October 12 poll: We need not die for peace.

Some of the captives reportedly paid ransom and were released while others, including teenagers, were held pending payments.

That reminds me of a book by Senator Elizabeth Regina Mundi, titled: “Powered by Hope; Eighty, Captive, Rescued”.

It is a horror narrative of her captivity by separatist vandals in the North West Region, where compatriots like those in the South West Region too are beggars of peace in a conflict she termed "a real war".

In the insecurity, which is the absence of peace, politicians have also become captives of conscience as the presidential election draws nearer by the day. 

Both the opposition and the ruling party are unanimous that there are challenges, insecurity, poverty, corruption and hunger. 

They see the need for change covertly, but overtly do not want change, even though deep in their conscience, they know that the same remedy applied to a disease for over four decades without cure needs a new drug.

One does not need to roll the crystal ball to observe that some of the politicians in the heat of the presidential election are in a state of what psychologist’s call "cognitive dissonance". 

They diagnose it as "the mental discomfort experienced when a person holds conflicting beliefs, ideas, or values, or when their actions contradict their beliefs".

I hear them condemn bad roads, corruption, abandoned contracts, insecurity, yet call for the maintenance of the status quo as a panacea to end the mountain of problems.

Every Cameroonian of conscience wants peace. 

During a pilgrimage for peace last Thursday, August 14, the Bishop of the Diocese of Bafoussam, Lontsie-Keune, dwelt at length on the notion of peace. For him, the path to peace is truth. “And when we are in the truth, we are not even afraid of dying," he maintained.

According to the Catholic prelate, the path to peace does not lie through intimidation at every turn. 

"So, it is not through the army. It is not through Moulinex and the sheriff, it is no longer through the beautiful speeches that we use to manipulate and intimidate and when people are silent, we say hurrah, we have won. Who told you that you have won?", the Man of God had asked.

He continued that: "Peace is even less determined by their wealth. Peace protects the people, and the people protect peace. The God we serve is a God of peace. Do not be afraid. Let us allow ourselves to be looked upon by Christ”. 

In his Pastoral Letter on the presidential election of October 12, the Bishop said: "If there is one person they want to kill, let them kill the Bishop of Bafoussam and leave the people of God alone. If there is one person they want to put in prison, let them put me in prison and leave you alone”.

Cameroon does not need to kill or jail anybody to have peace. We need to build on truth and justice. There is an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty swirling around the presidential election because of the phobia of the evaporation of relative peace.

Those who fear the most, I have not said ‘Kamtophobia’, should be those who imagine what will happen to them, not the country, if they revert to the opposition, which is not an impossibility. 

You feel them in a state of cognitive dissonance but the sky will not fall in an election without rigging, which we should pray for.

Postscript: “People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people,” - Alan Moore