By Nchumbonga George Lekelefac
On May 20, 2023, National Day (French: Fête Nationale) of Cameroon, also known as Unity Day (fête nationale de l’unité), celebrated annually on 20 May because in a national referendum on 20 May 1972, Cameroonians voted for a unitary state as opposed to the existing federal state – during the reception at the Unity Palace, Archbishop Nkea was spotted with other politicians by. Many have been asking what Archbishop Nkea was doing there.
It is presumed that Archbishop Nkea went there in the name of the president of the Cameroon National Episcopal Conference (NECC) but the question is: Must he go to the presidency on May 20th when there is a complete shut down in Bamenda, his Archdiocese, and the other parts of North West and South West Regions? Must a father be celebrating when the blood of his children is being shed? How does he identify himself with the suffering and dying masses who are killed daily because of the poor handling of the Anglophone crisis? How is he then chosen from among men to intercede for them as a priest when he cannot even identify with them? What did the Skull Cap from Bamenda go to do in Etoudi on May 20th when Bamenda was Shut down?
It is crystal clear that you can never effectively lead any people if you are not one with them. What size of envelop will really make a Man of God to dodge gun shots and pass under bullet smokes to Yaoundé for a reception at the presidency on May 20th, 2023 when there was a complete curfew in Bamenda before the 20th? How many days did he have to spend out of the Archdiocese just for this occasion? Who did he leave in charge back home and for what purpose? What could be the report of such an absentee on behalf of the people if at all one has genuinely been presented?
On September 19th 2013, at Midday in the Sala Clementina of the Vatican Apostolic Palace, Pope Francis Warned all Bishops, “You must stay, stay! Avoid the scandal of airport bishops who never make time for their own flock”. He called on bishops to have habitual and daily care of the flock. By extension, airport bishops will be those who have no time for their flock but running after government offices to get money that never satisfies their personal pockets. Such have lost their moral authority and spiritual compass and they are simply obeyed by the faithful because Rome says so. They have lost their moral integrity before the people of God.
Any sound minded Episcopus (bishop) in the person of the president of NECC living in Bamenda will politely delegate his vice, Bishop Philippe Alain Mbarga, the bishop of Ebolowa, who lives closer to Yaoundé to go represent the conference if at all the chair of the conference was invited. Wisdom is a gift of the Holy Spirit and should be made use of all the time especially by spiritual leaders like bishops. Concerned Christians are disturbed why “Common Sense” should not have told Archbishop Nkea not to go to the presidency on the 20th of May.
With such an episcopacy grossly characterized by an unnecessary political association and romance with an idiotic regime which does not care about the massacre of its people that has now become the order of the day in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon, simple minded Christians are beginning to ask plenty of questions: When last did Archbishop Nkea pray the rosary? When last did he visit mission stations like Yemge, Furawa, Bawuruetc? Where does a real pastor get time to travel from Bamenda to Yaoundé for a mere 20th May food and drinks with a government that has unwisely stupefied the letter written by the bishops of BAPEC to solve the Anglophone Crisis? Is he really a father to the priests? Is he father to the poor? Does Archbishop Nkea associate with priests and other bishops? You judge for yourself! Does he associate with politicians…? Of course, association will be with those that can provide pecunia (money).
Let us be very frank and objective: Reverend Fathers, fellow Christians of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda, if you hear the name of Archbishop Nkea, what comes to your mind? Is it Pastoral work? Prayer? Charity? Power? Money? Politician? Bully? Of course, the last four are obvious! I have enough evidences of my stand.
I, Nchumbonga George Lekelefac – today stand as the voice of the voiceless like the Catherine of Siena in the days of the Avignon Papacy to cry out that the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda should return to its originality as was laid down by the founding father, Father Paul Verdzekov, who the first English-speaking Cameroonian bishop and archbishop: appointed on August 13, 1970, at 39, and ordained bishop on November 8 1970, at 39; appointed archbishop of Bamenda on March 18, 1982, at 51.It is terribly disturbing that the suppose piety and originality of a whole Ecclesiastical Province has been exchanged for something weird because of an individual’s uncontrollable love of money and the feeling of worldly importance clearly seen in rampant association with the rich and relegation of the suffering poor and the anawim of the society (anawim or the faithful remnant means the humble, poor and lowly ones). What did the Skull Cap from Bamenda go to do in Etoudi on May 20th when Bamenda was Shut down?
Even more disturbing is the fact that others are being recruited into this self-centered cycle and given parts of the church to govern. Could this be out of merit or to cover up financial mess of the predecessor? Where is the audit team to prove me wrong?
When a Man of God starts associating mostly with those in political power and always present in political corridors, the people in those offices grumble whenever they sense your presence around them. It is just by courteousnessthat they don’t tell you to go to where you belong. If by now, the regime has not told you to go to where you belong, it is because it is using you to play the politics of the neglect of the Anglophone crisis and they feel the Catholic population will listen to you through the way you unwisely play with God’s Word on the pulpit.
A Serious Declaration about my Advocacy
Being a layman, independent journalist and church lawyer, I am a humble authority. I have gone through the system and I know the church in and out especially the church of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda. There are some people in the Ecclesiastical Province who are trying to romance my mind and vision of things and trying to oil my mouth, so that my pen should start writing in directions that favor their evil acts and unfriendly treatment of priests and religious.
I just wish to affirm and stand with my audience who mostly happen to be the anawim, that is, the suffering masses of the society. I wish to categorically affirm to them that my pen shall be objective and shall flow exactly as things happen, that is why my prophetic power is “un-buyable,” “un-bendable,” and “un-oilable.”
I am Catherine of Siena in the days of the Avignon Papacy
Catherine of Siena visited Avignon (France) in 1376 and told Pope Gregory XI that he had no business to live away from Rome. Pope Gregory XI heeded her advice, and moved to Rome. She then acted as his ambassador to Florence, and was able to reconcile a quarrel between the Pope and the leaders of that city. In the same way, I say it again and again that I am the Catherine of Siena in the days of the Avignon papacy, calling on the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda to return to its originality as it was in the days of the venerable and first English-speaking bishop and archbishop of Bamenda, the humble servant of God, Father Paul Verdzekov. The province has drifted and it is at the brink of sinking. Who knows, it would have already sunk completely if not of the unrelenting intercession of Father Paul Verdzekov, Prof. Dr. Bernard Nsokika Fonlon, Cardinal Christian Tumi, and many other English-speaking saints in heaven and a few other living English-speaking bishops who are still thinking church.
As a prophet therefore, I am calling on Archbishop Nkea to KINDLY halt and examine his conscience, for the Ecclesiastical province of Bamenda cannot breathe, it can no longer breathe.
This is therefore a crion call to a mega dramaticmetanoia (change in one’s way of life resulting from penitence or spiritual conversion) to at least bring us back to where we were before, though this is a sad reality that instead of the province spiritually growing and moving forward, we have moved far behind. I want to gently whisper in the ears of Archbishop Nkea with the power of the Spirit of God in the clear running water, blowing to greatness the trees on the hill to please forget about his personal gain and bring us back to at least where we were before the passing of our venerable father, Father Paul Verdzekov.
Conclusion
The aim of this article was intended to speak very plainly and bluntly as most of you have now known me to be. In deciding to do so, I had no intention whatsoever to put anybody in the dock. I wrote this article because I believe and I firmly trust that, if the walls of a house are cracking up, you do not save that house by covering the cracks over with paper. The only right thing to do is to pull it down to its foundations and raise it up anew. To cure a disease, a doctor is often obliged to rip his patient open to find the source and cause of it. Things are falling apart in the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda under Archbishop Nkea. It is therefore necessary for me, given my in and out knowledge of the Bamenda province in particular and the universal church in general, and without fear from any authority, given my state in the church, to lay these ailing bare so that, with this evidence naked before our eyes, each one may examine his conscience and see his own portion of blame, if any, and correct himself for the good of all and for the province. Thus, seeing where we went astray and what to do, we shall be better able to right all wrongs and put our Ecclesiastical Province on its right feet as was done by our trailblazer and pathfinder: Father Paul Verdzekov.
From 1976 to 1982, Bishop Paul Verdzekov was second president of the Cameroon National Episcopal Conference. During his tenure as President of the NECC, Martin Jumbam narrated on October 20, 2010, in memory of Archbishop Paul Verdzekov in an article titled: “Are we praying to Father Paul, or for Father Paul?”: “The young Bishop Paul Verdzekov led a delegation of Cameroon’s bishops to Ahidjo on behalf of Bishop Ndongmo. It is not clear what they told the dreaded Ahidjo, nor what the latter’s reaction was, but it is of significant historical importance that it was a young man, a newly ordained bishop, who stood with courage before an unforgiving dictator to speak on behalf of a falsely accused colleague. It’s unfortunate that Father Paul passed on just when he was said to be working on a book in which he intended to denounce the Ndongmo trial as a sham and a travesty of justice. His biographer may reveal what his findings were to us.” (Martin Jumbam, I remember Father Paul Verdzekov, October 20, 2010 in, https://www.martinjumbam.net/…/i-remember-father-paul…).
As Archbishop Nkea should see, Bishop Paul Verdzekov, a man of unquestionable limpidity and moral authority did not mingle with stupidity. He went to the presidency to speak on behalf a fellow brother bishop who had been imprisoned in Yaoundé. How often does Archbishop Nkea instead water down others and run to mud their personality in order to look like a good man in the midst of rotten eggs. Before when we were growing up with the ardent zeal to serve as a priest, we knew that priests don’t tell lies, not now that lies telling and gossiping is mostly championed by red skull caps and those in white, black and red cassocks. Was Archbishop’s Nkea visit to Etoudi on the 20th of May really necessary? Why jeopardize the lives of the poor priests and religious who are not even properly taken care of to mercy of the separatist fighters who may mistake to think that because the spiritual head associates with Etoudi all are for Etoudi? What did the Skull Cap from Bamenda go to do in Etoudi on May 20th when Bamenda was Shut down?By
Nchumbonga George Lekelefac is The SUN’s correspondent in Europe and the United States. The views expressed in this article are his and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of The SUN