Hon Nintcheu Fumes That FCC, Is Not On The List O Political Parties Authorized To Send In Candidates For The 2025 Presidential Election

Insist that that as an MP, his new party, FCC, is represented in the National Assembly

But there are even questions about the legal existence of the FCC Party

The National President of ‘Front pour le Changement du Cameroun”, FCC Party, Hon Jean Michel Nintcheu, has been fuming all over the place since January 21, 2025, when the State owned daily newspaper, Cameroon Tribune, published a list of political parties authorized to send in a candidate for the 2025 presidential election in Cameroon, without the name of his party, featuring on the list.

In a rejoinder or corrigendum sent to Cameroon Tribune, Hon Jean Michel Nintcheu noted that the paper published on page 6 of the edition No. 13277 of 21 January 2025, under the headline, the 18 political parties authorized to give investiture to a candidate at the presidential election. He pointed out that the paper indicated that the SDF has 5 MPs.  To him, the information was wrong.  He said the paper should take note that though he was a member of the SDF at the time he was last elected into the National Assembly in February 2020, since February 25, 2023 he is no longer a member of the party.  It is not known whether Cameroon Tribune has published the rejoinder or not.

Nintcheu;’s Distorted Story Of His Link With The SDF

Meanwhile, Hon Nintcheu who went on to talk about how he  became a member of the SDF and why he  ceased to be member of the party on February 25, 2023,  presented a rather distorted story in the rejoinder to Cameroon Tribune. Nintcheu said his presence in the SDF was a fruit of an agreement between his party, “Rassemblement pour la Patrie”, RAP, and the Social Democratic Front, SDF. He claimed that when things between the two parties were no longer working, there was a separation and each party regained its liberty. He claimed that militants rejoined their original political parties, that is, either SDF or RAP. Nintcheu thus gave the false impression that SDF which was a very big political party in 1996, and his RAP that was a party without militants, merged in 1996 and in 2023 separated.

However the facts of  the matter is that Jean Michel Nintcheu  created a political party, RAP, in the early 1990s, which like a large majority of  political parties in Cameroon, was never launched, and  existed more on paper than in the field. In 1996 Nintcheu had an agreement with the SDF leadership, and SDF absorbed RAP. There was in fact nothing like SDF and RAP merging. Nintcheu joined the SDF virtually alone. RAP had no militants.  Even his brother, Brice Nintcheu, with whom he created the party, refused to follow him to SDF.

While in the SDF, NIntcheu was a militant like all others.  In 2022 Nintcheu and over 30 other SDF militants that called themselves, G 27 +  were involved in anti –party activities, which finally led to their dismissal from the party, by the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the SDF, on February 25, 2023 in Yaounde. It was never a matter of a separation between SDF and RAP. It should be noted that over 4 / 5 of SDF militants never knew anything about RAP, until when NIntcheu was thrown out of the SDF and he tried to revive his old party. It should also be noted that most members of the G 27 + that were sacked from the SDF, and that Nintcheu tried to manipulate to use them to revive his RAP Party, refused to follow him. Some like the Mayor of the SDF – run Bafoussam 1 Council, Ngnang Cyrille, instead returned to the CPDM, while others like Barrister Tsapy Joseph Lavoisier, have so far not joined any other party.

From RAP TO FCC

Meanwhile Hon Nintcheu in the rejoinder to Cameroon Tribune, further  said that the leadership of the RAP met and decided to change in a statutory way, the name of  the party, from ‘Rassemblement pour la Patrie’, RAP, that is, Movement for  Fatherland,  to ‘Front pour le Changement du Cameroun’, FCC, that is, Front to Change Cameroon.  He said the file for the change of name of the party, was deposited at the Littoral Governor’s Office on July 10, 2023, in conformity with Law No. 90 / 056 of 19 December 1990, precisely Article 4 (1), and Article 5 (2). He added that Article 6 of the Law gives the Governor a maximum of 15 days to transmit the file the Minister of Territorial Administration. Nintcheu also quoted Article 7 (2) which states that In case of silence by the Minister of Territorial Administration on the issue for a  period of three months, as from the date that the file was deposited at the Governor’s Office, the political party can go ahead to function legally.

As regard his own case, Nintcheu disclosed that the Littoral Governor, Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua, promptly transmitted the file to the Minister of Territorial Administration. Paul Atanga Nji. But he said three months as from the date he deposited the file at the Governor’s Office, Minister Atanga Nji remained silent. He stressed that the minister who had up toi October 10, 2023 to react on the change of the party’s name, did not say anything He said as a result, the change of his party’s name from ‘Rassemblement pour la Patrie’ RAP, that is Movement For Fatherland, to ‘Front pour le Changement du Cameroun’, that is, Front to Change Cameroon, became official and effective as from the October 14, 2023.

MINAT Seemingly Does Not Recognize FCC

But another problem that Hon Jean Michel Nintcheu has with his FCC Party, is that the Ministry of Territorial Administration commonly known by the French acronym, MINAT, or better still the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, seem not to recognize FCC.  On the day that FCC had to hold its first announced meeting last year, the police early that morning surrounded the residence of Hon Nintcheu in Douala. Nobody was allowed to enter the residence for a couple of hours. However what finally led the local administrative authorities, to allow the meeting to ahead, was seemingly an argument by some lawyers that the place was a private residence, and not public place. Even so the police still hung around until the end of the meeting. There is thus doubt as to whether the administration can allow FCC to hold a public meeting in Douala or elsewhere,

The Cameroon administration is notorious for not respecting some parts of the Law, when it does not please them to do so. For example, the Law clearly states that if a political party deposit a declaration to hold a public meeting, and the DO does not react within a specific number of days, the party has the right to go ahead and holds its meeting. But what often happens is that when the local administration stays silent, and a political party follows the Law and wants to go ahead with its public meeting, a DO will surface and say that it is illegal.

 It Was The Same Situation That SDF suffered In 1990.

It would be recalled that after the Social Democrat Front, SDF, was secretly created, the party’s delegation led by the Pioneer National President, Ni John Fru Ndi, on March 16, 1990 deposited the file of the declaration of the party, at the office of the Mezam SDO in Bamenda, as the Law then requested. Then the Law stated that if after 60 days there was no response or reaction from the administration, the party was automatically declared legal.

And so when 60 days was over without the administration saying no a word about the file, the Founding Fathers considered that the SDF was now a legalized party, and Fru Ndi went ahead to schedule  the party’s launch on May 26, 1990. But then the Government turned around and declared that the SDF had not been legalized, and that the event planned for May 26, that is the launching of the party, was illegal.  The SDF leadership asserted that the Law was on their side, and insisted on launching the party as planned on May 26, 1990. We know what happened. The Government flooded Bamenda with armed troops. SDF was nevertheless launched, but with six civilians killed by Government troops.

Meanwhile in an article posted on social media, Prof Edouard Bokagne, expresses the view that Nintcheu’s FCC is not a legalized political party. He argued that the party cannot claim legality, simply based on the claim that it deposited a notification or a declaration, and did not get any reaction from the Minister of Territorial Administration within three months. He questioned what documents Nintcheu have to show that FCC has a legal existence. It should be noted that there are people who are even questioning whether Nintcheu acted legally in 2023, when he said that he had revived his former party, RAP, that SDF absorbed in 1996.