Murders everywhere: Time to teach religion in schools.

As narrated by Nasser Tchana, a member of the group. "Cameroon Teachers' Collective”, the four, among them a lady, were abducted along Guidjiba-Tcholiré and taken through a tedious trek to their captors’ hideout in the bushes.

Douguersse is said to have been "suffering from a hernia for a long time. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough money for surgery. He lived with this condition, which caused him regular pain, which prevented him from walking quickly like the others in the bush. The kidnappers whipped him severely to make him walk faster".

As the unionist's narrative continued, "at one point, they realised that our colleague was truly ill. So, they decided to abandon him there in the bush; but one of the kidnappers didn't agree and demanded that he be killed. He claimed that Douguersse might betray them to the police as soon as he left the bush. He then strangled Douguersse with a rope until he died; then they dumped his body in the bush in Bouba Djidda Park".   

While the nation was still in shock, the grief was compounded by the horrific murder of a six-year-old child, in Yaounde, reportedly by a neighbour.

The Minister of Women’s Empowerment and the Family, Prof Marie-Therese Abena Ondoa, has in a statement, expressed her deep concern about the upsurge in infanticide and femicide, which threatens social cohesion and the protection of the most vulnerable.

The Guardian Post joins her and other God-fearing citizens to condemn the despicable acts in Yaounde and others in the country. 

In the words of peace crusader, Ntumfor Barrister Sir Nico Halle, when he presented a speech in one of the convocation ceremonies of Cameroon Christian University, the country is "plagued by all forms of moral decadence, bringing our nation to its knees".

In such decay, there is the urgency to question the quality of education acquired in the country. 

The Douala-based international legal consultant again in another speech at the convocation ceremony of the Catholic University Institute of Buea said: “Without morality, education is a total farce and only produces destructive elements".

That should explain why Sir Nico Halle thinks "many young people, men and women, engage in dubious means to make fast money. 

Acts such as bribery, corruption, embezzlement, homosexuality, promiscuity, blackmail, occultism, conflict, chaos, anarchy, hypocrisy, and bootlicking, are legion in our society".

So, what's the solution? On many of his interviews with the media, he has recommended the recognition of religious knowledge, which is offered at the General Certificate of Education, GCE, but not recognised by the government when evaluating a person's qualification.

The importance of religious knowledge has been best defined in laconically by Albert Einstein, a German theoretical physicist, who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. 

To him, “science without religion is lame".

For Charles Hodge, an American serial author, "when a State resolves that religious instruction shall be banished from the schools and other literary institutions, it virtually resolves on self-destruction".

The Cameroon government banishes the teaching of religion in government schools, allows it in private and mission institutions but does not recognise GCE certificates in religious knowledge.

The consequence as prophesied by Charles Hodge, is "self-destruction," which the nation has observed in one week with the strangulation of a teacher in the North, slaughtering and burying a man in a shallow grave, lynching a couple in Limbe and a six-year-old murdered in Yaounde by a neighbour.

We need not reiterate other acts of inhumanity to man in the ongoing conflict in the North West and South West Regions and Boko Haram in the Far North Region or even the stench of corruption and scamming.

These are signs of a country suffering from moral decadence and lack of wisdom, which should begin with "the fear of the Lord".

Teaching religion and recognising its certificates, be it Islam or Christianity, the two dominant in the country, can cleanse the society which is in decomposition and make the country truly a "Land of Glory," as in the National anthem. 

The ball is on the court of the ruling CPDM, as the nation prepares to celebrate the 53rd National Day.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3450 of Friday May 16, 2025