Biya to create Vice President post for Anglophones

President Biya is poised to create the post of vice president that would be occupied by an Anglophone in consonance with the bicultural and linguistic balance of power in the country, sources informed The Post.

If everything goes as planned, according to our sources, the government will table a bill on the creation of the post of vice president during the first parliamentary session for 2016 in March.

Observers said if the issue becomes a reality, it will be a feeble attempt by President Biya to render political justice to Anglophones who have been complaining about marginalisation.

Until things went wrong, it was an unwritten law that once the head of state is a Francophone, the second would be an Anglophone.

This rule was respected until Hon. Cavaye Yeguie Djibril, a Francophone from the Far North Region replaced Hon. Lawrence Fonka Shang, an Anglophone from the Northwest Region, as Speaker of the National Assembly in the early 90s.

This move relegated Anglophones to the post of prime minister which is the third position regarding state protocol. This situation held sway until President Biya pushed Anglophones further lower by appointing Marcel Niat Njifenji President of the Senate in 2013, rendering even the Prime Minister fourth in position.

Meanwhile, there is talk that there could be changes in the Bureau of the National Assembly and the Senate, still at the whims of President Biya.

It is likely, The Post was informed, that Hon. Roger Nkodo Ndang, who is the President of the Pan-African Parliament, will be given a higher position in the Bureau of the National Assembly.

Nkodo Ndang is now a secretary in the Bureau and could be raised to occupy the post of one of the Vice Presidents.

In this regard, the Central Committee of the CPDM will be in a mental exercise looking at who should be dropped from the Bureau for Hon. Nkodo Dang to take over. For one thing, the post of Vice President at the National Assembly is a juicy one with many financial advantages.

It is also alleged that government is preparing to table presidential mandate from seven to five years if parliament adopts it.