– The 83-year-old native of Mayo Sawa in the Far North begins his 32nd year as speaker
89-year old Niat also re-elected Senate President
– Former minister, Hon. Melingui Roger is new House majority leader
By Doh James Sonkey
The Speaker of the National Assembly, Rt Hon Cavaye Yeguie Djibril has sailed through unchallenged in the Lower House of Parliament.
He was re-elected Speaker on Monday, March 27, 2023 at a plenary dedicated to the election of the Permanent Bureau of the National Assembly chaired by eldest MP, Hon Koa Mfegue Laurentine epouse Mbede.
She announced that the CPDM has chosen a new Chief Whip at the National Assembly in the person of Hon Melingui Roger from Mefou and Akono Constituency.
She then called up the CPDM Chief Whip to nominate a candidate to the post of Speaker and Hon Melingui Roger nominated Hon Cavaye Yeguie Djibril. Asked whether there was another candidate, no one showed up so Hon Koa Laurentine declared closed the candidature phase.
Out of a total number of 159 voters, 146 voted for Cavaye Yeguie Djibril and 13 null ballots.
She then invited the elected National Assembly Speaker, Hon Cavaye Yeguie Djibril to the rostrum to continue with the election.
In his speech to fellow MPs he said “My gratitude goes to H.E President Paul Biya, the National President of our party for the confidence renewed in me. I have never betrayed him and will never betray him.”
The man, Cavaye
Hon Cavaye Yeguie Djibril thanked fellow MPs for voting him and said the 13 null ballots represent those who did not want to vote him saying that is democracy.
Born at Mada in the Mayo-Sava Division of the Far North region on January 1, 1940, Hon Cavaye Yeguie Djibril has been Speaker uninterrupted since 1992.
After ten years in the National Assembly, Cavayé was elected as its Second Vice-President in 1983. In 1985, when President Paul Biya transformed the CNU into the CPDM, Cavayé was retained as a member of the CPDM Central Committee. He served as Second Vice-President of the National Assembly for five years, departing the legislature at the end of the parliamentary term in 1988 and instead becoming Prefectoral Assistant of Diamaré. He returned to the National Assembly in the March 1992 parliamentary election and was then elected as President of the National Assembly.
Cavayé was re-elected to the National Assembly in the May 1997 parliamentary election and was then re-elected for a second term as President of the National Assembly in mid-1997.
Cavaye has four wives and 15 children