo, relinquished office.

The present arrangement, coupled with the advanced age of the current Senate President, Marcel Niat Njifenji, 92, and grumblings from people of the North West and South West Regions, that they had been relegated from the second spot in the power ladder as was at reunification to a humiliating fourth rung, have made the debate to reintroduce the position more relevant than ever before.

As Jeune Afrique noted last week, the possibility of revision has gained traction but the constitutional draft, which is "nearly finalised," would involve the creation of the post of Vice President. 

“The creation of the Vice President post, regularly discussed since the 2000s, is at the heart of the debates" before it is presented at this month's parliamentary session.

Before the French media report, it was open knowledge that the Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, had led a "secretive group, made up of advisers- Jean-Claude Awala Wodougué and Luc Sindjoun, along with constitutional law experts," to make a comprehensive overhaul of the country's constitution and electoral architecture.

It is a welcomed initiative, after all; like the Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, 1968-1979, once said: "A constitution is not a pyramid...as a country, is not a static monument built once to defy eternity, but rather something created daily through shared values".

Constitutional amendments depend on the political evolution of the people. The Cameroon Constitution has been reviewed thrice in some 35 years. The French Constitution of the Fifth Republic, adopted on October 4, 1958, has been amended 25 times.

Norway amends its own almost yearly with 316 amendments in 210 years, while that of Japan has been maintained for 77 years. That of neighbouring Nigeria has since 1999, been formally amended five times as of March 2023.

What is, however, common is that they are subject to public debates to get the opinion of the people before it gets to lawmakers.  

At the nexus of the Cameroon review is said to be the introduction of the post of Vice President, a high-ranking personality, who acts as the primary deputy to the President of the Republic, overseeing day-to-day operations, strategic planning, and, crucially, assuming leadership if the President is incapacitated.

With such an important issue at stake, added to the conflict in the North West and South West Regions, discrimination in the distribution of parliamentary seats and the redrawing of the country's administrative map on the table, is it not imperative that there be a constitutional public debate?

Without such a debate, why not a repeat of the 1996 Constitutional Conference that was intended to transition the country toward a more democratic and decentralised Unitary State that formally recognised fundamental human rights in the constitution.

That conference, chaired by Prof Joseph Owona of blessed memory, might have had its defects, but at least, some popular yearnings were taken into consideration; which might not have been the case if the amendments were done behind closed doors before sending them to parliament "to rubber stamp", as cynics would say.

That is why there should be no secrecy in a constitutional amendment intended to meet with the exigencies of time brought about by a presidential election violence, conflict in the North West and South West Regions and an electoral code begging to be reviewed to reduce the term limits for the presidential post.

Even if the review of the constitution has been under wrap, it is overt knowledge that the post of Vice President shall be reintroduced. 

But the immediate reaction is that it should go to the aggrieved people of the former West Cameroon, who joined their cousins of East Cameroon on the constitutional stipulation that if the President is from the east, the Vice should be from the West and vice versa.

Will the Vice President be appointed or elected as a running mate at a presidential election?

That is one of the questions that a public debate would have provided guidance for those drafting the amendments. 

But in the absence of any public discourse, it should behoove on lawmakers who, for once, should stand tall. They should not exhibit the terrifying clinical symptoms of widespread psychopathy among "stomach first" politicians, else history and posterity shall not forgive. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3726 of Monday March 09, 2026