Cameroon-born Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, expatiated on his roadmap in an interview granted to the Crtv.
What is the relationship between the IPU and
the CPA that is meeting Yaounde?
The CPA is a constituency within the inter-parliamentary union. The CPA is made up of parliamentarians from 53 countries and most of these 53 countries are members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union which has a membership of 164 countries around the world. I want to see the common wealth deliberations fitting more into the deliberations of the Inter Parliamentary Union and I see the proceedings of this 60th conference fitting into the assembly of the inter parliamentary union that is taking place later this week and early next week.
Could you say that your election was evident?
It wasn’t because there were several candidates. There were some 53 candidates from across the world and at the end of the day 3 candidates were put forward for election on the last day. I was honoured to have been elected in the first round of the elections. I think that my election is evidence of the fact that democracy in Africa has come of age and the parliamentary institution is waxing strong. I will like to say that people tend to portray the negative side of democracy in Africa but there are good success stories that we need to portray. This is what I’m going to do during my term.
And what will you say militated in favour of your election? Did Cameroon as a country or was it the continent?
I think that my election is an evidence of the diplomatic cloud of Cameroon. I received unflinching support from the highest authorities starting from the President of the Republic to whom I want to pay tribute here. I wish to thank him and the other authorities of the country for supporting my candidature but i was backed fully by the Africans. At the end of the day my candidature victory was that of the global parliamentary community because I received support from all parts of the world.
You are heading a structure that I will say to an extent is very new to Cameroonians; what are the major concerns of the IPU?
Maybe I’d like to say what I see as the priorities for the organisation as I embark on my term as Secretary General. The CPA is looking at how parliaments re-position themselves in view of the new development agenda. This is something that is very high on my list of priorities. I want to make sure that parliaments play a robust role in fashioning the new generation of development goals but it’s even more important that they have the capacity to deliver when those goals are adopted next year. So, I have been spending a lot of my time trying to canvass support from parliaments for certain goals that we’ll want to see for instance, democratic governance, because we think that democratic governance is a real tool for development. Also I want to extend the universality of the institution; it means that I want to reach out to constitutiencies that have been neglected and my presence in Yaoundé today for the CPA conference is best testimony to that because I want to reach out to the cross-section of the Common Wealth jurisdiction but also I want reach out to some segments of society, women, I want to reinforce the participation of women in politics. I am reaching out to the youths. And later this week I am hosting in Geneva the first global conference on young parliamentarians. Increasingly I want to see the disabled also involved in parliamentary processes. Off course, I want to strengthen our partnership with the United Nations because the IPU is to parliaments what the United Nations is to governments and the two have to work hand in hand to foster the welfare of mankind.
You have quite a lofty set of ambitions there; do you have the means to meet-up with that?
The finances of the organisation are uneven…we have substantial resources but given that the membership are asking me to do ever more activities, off course there will come a time when I’ll have to strike a balance between the resources of the organisation and the activities that I can carry out. But I am also waging a fund-raising drive appealing to some major donors to provide resources for us to do certain things in the area for instance, maternal new born child health, promoting democracy and making sure that parliaments have the capacity to deliver on the expectations of the people.
Source:
CRTV
