DG of ELECAM should bow to Board members - Prof Ngolle Ngolle

As stalemate over the appointment and expected installation of new Regional Delegates of Elections Cameroon, ELECAM persists since April this year, renowned Political Scientist and University don, Professor Ngolle Ngolle Elvis has declared that peace and harmony can return to ELECAM with the simple respect of the universal principle of management which demands that the management team is accountable to the board of trustees and not the other way round.

Prof Ngolle Ngolle made this declaration in an exclusive interview he granted The SUN last August 13 in Yaoundé.

He said “It is unthinkable to read from the media that there is power tussle at ELECAM between the Director General and Board Members because this type of a situation rather makes a mockery of our society”

The political scientist said the relation between the management team and the board is not that of equality but that of hierarchy.

“Who is accountable to whom in this case? The principle of management demands that the management team be accountable to the board which is an overseer while the board itself is accountable to the state and our state is incarnated by the President of the Republic.” He noted.

Prof Ngolle Ngolle said if truly there is tension at ELECAM as reported by the press “then it is an anathema and violation of the principle of management which brings about dysfunctions. Dysfunctions are like a virus and viruses are very dangerous for the running of any organization or functioning of a body.”

Talking on the way forward Prof Ngolle Ngolle said “As an observer, my own reading is that the –power- that -be, knows better what to do after all, given that ELECAM is a state institution and the state is a moral quantity and the state knows what is good for the institutions that incarnate that state.”

“Management is not a Cameroonian subject, it is universal and anybody who has taken courses on management knows that one of the cardinal principles of management is that power is subject to being abused by a holder if that holder is not subjected to some modicum or some degree of accountability in one form or the other.

” He said and added that, it is the reason why any good manager who wants his institution to achieve good results accepts this universal principle of management. Wherever there is a misunderstanding, it is incumbent upon everyone who is an actor to know their place. For those who do not believe in the principle of management but who rather think that folklore is right, he can do it the other way round. But, societies which want to achieve progress are not run on the basis of folklore. Principles build societies and not folklore.”

Quizzed to comment on the fact that the Managing Director of Elections, Mohaman Sani Tanimou is alleged to refuse installing the newly appointed Regional Delegates of ELECAM on grounds that board members did not respect Section 30, Article 3 of the Electoral Code which says that “officials of the Regional branches shall be appointed by the Electoral Board, on the recommendations of the Director General of Elections.”

The Political Scientist responded that “the constitution stipulates that the President of the Republic appoints members of government upon proposals of the Prime Minister. Can a Prime Minister ever come and say the President did not consult him? Unless he does not know what he is doing because that will be the end of his being in power.”