2025 presidentials: When Bishops rise against Paul Biya!.

Roman Catholic Bishops and President Paul Biya

President Paul Biya is a devout Catholic who has had the opportunity to receive a Pope in Yaounde and has also been received in audience by the Holy Father at the Vatican.

The Catholic Church which, with some 35 percent of Cameroonians as its adherents, derives its authority and power from moral force.



It hardly takes sides overtly in political issues, unless humanity made in God's image is being oppressed, cheated or deprived of inherent fundamental liberties.

With this year’s presidential election scheduled for October, there is effervescence within the ruling CPDM barons benefiting from the regime that the status quo should be consolidated with President Paul Biya, 92, running for an eighth term at an epoch where three terms is considered in democratic parlance as an abomination.

As the presidential election draws near by the day, at least three Bishops have spoken against President Biya, who remains undecided as to go in for re-election, with predictable high chances of winning, if the opposition remains disunited and an Electoral Code which articulate observers say favours the ruling party.

Speaking on Equinoxe TV on New Year’s Eve, the Bishop of Yagoua, Bishop Barthélémy Yaouda, said: "Enough is enough. The war in the North West Region, is just one little thing which is enough and we would have finished. Here we have Boko Haram. Why do we always encourage the Head of State to be a candidate? No. Can you give your father a machete or a hoe to walk one kilometre to work in the fields? What kind of Cameroonians are these? And we are only told to preach peace. People are fed up”.

He added that: "We are not going to suffer more than that again. We have already suffered. The worst will not come. Even the devil should first take power in Cameroon and we will see later".

Taking the cue from Ngaoundere, Bishop Emmanuel Abbo, said: “The greatest suffering is to prohibit Cameroonians from expressing their ills, under the pretext that the State is a steamroller, a kind of grinder that reduces to pulp any Cameroonian who dares to complain”

"Who will be left to govern when all Cameroonians have been crushed in this mill? How can we promise death to those who only ask for the minimum to survive?", he questioned

Also speaking on Radio France Internationale, RFI, Bishop Samuel Kleda, Archbishop of Douala, for his part, opposed another term for President Biya.

He was categorical that: "It is not realistic...we are humans. At some point, we leave this world. We are not immortal, nor capable of miracles".

In sober tune, Bishop Jean Mbarga, Archbishop of Yaounde, encouraged the faithful to take their destiny into their own hands. 

He stated that: "We are entering a jubilee year and an election year. I urged the faithful to assume their historical responsibilities towards the nation".

The phrase "taking responsibilities" during elections was made popular by the SDF and intended to protest rigged elections which in Cameroon, Bishop Kleda is noted for saying "results are known before the elections".

Within a twinkle of an eye in the festive season, the Bishops of Yagoua, Ngaoundere, Douala, and Yaounde have made acerbic criticisms of the President. 

It is not unusual for Men of God with divine authority and power to veer into politics when their Christians are having a rough deal.

Going back memory lane, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was an emblematic figure for the fight against apartheid in South Africa; Reverend Martin Luther King, led the civil rights movement in the United States, while Simon Kimbangu, founder of the Kimbanguist Church, campaigned against the Belgian colonists.

The church has always been linked to the liberation of the oppressed and voiceless as being illustrated by some Bishops in Cameroon who believe under the ruling party cost of living is unbearable for Cameroonians on the streets, while corruption is pervasive and President Biya has fought it to no success.

 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3331 of Tuesday January 07, 2025

 

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