Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Arnaud Nicolas MAWEL
Published on 2024-03-05 10:30:36
The President of the Front for Change in Cameroon (FCC) has filed a request with the Mfoundi High Court for “usurpation of function”. Deputy Jean Michel Nintcheu, an opponent, is taking legal action against the Minister of State, Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic (SGPR), Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh. The former member of the Social Democratic Front and national president of the FCC is asking the judge to order the Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic to stop usurping the functions of the President. He “exercises the powers of the President in his own name without any express delegation from him, and further instructs government members directly,” he claims. The national coordinator of the Political Alliance for Change (APC) says he has observed for several years that “Mr. Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh is completely arbitrarily exercising the supreme function of President of the Republic of Cameroon; he has slipped into the role of Mr. Paul Biya, President of the Republic of Cameroon, governing in his place through a favorite and now common formula called ‘High Instructions’.”
Upon observation, some of these instructions do not seem to be based on any prior act of the head of state. According to the plaintiff, this is not within his competencies in light of Decree No. 2011/412 of December 9, 20211, restructuring the Presidency of the Republic. This decree designates the Secretary General of the Presidency as the President’s assistant in carrying out his mission; he receives directives from him and oversees the implementation of decisions taken by the head of state… But according to Jean Michel Nintcheu, the Minister of State goes beyond his duties.
As evidence, the politician points out in his request three correspondences from the SGPR: the correspondence of March 9, 2022, regarding the instructions of the head of state regarding the demands of teachers; that of July 25, 2022, on the cessation of prosecution against former minister Basile Atanagana Kouna; the correspondence of April 7, 2020, containing measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus. The non-administrative court seized is called upon to rule on the form and then on the substance of the request.
Read the original article(French) on Journal du Cameroun
