Hon. P.C Fonso says all parliamentary elections are pretentious

By Emmanuel F. Sanosi

Mbengwi Centre SDF Member of Parliament, Hon. P.C Fonso, has said all the elections conducted in parliament through secret ballot are pretentious "and a drama of the highest order because every thing is arranged out of parliament".

In a press conference granted Wednesday, April 15, the outspoken MP told journalists in his Bamenda office that before elections are conducted at the National Assembly, MPs and their respective parties already know those to be elected.

Harping on the CPDM and SDF in particular, P.C Fonso averred that President Paul Biya as the President of CPDM, takes unilateral decisions as to who should be elected the speaker of National Assembly, vice presidents, questors and secretaries. "Equally in the SDF where I belong, it's nobody else but my National Chairman, Ni John Fru Ndi, who names who should be elected from amongst the SDF parliamentarians to hold the posts of the vice president, questor or secretary".

 He disclosed that after the SDF Parliamentary Group leader and others, negotiate with CPDM MPs and know the number of posts reserved for the SDF, the Parliamentary Group leader calls Fru Ndi in Bamenda "and the Chairman names those to occupy the posts".  He opined that elections in parliament are nothing but pretentious secret ballot

On how the CPDM hierarchy tricked him to go for a seminar in Gabon when he was supposed to chair the March 2009 parliamentary elective session as the eldest MP, P.C Fonso posited that till date, he cannot confirm whether he is the eldest MP because the parliamentary secretariat does not make public MPs ages.  "I went to Joseph Mbuy who chaired as the eldest MP and told him that if it's true that I am the eldest, then I must chair next year and he told me that he was made to know that he was the eldest". When I went to verify at the secretariat, I was told that they could not expose MPs' confidential documents to me".

Even if PC Fonso is the eldest MP who chairs an opening session he cannot effect any change. "The speech the eldest MP reads is prepared by the secretariat and the parliamentary secretary who sits close to him during the opening session, guides him on what to do". He revealed that the eldest MP conducts only the election of the speaker of Assembly and the speaker conducts the rest of the elections.

Revisiting his trip to Gabon during the opening of the March parliamentary session, P.C Fonso said he received a phone call from the director in charge of missions at the Assembly on February 25 to come to Yaoundé for a mission. "I said I could not go anywhere because I was preparing for the March session. On the 26th I received another call telling me to send my passport. I did that through a travel agency and it was received on February 27.” He said after receiving, they called him again saying that he forgot to send his passport size photographs but finally they found them at the secretariat.

P.C Fonso said they processed every thing in his absence and on March 2, he left Mbengwi for Douala Airport as instructed where he met those with whom he was to travel to Gabon.  "I then phoned my parliamentary group leader, Hon. Banadzem and explained everything but he was not happy".

Dismissing claims from his colleagues that he does not know a word in French and should not have accepted to go for a seminar in an exclusively French-speaking country like Gabon, Fonso said he understands French, "but I cannot sustain any conversation in French". He said his party has not sanctioned him for going to Gabon because they know what happened.