An
Open Letter to the President And the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon,
Concerning their Reaction and Resolutions on the Present Crisis in the
Anglophone Regions of Cameroon and their present duty to Liberate Cameroon from
Political Repression.
Summary
Note:
Another open
letter, this time from an ex-priest, challenges the President and the National
Episcopal Conference of Cameroon into deep reflection; Vehemently Condemns
Government’s malicious strategies of Divisiveness, Mediocrity, Incompetence and
the Machiavellian Handling of the “Anglophone Crisis”. He Further Expresses the
Urgency of Liberation from Political Repression in Cameroon and Demands that the
Bishops of Cameroon, should, as a matter of urgency, like their confreres in
the Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere, take up their responsibilities
and divine mandate, in bringing the regime that is in power in Cameroon to some
measure of sanity in their governance and in fearlessly being the voice of the
voiceless rather than the voice of the oppressor.
Your Excellencies,
“…the urgency of
now, (cf. Barack Obama) is the urgency of liberation from political repression in Cameroon…
and the Catholic Church must immediately, without delay and without fear or
favour, take a stand and embark on the project of freedom of the people who
live in socio-economic and political slavery in Cameroon. The freshly spilled
blood of Mgr. Jean Marie Benoit Bala, and the blood of countless clergy,
religious and innocent Cameroonians cries out throughout the land, and rest
assured that I am not going to recite some niceties to you here, I challenge
you to do something urgent for this country. I challenged you, in the name of
God the Most High, rise up as one voice irrespective of your affiliations and
privileges you enjoy from this murderous regime, which under Paul Biya, your
Catholic Christian, has carried out the highest hideous crimes against
humanity. Rise up, as one powerful and united force irrespective of your
previous commitments, engagements and attachments or even admiration or
involvement of whatever is left of this regime that is committing crimes with
impunity and insanity, knowing that you have both the people and God to judge
your complacency. The voice of the Catholic Church is the highest moral voice
in the world and this cannot be silenced by a merciless, malicious,
Machiavellian dictatorship and demagogic regime before your very eyes. This is
what awaits you and this is the task you must do in the name of God your maker
to whom you vowed fidelity and to whom you must render an account of your
stewardship…”
Accept my humble
greetings and blessings of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Truly He
is risen from the dead. Alleluia. Your excellency, I did
not write to you until now due to a few reasons, namely, that I will not
normally rise up in the crowd and shout at the same time with them if I want to
be heard loud and clear, and then secondly, I wanted you to be an honest
witness to two events in this country, first, your tour of the Anglophone
dioceses, for which you must surely presently be leaking your wounds over the
results on the field as you witnessed the insistence and intransigence of
government administrators trying all the time to syphon the purpose of your
mission to suit their already existing agendas, and secondly, the unfortunate
celebrations of the demagogic political agendas directly linking to the
so-called national unity or national integration to which your slogan in the message
to the people referred. More so, the death of yet another Bishop, Mgr. Jean
Marie Benoit Bala, has so infuriated as it has deeply saddened my soul so much
so that I cannot hold back my impressions of the present status quo. And now with
the rate at which things are terribly evolving in this country, if I remain
silent, I should be held accountable for complicity with the deep-seated evil
that thrives in this county. The reign of the devil, has been enthroned and
institutionalized in Cameroon and is raking havoc to the sons and daughters of
this land with unrivalled ferocity and malignity and the powers that be are to
be held responsible. So, I must speak in the hope that you will not continue to
watch the Church and her leaders not even the citizens of this country whose
lives are being extinguished on a daily basis by a regime that smacks of a
veritable satanic kingdom in action. Let me take the liberty to freely revisit
the recent letter of the president of the National Episcopal Conference and
basing on its utterances, I will take the freedom to invite you to come to
terms with the magnitude of the problem in this country and take immediate
action.
Let me begin by inviting you to read through the following
disturbing and preoccupying passage which appeared on Social Media (Facebook,
ID of the person withheld) on the 6th of May 2017 concerning
your knowledge or the lack of it, of the situation on ground in the North West
and South West regions. It reads:
“CLAP
FOR YOURSELF BISHOP KLEDA. You did not know that schools in Southern Cameroons
were shut down. You did not know that we had Ghost Towns. You did not know that
we were MARGINALIZED. You did not know that there was an Anglophone problem. You
did not know that our leaders Mancho Bibixy FONTEM, BALLA, PENN AND 100+ WERE
ABDUCTED in the dark and carted to Kondengui. You did not know that countless
Southern Cameroonians have been buried in a mass grave at SOA. You did not know
that ROMEO and countless others have been gunned down in our streets for the
past months and in the last 56 years. You did not know that our lawyers and
teachers have been on strike for close to a year and with no dime in their
pockets and have been publicly beaten and disgraced. What about our innocent
university students who were raped and dragged in the mud for protesting
innocently. Did you know that too? I bet you “didn’t”. You collected 50m
(allegedly) and came to Southern Cameroons without knowing ALL OF THE ABOVE????
MAN OF GOD, MY QUESTION TO YOU IS THIS: WHAT WERE YOU SENT TO DO SINCE YOU KNEW
NOTHING OF THE ABOVE? GOD IS WATCHING YOU…”
INTRODUCTION
You
will bear with me for single-handedly writing to you because I am besieged by a
great measure of mixed feelings and disquiet as I read through your letter
addressed to “the people of God in Cameroon” and “to all persons of good will”
which unfortunately carried a controversial caption: “One People, One Nation”. I must admit that as I read through the title
of your “Message of the Bishops of Cameroon, Concerning the situation in the
North West and South West Regions of Cameroon”, I was (before going
into the details of the message), elated with the nostalgic expectation to hear
the usual solid stance of our religious leaders. My immediate expectations were
to hear much better things after the manner of the memorandum of the Bishops of
the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda, (BAPEC). Indeed, it is a good thing for
Bishops to write to their Christians, and to “all persons of good will”, and
when necessary, to the people of a country, and even to the authorities that
be, especially when grave danger is imminent.
When the Bishops speak, as the tradition has always been, when the
Episcopal Conference was still the Episcopal Conference, it is obligatory for
the Christians to take them for their word because they speak on behalf of God
and in persona Christi . Even those
who do not believe in the institutional church or even in religion at all, have
often taken their word for what they meant. This is because when bishops speak,
they do not speak to please anybody, nor express the truth either fearfully or
anonymously in the hope that some truth could be gathered from what they say. This
is also because when they speak, they do not mince their words nor take sides,
nor even fear to reprimand those in public office, especially if they have
massively departed from right reason in the execution of their public office. When
Bishops speak, it is with the aim to give definitive direction that can be
trusted and followed by each and every citizen of the country in question. All
of the above can best be said when we consider the salient words of an
archbishop like you in El Salvador in Latin America. He said inter alia:
A church that suffers no persecution but enjoys the privileges and
support of the things of the earth - beware! - is not the true church of Jesus
Christ. A preaching that does not point out sin is not the preaching of the
gospel. A preaching that makes sinners feel good, so that they are secured in
their sinful state, betrays the gospel's call. When the church hears the cry of
the oppressed it cannot but denounce the social structures that give rise to
and perpetuate the misery from which the cry arises.[1]
I am not out here to elaborate on
your purpose for speaking and why Bishops act the way they do especially as you
know better than I do. However, we all remember very well what St. Paul enjoins
on Timothy. “Preach the word, in season
and out of season, and whether welcome or not insist on the truth” [2]
I must tell your grace, that your letter compromised and in many ways diluted the
message.
Preliminary
Surprises
No sooner had I
begun reading your message, than was I taken aback by some utterances that
smack of somewhat complacency albeit anonymity and complicity in evil, thus in
my opinion, lacked the authority with which our bishops are supposed to speak.
Going through your message, I found some phrases, very worrisome, deeply
disturbing and seemingly in my opinion terribly betraying the cause of the
gospel in Cameroon and as your humble Christian, I will not be doing any
serious duty to the Church nor to the country of which I am both a catholic
Christian and a citizen if I remain silent. Our silence in the face of
aggression means complicity so you will bear with my understanding and commentary
on your message. In fact, I will not be performing my duties as a Christian if
I remain silent without calling your attention to some pertinent issues raised
by your message. This is because in the words of Pope
Emeritus Benedict XVI “Being a Christian
is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with
an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction”.[3]
We have been rather silent for too long, and this has reached a point where the
leaders of this country have adopted positions, strategies and enacted
decisions that are diametrically opposed to the demands of the Gospel. Permit
me to mention these worrisome phrases, further permit me to dwell on some of them
in the hope that in my own humble way I could somehow invite you into a closer
reflection as we attempt to look at the underlying truths as well as lasting
solutions that will lead our Christians and citizens who find themselves
entrapped and being swayed in any direction by the storm of the present situation.
General
Comments
Reading through
your message, for someone who has already read the various collective and
individual letters of the Bishops of the Bamenda Provincial Ecclesiastical
Conference, (BAPEC), one wonders actually, in an overall manner, the use of
this one that insists on belaboring what does not need to be belabored and
probably causing more harm than good given the high delicacy of the situation.
There is a glaring superficiality in the appeal and force in this message, if
we have already read better things before, as seen in the honest, thorough and
thoughtful Memorandum of BAPEC which the Head of State of Cameroon has on his
table, and for which he has never lifted his hand to adequately and
satisfactorily solve any one of the issues raised therein. If your fellow
bishops have addressed the highest authority in this country and he cares less
about the issues they raised, does that bother you at all? If those same
bishops are successively being summoned by anonymous, unidentifiable groups under
cover of the laws of this country in a hope to crack down on them, or maybe to
clip their wings from raising their voice on behalf of a troubled and repressed
people, does that still bother you? If individual bishops of those regions have
been harassed albeit threatened or maybe pressurized by both some authorities
of the state of Cameroon and by activists does that again bother you? Does the
national Episcopal conference of Cameroon care to genuinely immerse itself into
the root causes of the marginalized groups that live in the former British
Cameroons? If you did, you would not forcefully and probably falsely, quote
Holy Scripture to support the “unity” of this country, rather than in support
of the collegiality that is supposed to govern such a message. (cf. your
opening passage, from Scripture…). I feel deceived because I thought the
National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon, was going to continue from where the
Provincial Episcopal Conference of Bamenda left off and this would have brought
the required impact needed to cause this regime to come to some measure of
sanity. Does it occur to you that in actual fact, the Holy Father, Pope
Francis, who has a copy of the Memorandum of BAPEC will be taken aback by this
message of the President of the National Episcopal Conference in its silence to
reaffirm the position and the stance of the Provincial Episcopal conference in
calling to compel rather begging the authorities of this country to assume the
responsibilities for which they occupy public offices? Your visits and the
results you are having on the field are a clear indication that you massively
departed from your responsibility to remind the government to take its
responsibility in clear terms. And this is precisely what the faithful and the
people of good will in these two regions were awaiting from the National
Episcopal Conference. We have gone passed that stage. Your experience on the
field shows that there needed to be field action before the message; and this
again showed the superficiality with which you operated, just like those
government officials, who pretend to understand the situation, and yet go ahead
to take decisions and force a series of misguided and superficial solutions
that have little or no bearing on the ground. That said, let us look at some
very worrisome statements that keep us wondering if you the President of the National
Episcopal Conference of Cameroon is aware of the real magnitude of the problem
that has plagued the English-speaking regions of Cameroon.
The end of the
message carried, “for the bishops of Cameroon” which meant two things for me;
either you signed the message on behalf of the Bishops of Cameroon, which means
they are party to the ideas therein, or that you actually sat down on your own
count and wrote the letter on behalf of the Bishops of Cameroon, which means
that you personally carry the responsibility of the content, “on behalf of the
Bishops of Cameroon”. Whichever way, your tour of the Ecclesiastical Province
of Bamenda did somehow prove the point, and hopefully by now you should
positively or negatively be coming to terms with the realities on the ground in
those two regions. Again, whichever way, you (and/or other Bishops who also are
not convinced of some of the utterances in the message), will excuse me for
betimes including all the Bishops in some of my references.
THE
WORRISOME STATEMENTS
<>.[4] If the President of the Episcopal Conference
of Cameroon, took into consideration the Memorandum of the Bishops of the
Provincial Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda, and if he did himself some
service of studying the real history of this country, he would have realized
that, in all honesty to history, this country in its English and French
expressions and origins, has never had one colonial heritage nor one
traditional heritage. The implication at this stage is that building such
diverse entities and offering any solution or project or systems in these parts
of the country, must obligatorily take into consideration the diverse colonial
and traditional entities which becomes a very delicate as it is an arduous task.
It is glaring from this that the leaders of this country have never taken that
into consideration. They have rather been struggling in a futile and frantic
manner, to stitch together what cannot be stitched and they are doing so very
badly probably because their training in public administration has never taken
this into consideration. This means that either they subscribe to the deceptive
presentation of this country’s history or they are slaves thereof. It is
glaringly clear from history and political practice in the country, proven by
the recent instructions of the Prime Minister, that those aspects that
concerned language were never taken into consideration in the first place and
so explains why the English-speaking part of the country has never felt being
taken into consideration. Language I say, clearly, is but a minute part of this
problem. Do you know why the Anglophones become deeply annoyed when anyone
especially from government pretentiously assumes and rattles the constitution,
aptly described by one disgruntled Anglophone as a “Napoleonic code”, that
English and French are the official languages of this country of equal
magnitude? It is because such statements have hardly been taken into
consideration in real practice in this country. It is clear, that the
Francophone part of this country and its leaders have vehemently and
continuously pursued the evil policies of assimilation practiced by their own
colonial masters and you can see that the colonial cultures that came from
their own colonial heritage have been a continuous obstacle to any experiment
of unity in this country, because in real practice they have been terribly
obnoxious to the Anglophones. Unfortunately, the Anglophones, being the
minority, have been suffering under this yoke for about fifty-five years, yet
the Francophone leaders, who already saw their dominance as success, cannot now
come to terms with the fact that, as one of our leaders put it, “a slave has suddenly risen up in the
master’s house and asked a question”.[5]
Permit me to remind you in clear terms, that the fictitious assumptions and propaganda
about national unity and integration as sung and “celebrated” by the government
and its apostles in this country has never worked, is not working and will
never work. Talk less of the fact that there exists no treaty of union between
these two entities. If there is one, I will like someone in this country to
present it to the people of this country and they will lay down their claims.
“Nous avions déjà appelé les différents protagonistes a un dialogue
franc et sincère »… « les évêques de la Province Ecclésiastique de
Bamenda ont également pris position à ce propos, invitant toutes les parties au
dialogue »
Needless to remind you that obvious
results of that frank and sincere dialogue as you claim you invited the
protagonists of the strike actions were to be expected. Why? Because you were
talking to one party concerned in the crisis. But the Bishops of the Bamenda
Ecclesiastical Province, if I can remember very well, have called for
unrivalled dialogue between the government of Cameroon and the parties in pain.
This means that the real protagonists include the government and the people of
the Southern Cameroons and these are the groups you were supposed to invite to
a frank dialogue. These in our opinion or rather mine, were the first steps
from which we expected the National Episcopal Conference to take continue. It
is the prerogative of the government to fulfill the necessary conditions and lay
the groundwork for such frank dialogue with the suffering people of these
regions on the same table and not that disorderly crowd as you propose in your
message if at all they are to be considered as citizens of this “one nation”
with equal rights and privileges. Is the Episcopal Conference of this country afraid
or does it see itself as being too small or incompetent or is it that they are
just unconcerned about the plight of a people in pain, to undertake the role of
mediator in this crisis? It would be a terrible betrayal of the gospel if they
dare to drink from the aggressor’s cup. If the Episcopal Conference of
Cameroon, like their brothers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, could
rise up as one person and call the government of this country to order, things
will be different, and that will be giving them the free hand to be able to
freely take the “option for the poor” seriously. Remember the common saying,
united we stand, divided we fall. I want you to understand it not in your terms
but to the effect, that if the Francophone Bishops of this country were to
unite their voice with what their Anglophone confreres have already done, what
a big influence, that would be. Have they not been troubled by the mediocre,
incompetent and rather high-handed manner in which the government is handling
the crisis, imbued with terrible Machiavellian methods meant at nothing but
terrible suppression and repression of the people already in pain? And remember
that the regime in this country is skilled in the divide-and-rule tactics of
manipulation of the people. The Church exists not to recite the stale and
divisive statements of government ministers but as a barometer to conscientize
the leaders of this country. The Catholic Church in Cameroon is not and should
not assume the status of an Anglican Church, where we have to give account to
the state which is the boss of the Church, we are not a state Church, please
your excellency, the Catholic Church is the conscience of the Cameroonian
society, and in this case, she is supposed, in her role as Teacher and Mother,
to assume her responsibilities squarely as the voice of the voiceless. Her
prophetic role in this country must not be dullen by any intimidations,
ideologies or policies. Remember, Jeremiah, the prophet before you did just
what he had to do, John the Baptist did, Jesus did so why will you not do it? Let
the voiceless of the North West and South West regions, not suffer and liberate
themselves through their own means without you, because someday they will be
obliged to rise up and denounce you for taking sides with their oppressors.
Please, the Church in these regions is already suffering enough at the hands of
this regime, and do not create more problems for them, because it will render
the mission of evangelization of the Catholic Church in these regions very
arduous and very frustrating for the shepherds who lead the flock in these
regions. Reflect about this, if a people suffer on their own, left to
themselves, while the Bishops keep reciting some niceties as required by the
regime, or while they keep playing some measure of ostrich politics, where do
you imagine they will place the Church after they come out of the struggle
against this repressive regime? If the Church keeps quiet, then they should
forever shut their mouths thereafter. So, what stops you from re-enforcing the
voice of the BAPEC Bishops and reiterating their position to free the people of
these regions?
<[6]
Permit
me to ask you a sincere and honest question. Is Cameroon, especially in its
present dispensation, a state of Law? Has it always favoured the expression of
faith in a manner that you have to praise them for doing so? If so, what
about the murders of the numerous Bishops, Priests and religious, (The Catholic
Church in Cameroon has suffered a number of suspicious deaths over the years: In
October 1988, Fr. Joseph Mbassi, a journalist, was murdered while investigating
the arms trade in Cameroon. His body was found in his room bloodied and mangled
on the morning of October 26. Abbot Bernabé Zambo of the archdiocese of Bertoua
died on March 24, 1989. Media speculate he was poisoned by someone as an act of
revenge. Father Anthony Fontegh of Kumbo was murdered in 1990. Bishop Yves
Plume was strangled to death in his room in Ngaoundéré at the Minor Seminary in
September. In 1992, Fr. Amougou of Sangmelima was killed in his rectory. On
April 23, 1995, Fr. Engelbert Mveng was found strangled to death with a gash in
his head, and no items stolen from his room. On April 21, 2001, Fr. Apollinaire
Claude Ndi of Nkoltob was found murdered by an unknown man in Yaoundé. On
Christmas Eve, 2008, Fr. François Xavier Mekong’s body was discovered in one of
the showers of the rectory and a host of other priests and religious), whose
causes have always been shrouded in endless commissions of enquiries? Remember,
that the Pope Saint John Paul II’s major preoccupation when he visited
Cameroon, was about the serial eliminations and murders of the Church’s clergy
in this country. I even wonder why the Vatican still keeps diplomatic relations
with such a country that cannot guarantee the free expression of faith and
lives of the clergy. However, by putting yourself in such a very precarious
controversial position, you have forgotten that you could be the next. The
regime for which you literally stalled the functioning of your diocese and seemingly
went out to preach “unity” on its behalf cannot and will never protect you, and
once they do not need you, what do you imagine will happen to you? Your
excellency, with what is welling up in me about this statement, you need to go
and have a rethink. Permit me to remind you of what one of you, the Archbishop
Emeritus of Douala, Christian Cardinal Tumi, your very predecessor, once said,
when he was being threatened by one government minister, “if Cameroon were a
state of law, I will drag you to court”.
He is still alive and it is still written. We would have imagined that you
being his successor will for once, keep the steam and resemblance of his
mission for which he became, “the prince of the Church” in Cameroon. Which
state of law have you suddenly awoken to praise? “And one of them named Cleopas asked him, are you the only visitor in
Jerusalem, who is not aware of the happenings these past days?” (cf. Luke
24: 18). Are the Bishops the only ones who are not aware that there have been
arbitrary arrests, kidnaps, rapes, torture, killings, in fact, genocide being
orchestrated and carried out by the regime which has been condemned by
international bodies? If you want to doubt me, let me refer you the latest
terrorism law that has just been passed in this country which is a blatant
example of the catalogue of obnoxious laws that are skillfully aimed at
protecting the powerful to always remain in power in this country. Have you
also forgotten the government ministers in this country who have in their turns
struggled to stifle even Catholic Education and Anglo-Saxon Education in this
country? Let me quote to you the reigns of former Ministers George Ngangoh,
Mbella Mbappe and that of the present Minister of Higher Education, Fame Ndongo.
Are we that complacent? Let me visit you with a living truth: are you aware
that the government of this country, will never and can never give a full
account of those arrested, injected with deadly chemicals, murdered, or the
numerous disappearances that have recently taken place in these regions
following the Anglophone crisis? The Chairman of the National Human Rights
commission has already attested to it, that the regime in power cannot fully
account for everyone kidnapped and arrested in the North West and South West
regions? (cf. Dr. Chemuta Divine Banda, Chairman CNDHL). Can the bishops not
see that their task is so enormous and stretches so far as to demand the
revision of laws, Constitution, biased and whimsical tax laws and uncountable
decrees that have been purposefully protecting those in power and higher
positions in this country? If not, why do you think they are always in a quick
rush to quote the Constitution and laws of this country confidently – those
“Napoleonic codes” that have been twisted to suit the whims and caprices of the
clique that rules this country and anyone who does not belong to it, will not
be protected. If the demands of the teachers and lawyers called to question the
very nature of the state, is it not justified? Are the bishops, the only ones
who are not aware that according to the high-handedness of the government and
the victimization of the protagonists concerned, they were to assume their role
to call the government in a true spirit of collegiality to order? Can the
bishops be so honest as to mention to me, just one sector, in Cameroon that
they call one, that is moving well if any? Is there any part of this chaotic
demagogy that is working at all? Therefore, the continuous mention and/or
insinuation of unity, one state and others in your message is an annoying
reminder of the same irresponsible, unstatesmanlike and divisive statements and
utterances that have successively been made by the president of this country, Mr.
Paul Biya, the Minister of Communications, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, the Governor
of the South West Region, Okalia Bilai, and others in their turns and levels
coupled with the terrible roles they have played in this crisis. These
statements overtly and specifically referred to the Anglophones as
“extremists”, “terrorists”, “separatists”, “boko haram”, and remember that
these statements referred to a people who have never raised a single gun, or
arms against the government and her repressive forces of this country. The shameless
sung of “one and indivisible” Cameroon has become a slogan that anybody can use
to show his allegiance to the demagogue that sits mightily and heavily upon
this anarchy called country. Again, this country or the two parts of this country,
having no treaty of union, has never been one, and in political practice, has
never been governed as one, (testified by the divisive and deceptive
manipulations from the regime and the marginalization that you and I can
testify to), and so will never and can never ever, anymore be regarded as one. Are
the bishops also under the hypnotic influence of the powers that govern this
country? Has a spell been cast over you that you cannot liberate yourselves
from the shackles of complacency in order to liberate your people from the
oppressive and repressive dictatorship that reigns in this country? If the
bishops are so complacent, what do you expect international bodies to think
about you and your participation in true political life of the two entities? It
will be very interesting and challenging to take the footsteps of your brother
bishops of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who took the courage, in
collegiality to differ and out-rightly so, with the government. If you recite
the same statements of government adherents, who do you stand for? Are the
bishops not aware of the systematic pillage of the resources and economy of
this country with impunity, emptying of the state resources into private
pockets and accounts, and what have you to say about this? When I mention all
these, it is not with the intention of just quoting instances, it is to remind
you, that the root causes of these problems are far-reaching, the pain of which
has eaten deep into the citizens of this country (and do not deceive yourselves
that only the Anglophones are hurting), and if some say they will hold their government
responsible, I think they have a right to do so. Can the bishops of this
country, not as one person hold the leaders of this country accountable for the
deep-seated hatred sown among its citizens, for the blood of the innocent
priests and religious, for the blood of innocent citizens killed in cold blood?
Why do you insist to keep a blind eye to all the deep-seated evil that is
governing this country? Do you really need David to remind you that occultists have
taken this country hostage and that is why your very roles as bishops are being
compromised? Do you really need me to tell you that the leaders of this country
need you bishops only when you represent no real danger to their inordinate
greed, call it overbearing self-interest or when you remain complacent to their
devilish agendas? Remember that complacency breeds complicity. If you doubt
what I am telling, then you will not be doing any justice to yourselves as I
can testify to what the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda have
faced in the hands of government officials for “not allowing catholic schools
to resume” in fact for not allowing their agenda to prevail over the people of
these regions and also for not being accomplices to the Machiavellian measures
that have been overtly employed to keep the people of these regions under repressive
check. If this country, were a state of law, the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical
Province of Bamenda, would never ever, under any circumstances whatsoever be
dragged to court through the complicity of the state and some anonymous fellows
hiding under the guise of state courts to unleash their hatred for the Church –
a thing which I find very strange, and terrible that the National Episcopal
Conference of the Bishops of Cameroon did not come out openly to condemn or
clearly take a stand on.
“No
7 of your message in its entirety”.
Your excellency,
the state of Cameroon in its present dispensation is a massive betrayal to the
demands of social justice, equality and freedom. Calling for all these parties,
is calling for another national conference, except that you were afraid to
mention it? Cameroon needs another national conference through which the state
of Cameroon by the present crisis is called to revisit its very essence, its
very nature as a unitary state, with its absolute concentration of powers on
one dictator, and which has brought nothing but the present socio-economic and
political calamities it is witnessing. But more than that, it should be brave
enough to face a referendum if at all it depends on the people and their wills
and votes for existence. Those in power have been a massive betrayal to the
confidence of the people and they have terribly abused this, which means that
the Cameroonians are left with no other option now than to exercise their civic
rights which also entitles them to withdraw their allegiance from them and that
is what those in the English-speaking regions have begun to do. I will not be
surprised that it may spread to other parts of the country if they do not
change to pro populo strategies soonest than later. From the high-handed
handling of this crisis, I have now been convinced that there was never one
vision and one goal for this nation?
No 10: Concerning the Schools and the
return to classes… “Nous
confirmons le droit inaliénable a l’éducation reconnue à toute personne
humaine”. Your
excellency, permit me to call to mind the following which has either ignorantly
or deliberately been ignored or kept aside by everyone talking about
inalienable rights of the human person and which you come to it in the
usual manner as do others. According to the United Nations Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the African Charter of Human Rights, The Preamble
of the Constitution of Cameroon, I feel obliged to remind you that the human
person does not have only one inalienable right (right of education). The citizens
who live in Cameroon also have amongst others, the right to free movement, the
right of expression, the right of education, the right to freedom of religion
…. [7]
When so much noise has been made
about the inalienable right to education, equal noise should also be made about
the other inalienable rights of the human person. I guess the protagonists who
have been singing the stale song of the inalienable right to education are so
silent on the other inalienable rights because they have been shamelessly and
secretly or wantonly violating these rights of the people. They cannot elicit
that because they are guilty of grave violation of the inalienable rights of
the people. We need to be honest to ourselves and to this government and be
frank to them in all openness. Let us stop being complacent because we may not
find it easy to release ourselves from such accusations and most importantly,
from the condemnation and rejection of Christ whose Church you are leading in
Cameroon. That said, I find your invitation to the parents and your subsequent
meetings not only monotonously stupid but also unrealistic. You have proven
yourselves as accomplices to those government ministers who sing about school
reopening so many times in one and the same academic year and worst of all, at
a time when it is practically not possible to do so. Mgr. Kleda’s visits to the
various Dioceses of these two regions, are not different from those of a
government minister as if, in a futile attempt to salvage his image from the
watchful eyes of a grandmaster. Whom did he want to please; the government or
who indeed? The government of this country, having terribly failed to bring
back their own public schools have absolutely no right, to lay the blame on the
shoulders of any Bishop, having ignored the Memorandum of the Bishops of BAPEC.
Logistically speaking no reasonable school could effectively resume in May and
so what is really the purpose of wasting precious Church money, (or were his
visits financed by the government?) to go around and campaign for the return to
school of the children while the bishops are still being dragged to court by
anonymous thugs and ghost association backed by the government. Was he for or
against the bishops of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province? Have you forgotten
that the school year is already wasted, and that you were supposed to advise this
regime to put aside those divisive, deceptive and manipulative agendas that
promote and further deepen the already existing socio-political avalanche, and
embrace serious and appropriate measures to ensure that they solve the problems
of the people in view of the coming academic year 2017/2018? Why do you fall
along with the mediocrity of those government officials? Why do you give in to
this conformist mentality that has overtaken nearly everyone in this country? Were
you not supposed to put appropriate pressure on the regime in power in this
country to attempt even one credible solution for the resumption of schools
next year 2017/2018? What will classes fulfil in the three weeks of resumption?
Why can’t you see that the few who attended school this year might just have
done so to salvage the fees they paid before the strike action overtook them.
Why do you not have foresight, what has gone wrong with your vision to
establish long term solutions that will assure the parents to send back their
children next academic year rather than trust a deceptive regime that cannot
leverage.
“No 2” Invoking the strike action”.
One of the key
claims, of the striking parties (and I will say, of the people of the North
West and South West Regions) was summarized in the word, “marginalization”.
Permit me to differ with government, that this is a language problem.
Marginalization as experienced by the citizens of these two regions for the
past 55 years[8] cuts across the fabric of all aspects of
life, social, political and worst of all, economic. And no one can claim to
keep a blind eye to this especially the Bishops of Cameroon. The Memorandum
quoted above was very informative and exhaustive about the whole situation and
for the government of Cameroon to ignore this and as if that were not enough
drag these Bishops to court as if to punish them for it, is a serious cause for
concern. According to the complaints of the teachers and the lawyers, the
implication of the resumption to school is this: that, children should get back
into a renewed and rejuvenated school system with all its full-fledged
capacities and properties before we can talk about school. As far as we are
concerned, the government of Cameroon has not even achieved this, which shows a
serious unwillingness, and lack of good faith in solving the situation.
Instead, they offer divisive solutions that are aimed at isolating and
victimizing individual teachers. I am convinced that the demands of the
teachers request a total overhaul of the school system. I find the present
powers that be, massively incompetent and not willing to accept their
incompetence in solving the situation. In attempting to convince the parents,
to send back their children to school at such a time and still in the same conditions,
what service do you think you are offering to solve the educational crisis in
Cameroon that have plagued the English sub-system of education for the past
years. Is that according to you, the promotion of the inalienable rights to
education?
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
Your letter seems
to be promoting government agenda upon the people of which you are fast
becoming its protagonists maybe in the hope of saving yourselves from the anger
of the powers that be. This is not speaking on behalf of the oppressed and repressed
minority in these regions; that is not protecting the marginalized; that is not
being the voice of the voiceless as demanded by the social teachings of the
Catholic Church of which you are the custodians and which you know better than
I do.
The
bishops of Cameroon, our dear shepherds, should immediately desist, and
liberate themselves from the temptation of complicity with occultists and
freemasons, who have taken this country hostage in the name of governing the
people. When will this endless quagmire be cleared so that the image of God,
the person of Christ should again regain its prominence. Remember that the
founders of our faith in this country dedicated this country to the patronage
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but what has become of it? Our shepherds should be
courageous and spiritually strong enough to steer clear of the hypnotism that
has taken the inhabitants of this land into complicity and complacency with the
evil that is being institutionalized in this fatherland. That is the challenge,
that is the implication of the service to which they have been called. Do not
betray the fullness of the Holy Spirit that is in you. Do not let the words of
Ezekiel (Remember Ezekiel 22: 25; 27 and Ezek. 34: 1-10) about the wicked
leaders and complicity of the shepherds who ignore the fate of their sheep to
apply to you. Do not make God’s Holy Spirit sad. The United Nations cannot and
should not be doing better than the Bishops of this country who have both the
spiritual and social responsibility to direct this nation when it goes astray.
Do not keep a blind eye to the inherent evil that is the reason for the massive
dissatisfaction of the citizens of this country, else they will rise up and
condemn you for supporting an overtly dictatorial regime, that has no concern
for the poor and the marginalized. You are aware, as does regrettably, the
international community, that government utterances, especially as expressed by
the government spokesperson, in the person of the Minister of Communications,
Issa Tchiroma, shrouded in the language of love of peace, dialogue, rule of
law, constitution, public order, state of law, etc., followed the brutal
military crackdown in these two regions, are but overt pretenses to let the
government agenda to prevail on a suffering people whom you are supposed to
defend according to the demands of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for whom you are
the primary custodians.
We, your Christians were deceived to
think that you stand to direct and correct the president of this country in his
leadership role over the people of Cameroon, but you seem to have fallen into
the doldrum where all the powers in this country are heavily concentrated on
one person, only one person thinks, only one person decides, only one person’s
will prevails, only one person can give out of his largesse to the suffering
people of this country, and only one person decides the fate of all. Are you
not eye-witnesses to the anarchy that reigns in this country? Are you not
eye-witnesses to the demagogy that has become the order of the day? Are you not
eye-witnesses to untold sufferings of the people, the very sons and daughters
of this fatherland whom you are called to serve, to save, to liberate from the
shackles of oppression and repression? And why are you not lifting a hand to
liberate the suffering masses of Cameroon?
We
cannot afford to offer paper-plaster solutions for which we ourselves are not
convinced and to which we cannot be committed without grave danger to the basic
demands of our faith. We cannot afford to insist on camouflage and plastic
solutions that will breed anger and dissension instead of the peace and unity
you want to preach. You and I are quite aware, that there is no freedom of
speech, no freedom of expression in this country. This is exemplified by the
arbitrary incarceration of journalists in this country, with cases that have no
real substance apart from the fact that they were not praise-singing for the
government and under the guise of “ethics and deontology” the very terminology
that you have mentioned in your message, they have been unjustly condemned. Do
I need to remind you of the unjust laws that have become the order of the day
in Cameroon, meant to protect the interest of those in power? We all are aware
that the youth of this country have no future, nothing definite is carved out
to guarantee their responsible belonging to the political dispensation in
Cameroon, talk less of the youths in the marginalized regions North West and
South West regions of Cameroon. Why have you bishops been keeping a conspicuous
silence with regards to the terrible sufferings of the young people of these
regions. What stops the bishops from using their authority, their God-given
authority to stand as one person, not just to express indifferent wishes to
government, but vehemently denounce these ills in all their ramifications.
In
order to genuinely liberate the people of the North West and South West regions
from the hands of a regime that has systematically shut down all hopes of any
genuine dialogue as well as all structures for development, the Church must
obligatorily be an integral companion of their socio-economic and political
history. If you doubt this, take a walk through these regions and you will
testify to the long-standing pain of the people of these regions. What do you
think of a regime that willfully and purposefully depart from offering
meaningful and well directed solutions to the demands of the very people they
have oppressed for over fifty-five years. Lack of good faith, butchery, raping
and divisiveness are their usual strategies and the Church must steer clear of.
The
Catholic Church in her mission in Cameroon has a definitively divine mandate to
lead the people of this country, irrespective of their religious affiliations
to a divine finality, and so should not comport herself as if she took
instructions from a regime which, as we all know, has persistently and purposefully
messed up and confused public policy with political propaganda. She does not
and should not behave as if she receives instructions on her administration and
spiritual roles from the state. Instead, she stands to direct and lead the
administrators of this country to the fullness of the truth irrespective of their
political agendas and affiliations. Again, she is called to preach the Gospel
of Jesus Christ, which was in every way the Gospel of liberation from physical,
social, political and spiritual bondage, she is obliged to insist on the truth
and in full awareness of the mandate handed over to her by her Head – Jesus
Christ and not the president of the country. The Catholic Church has the
highest moral voice in the world, and that voice cannot be diminished or silenced
by ineffective, corrupt, aberrative and dictatorial regimes. Therefore, the
Bishops of this country need rise up as one person, and out-rightly face this
regime until it keeps its filthy hands of the Church and her leaders, until
occultists stop meddling in the functioning and management of the Church; until
it begins to respect the sanctity of the human person; until it begins to enact
laws that respect for human rights and freedoms.
I
implore you, to have a radical rethink of your stance, take up your
responsibilities fully, and save the suffering minorities of these regions.
This is not just the task of the Provincial Bishops Conference, and if they
perform their duties to remind the government of its responsibilities, the
National Episcopal Conference should be supportive enough as not to pour cold
water on the attempts of the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda.
I am fully aware of risk involved in a message as this one, and I take full responsibility
for this write-up, as I already know the obvious reaction, especially of
government when they are always told the truth that they do not want to hear. My
effort at imploring you to take urgent action to salvage this country from its
socio-economic and political calamity, is tantamount to that of John the
Baptist whose head will soon be demanded on a platter. Again, if I did ask any
questions, they were not meant to challenge your authority and capabilities to
lead us out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of Pharaoh and the Egyptians;
they were meant to enable a much deeper and radical reflection that would bring
this country to an admirable end. And let me leave you with the following
question and reflection from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, “who, then, can
separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble do it, or hardship or
persecution or hunger or poverty or danger or death…” (Rom. 8: 35 – 39).
Some Updates to end up…
To
end up, I will treat you to a deep reflection on following passage from one of
us: The transfer of the Apostolic Nuntio from Yaounde to Indonesia, albeit a
decision reached two or more weeks before it was announced, came to be known at
a time when the regime of LRC is manifesting the highest, ever known
persecution of the Church leaders of the mainline Churches: Presbyterian and
Catholics as well. It is only comparable to the reign of the anti-Christ, when
Christ indicated that Government will drag his followers to court, and
persecute some. Immediately after the news of the death of the Bishop of Bafia,
and the quick conclusion regarding suicide... every inspired eye could discern
that there has been some foul play. The post-mortem... if confirmed as reported
does not only manifest the Satanic presence in Cameroon, but makes the
perpetrators to equal those who mutilated the body of Christ on the cross,
executing him naked and piercing his side with a lance, causing him to drink
vinegar for water.... What a country!!! If this had been done by an enemy....
we would have borne it.... But it is done to the very leaders of the Church
with a Catholic Christian Leader at the head of the nation... As if this is not
enough.... the disrespect continues with the so called "Court
summons" in Buea and Bamenda!!! Forgetting that the day chosen was just
the Day after Pentecost when the sons of light just received the Spirit that
empowers them to fear not even the murderers... A heartless regime that would
not even allow the Church to bury the dead, but at the heart of its mourning
time for their college member, opens up an inquiry that worries about whether
taxes were paid to Caesar or not.... Money, Power, Ritual Killings, Fetish
influences, worries over elections... and you can name the rest.... Not worries
about whether a people are living in freedom, justice, unity, peace, harmony
and love... Did the spirit LRC and its associates in SC receive a spirit of
fear and timidity? This is indeed the reign of darkness. May the Holy Spirit
come... Come with your light and shine, brighten up the paths and cause your
rays to impart the fruits and the gifts.... we are sinking Lord... we are
really sinking.... Come to our aid and make us cry "Abba Father!!!" (cf. David
Nkong, on Facebook post)
Some practical Actions to Consider…
1.
What
stops you, the shepherds of the people of this country, from openly denouncing
the murderous performance of the Catholic President who has failed both as a
Christian to secure the protection of the freedom of expression and of religion
in this country and instead embarked with the devilish perpetrators of this
regime to openly persecute the Church and at the same time would imagine that
his recent hypocritical, pretentious parade in Rome to cajole the Holy Father
to come to Cameroon, as if to indicate his affiliations with the Vatican and
with the Church, while his undercover activities are skillfully geared at
silencing the truth that comes from the Church in Cameroon. What stops you from
openly reminding him to keep his filthy hands off the Church leaders and
Christianity in this country? What stops you from asking his residential Bishop
to take the appropriate Canonical steps that you know better than me to bring
him to some measure of sanity. We cannot hide our heads anymore in the sand and
continue to die. Dear Bishops of Cameroon, not one of you is safe in this
system, you are not safe, we are not safe, no one is safe inasmuch as he stands
with the truth.
2.
What
stops the Bishops’ Conference in Cameroon from imploring the Vatican to
completely severing Diplomatic ties with this country until the safety and
security of its clergy and religious are guaranteed and the free expression of
faith restored.
3.
What
stops the Bishops’ Conference in Cameroon from appealing to the international
community to exert appropriate pressure on the dictatorial regime in Cameroon
to come to order and place an embargo on its demagogue, economic sanctions and
other politically permissible measures to restore reason in this country?
4.
What
stops the Bishops’ Conference in Cameroon from asking this regime to release
political prisoners and those considered as threats to their egotistic,
occultic practices, and to demand that they give full account of its kidnaps,
killings, attacks on innocent citizens and its overbearing manipulation of some
citizens against others?
5.
What
stops the Episcopal Conference of Cameroon from grinding this dictatorial,
Machiavellian political system to a halt so that they should have a complete
re-think and complete overhaul – and this would be a proper regard for the
common good of the people of Cameroon? If some of you have been accorded
privileged positions in this country, I call on you now, that this is not the
time to stay glued to your position of “security” or “privilege”; remember that
any such position that keeps you without your flock in such a position, is
willfully intended to compromise the truth and propagate the evil that has
become unbearable in this country and from this point you will be regarded as
accomplices to the evil that thrives.
6.
What
then stops you from exercising your collegiality and speaking up as one person
and let us see how this regime will kill all the Bishops of Cameroon, or do
anything with the existence of the Church and her freedom to exercise her
Divine mandate in this Fatherland.
With
prayerful best wishes.
Done in Bamenda, in
honour of the African Martyrs, Saints Charles Lwanga & his Companions and
for those who continue to lose their lives in the hands of Dictatorial Regimes.
Mbiydzenyuy David
WANTANGWA,
Email: mbiydzenyuys@hotmail.com
[2] 2 Timothy 4: 2.
[5] Cfr. The epoch making speech of Wirba Joseph in the National
Assembly of The Republic of Cameroon, 2016.
[6] “reconnaissant l’Etat de droit et
gardant la fidèle mémoire de la manière dont cet Etat a toujours favorisé
l’expression de la foi de croyants… »
[7] Cfr. Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948.
[8] Cfr. Memorandum of the Bishops of
the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Provincial conference December 2016.
