MPs and staff shook hands with the House Speaker during a colourful ceremony that held yesterday, January 5, 2016 in the Banquet Hall.

Good health, prosperity, happiness and success in 2016 were prominent amongst New Year wishes presented by staff and parliamentarians to House Speaker, Cavaye Yeguie Djibril, during a colourful ceremony yesterday January 5, 2016 at the National Assembly. Highlights of the ceremony included the decoration of some staff with May 20, 2015 knighthood distinctions by the Grand Chancellery  of National Orders, attestations to retiring staff, labour medals to other staff and prizes to the best staff for 2015. The colourful ceremony that held in the Banquet Hall of the National Assembly ushered in 2016, which according to the Secretary General, Victor Yene Ossomba, is a year of hope.

Speaking on behalf of the staff and MPs of the legislative organ, Victor Yene Ossomba described the House Speaker as a parliamentary icon whose 45-year experience in parliamentary life – with 23 as House Speaker – was an asset to the institution which played its role fully in 2015, amongst State’s institutions. “2015 was a year full of success,” he declared. Amongst achievements last year, the Chief Scribe mentioned brilliant successes in parliamentary diplomacy, intense activities by parliamentary networks as well as audiences granted by the House Speaker to foreign parliamentary delegations and to a multitude of heads of diplomatic missions in Cameroon.

Furthermore, parliamentary business during the 2015 legislative year also unrolled hitch-free with 19 bills voted, 10 question-answer plenary sessions held, 62 oral questions posed and four written questions submitted to check government’s activities. The staff heard with satisfaction that negotiations between government and Chinese donors were quite advanced for an imminent construction of a new headquarters for the National Assembly.