Cameroon Political Story: Memories of an Authentic Eye Witness

Chapter Four - I Become Assembly Man

33  Chapter Four I Become Assembly Man By December 1951, the country was ready for its first general elections. It had been agreed, at the end of the exercise since 1948 that revised the Richards Constitution from its unpopular system of nominating representatives, to that of Sir John Macpherson which introduced the more democratic selection of parliamentarians through elections, to have three Regions, Eastern Region with Headquarters at Enugu, Western Region with Headquarters at Ibadan and Northern Region with Headquarters at Kaduna. Each Region was to have a House of Assembly and the Federal Capital of Lagos was to seat the House of Representatives. Each Region was to have its Regional Government headed by the Governor of that Region and an African Leader of Government Business from the party that controlled majority in the Regional Legislature. In Lagos the Federal Government was headed by the Governor General and the Regions by Governors. The system of elections commenced with electors from Districts constituting an electoral meeting at the Divisional level which elected a number of members calculated on population basis, to the Regional Houses of Assembly. The Houses of Assembly then constituting themselves into electoral meetings elected members to the House of Representatives, Lagos, from amongst their numbers. At the end of the exercise, the Eastern and Western Houses of Assembly, were each with 80 elected members while the Northern House of Assembly had some 134 members. The Regional Houses acting as electoral colleges, .sent to the House of Representatives in Lagos the members to that House in the following proportion: from the Eastern House of Assembly, 34 members; Western House of Assembly, 34 members; Northern House of Assembly, 68 members. At Enugu the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons NCNC party controlled 75 out of the 80 members of the House. The opposition, National Independence Party (NlP) had the other 5 members. All the 13 Cameroon members declared for the NCNC. The constitution had made special provision for the Trust Territory of 34  British Cameroons within the Eastern Region of Nigeria. Here at least four members out of those from the Trust Territory were to be elected to the House of Representatives in Lagos. Also out of the thirteen Trust Territory members, at least one of them was to be a member of the Eastern Region Government at Enugu. Of the four in the House of Representatives in Lagos one was to be a member of the Federal Government. These special provisions had been won by the far more politically alert spokesmen from Cameroon and Bamenda provinces at the several stages of the talks that finally launched the Macpherson Constitution after the Ibadan Conference of January 1951. No such provision was made for the British Cameroons territory then administered under Adamawa and Bornu Provinces of Northern Nigeria. The elections of December 1951 were an outcome of the Macpherson Constitution put into full effect and they produced the following results in respect of the Cameroon and Bamenda Provinces: 1. Victoria Division Dr. E.M.L. Endeley Mr. P.N. Motomby-Woleta 2. Kumba Division Mr. N.N. Mbile Chief R.N. Charley 3. Mamfe Division Mr. S .A. George Mr. M.N. Forju 4. Bamenda Division Mr. S.T. Muna Mr. V.T. Lainjo Mr. J.N. Foncha 5. Wum Division Rev. J.C. Kangsen Prince Sarna Ndi 6. Nkambe Division Mr. J.T. Ndze Mr. A.T. Ngala Mr. S.T. Muna was appointed a member of the Eastern Region Executive Council, in charge of the Ministry of Works, while Dr. E.M.L. Endeley was appointed a member of the Federal Council of 35  Ministers without portfolio in Lagos. Of the 34 representatives from Enugu in the House of Representatives, the following six came from the Cameroons: 1.Victoria Division: Dr. E.M.L. Endeley 2.Kumba Division: Mr N.N. Mbile 3.Mamfe Division: Mr S.A. George 4.Bamenda Division: Mr V.T. Lainjo 5.Wum Division: Rev. J.C. Kangsen 6.Nkambe Division: Mr J.T. Ndze Things looked settled now and the members applied themselves seriously to the tasks that they had sworn to perform on behalf of their constituencies. So the year 1952 saw the Macpherson Constitution in steady progress, but this placid run of things in that year was later reversed by a constitutional crisis that engulfed the Eastern House of Assembly early in1953. The process of the final elections...