National Assembly: CPDM Dominated Committee Throws Out SDF Private Members’ Bill

Yaounde, Cameroon—Declared admissible by the chairmen’s conference, private members’ bill N° 068/PLL/AN to law down rules governing the protection and preservation of water catchment areas, watersheds and wetlands in Cameroon that was initiated and presented to the National Assembly for consideration and adoption by Hon Awudu Mbaya Cyprian and members of the SDF parliamentary group has been rejected.

Hon Awudu Mbaya initiated the bill

The bill was thrown out by the CPDM dominated production and trade committee of the National Assembly during debate. By the time of this report, our efforts at getting to the president of the production and trade committee of the national assembly for reasons why the bill was thrown out were unsuccessful.

In a press conference at its party’s parliamentary group secretariat at the National Assembly on Wednesday April 1, 2015, SDF legislators expressed disappointment over the refusal of mostly their CPDM colleagues to endorse the adoption of the bill that was previously judged admissible by the chairmen’s conference.

“We thought that the adoption of this bill by the national assembly is going to give Cameroonians water on a permanent basis and pave the way for a sustainable progress in their development endeavours”, disillusioned Hon Awudu told reporters at the press conference.

Presented at the threshold of the climate change summit to take place in Paris, France, Hon Awudu said an endorsement of the bill by the nation’s representatives would have been very essential contribution to the summit.

“We are going to participate at a very high world summit in Paris in December this year, what is Cameroon going to table as its own contribution when we throw out a bill like this?” Hon Awudu questioned.

The SDF lawmaker claimed that the bill has not been rejected because it is bad, but because it has not been initiated by someone else—probably referring to someone from the ruling CPDM party. “Water has no colour, so when you protect water, it is for everybody, it is not for a section of our nation, it is not for a political party, neither is it for an individual; it is for each and everyone”, Hon Awudu stated.

The embittered SDF MPs used the press conference to appeal to their ruling party colleagues to move beyond party lines and support bills which concern the general interest of Cameroonians.

By Ndi Eugene Ndi