Rugby Africa set to wade into FECARUGBY post-election crisis.

Newly elected FECARUGBY bureau

There is an uneasy atmosphere among the rugby fraternity in the country as a collective of clubs and associations eagerly await the crucial intervention of Rugby Africa into the crisis rocking the Cameroon Rugby Federation, FECARUGBY. 

The rugby continental body had been petitioned by a total of 36 clubs and associations, to make a decisive ruling that would see the cancellation of the entire electoral process which saw a new bureau take over the affairs of the federation after a period of normalisation.



At the heart of the controversy, is the highly contested election of a new executive bureau led by Patrice Monthe.

The controversial election was held last month in Yaounde. 

Following the election, the group of clubs and associations wrote a petition to the president of Rugby Africa and members of the Rugby Africa Executive Committee. 

In the letter, a copy which The Guardian Post has in its possession, the collective of disgruntled rugby clubs and academies bemoaned their unjust exclusion from the Elective General Assembly of December 28 and the violation of World Rugby texts. 

Speaking during an interview, the president of women rugby club, AS Massoda, Frida Nolla, disclosed that the elections was a “sham and scandal”. 

According to Nolla, the elections didn't respect the texts governing the federation. Nolla decried that the new president of FECARUGBY, Patrice Monthe was “imposed” on them. 

She said Monthe lacks the qualities to run the day-to-day activities of the federation following the controversial election. Nolla said Monthe had been suspended twice by Rugby Africa and the Ministry of Sports and Physical Education in 2013, for “embezzlement of public funds and misappropriation of budget”. 

This, she said, is against the texts of FECARUGBY which stipulates that candidates running for federation boss must never have been convicted in the management of rugby in particular or even sports. 

“It's abnormal that a man who doesn't have the moral standing to manage sport in Cameroon should be put in charge of FECARUGBY. That's not the way to solve Cameroon's rugby problems,” Nolla said. 

Nolla added that: “I don't think he paid back all the money he embezzled, so he is not eligible to run for the top seat”.

With regards to the First Vice President, Christian Djewel, Nolla expressed shock that Djewel was cleared for the post although he doesn’t reside in the country as specified by the texts. 

“The Normalisation Committee invalidated Mr Djewel's candidacy on the grounds that he didn't have standing because he lived in France and the statutes didn't allow it, but on the day of the elections, he was in the room, and he was voted,” Nolla said. 

 

No consensus in texts 

The new bureau of FECARUGBY, voted at the end of the Elective General Assembly, was unveiled after what Nolla described as a “consensus”.

A consensus, it is important to mention, is a decision-making process where all parties involved agree on a particular outcome or candidate.

Nolla stated categorically that the texts governing FECARUGBY does not allow for consensus during an election. 

She went further to rubbish the choices of some executive committee members “who will manage the federation without quality”. 

“To be a candidate for FECARUGBY, you have to produce a certificate of non-conviction to ensure that only people of good character are part of the team, but there are people who have been introduced into this bureau consensual without having submitted their applications as stipulated by the texts of the federation,” Nolla said. 

With such irregularities, Nolla and the collective of rugby clubs and associations have called for the whole electoral process to be annulled. 

“We hope that the Ministry of Sports will not validate this election. We need to be focused. We can't accept this imposture at FECARUGBY if we want rugby players to continue to make a living from this discipline,” Nolla said. 

 

Controversy over votes

Nolla said one of the irregularities about the election centres around the inability for some clubs that were eligible to vote. 

According to Nolla, several clubs voted in their respective leagues including the Centre, Littoral and the West, but were completely ignored on the day of the final elections in Yaoundé. 

In addition to this, Nolla told pressmen during the interview that the list of those eligible to cast their votes was published on the eve of the elections at about 10:00pm. 

To make matters worse, Nolla added, some clubs that were supposed to vote “disappeared and others have appeared”. According to her, some clubs that had not played a single match during the year, and were not even been affiliated were part of the election.

The collective of rugby clubs and associations also said in their petition that, “Moreover the list of the electoral corps published on December 27, 2024, mentioned five delegates per league and three delegates per professional corps as opposed to only one delegate per club. This is a violation to the statutes”.

 

 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3335 of Saturday January 11, 2025

 

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