CAMEROON: SEPARATION OF POWERS


The spectacular Mount Cameroon


Conceptual definition The concept of Separation of Powers is an original conception from the French lawyer and political philosopher – Montesquieu from The Spirit of the Laws. He holds that within a State, a workable constitution must allocate power in such a way that no branch or institution of government has a monopoly of power over the other branches or institutions. In other words, the constitution should provide for checks and balances. He added that, to ensure that there are checks and balances, power must not always and only be distributed among the various branches of government but also distributed to the various levels of government. In other words, the constitution should avoid the concentration of power either with a


single branch or at a single level. Fineface Ogoloma, of the Institute


of Foundation Studies, Rivers State, Nigeria, considers separation of powers to mean “the administration of the three departments of states by different groups of persons who are independent of one another”. He argues that not one of these groups of persons should have a controlling power over the others. This definition highlights the idea of limiting and curtailing political powers in any political dispensation be it a State or any other political organization. It is worth noting that this understanding of the concept of separation of powers is close to the original conception by Montesquieu as it illuminates the following aspects of governance:


• A right of old with regards to Parliament and the budget; • Competition of arguments be- tween Parliament and the parties; • The interaction between Parlia- ment and the government; and • The relationship between the constitutional court and Parliament.


Within the concept of separation


of powers, checks and balances are crucial in determining the relationship and the nature of interactions between and among the three arms of government which is commonly known to be the Executive, the Judiciary and the Legislative. The importance of the idea of separation of powers to the smooth functioning of any state need not be over- emphasized in that it remains a


key principle in the organizations of governments across the globe with the most advanced democracies such as the United Kingdom and the United States holding the concept in high regard. This is however not the case with


much younger democracies like third- world countries, which have struggled to make the concept of the separation of powers a working document in the administration of governmental power. In most of these countries, political authority is either limited or non-existent for reasons due to political instability and/or the absence or lack of political consensus. Even though most third-world countries pride themselves with the practice of the doctrine of the separation of powers, this is only contained in the


The Parliamentarian | 2014: Issue Three - Cameroon | 17


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