Pope’s Cameroon Visit:Another Holy Opportunity for Biya

By Chritopher Ambe Shu
Preparations are in high gear as Cameroon, Africa in miniature, looks forward to receiving Pope Benedict XVI on March 17.That will be Pope Benedict’s first pastoral visit to Africa since assuming the papacy in April 2005.
Some African countries, which were apparently hoping to host the incumbent Head of State of Vatican City, such as Nigeria, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to media reports, think Cameroon should not have been chosen as the first African host of this Vicar of Christ on earth.
Pope Benedict’s predecessor, Pope John Paul II, had visited Cameroon twice -in 1985, and in September 1995, whereas several countries had not had such “regular holy visits”

The German-born Benedict is scheduled to have audience with President Paul Biya at Unity Pace, during which, it is widely hoped, there will be frank exchanges between the Pope and the President on matters of good governance, human rights, moral and democratic values.

President Biya, himself a staunch catholic would likely want to confide in the pontiff and seek his blessings in his leadership of Cameroon, pundits say.
The Papal visit to Cameroon is coming at a time when President Biya’s image is badly battered and soiled for socio-economic and political reasons, begging for cleansing.
Many political observers consider Biya’s leadership as “undemocratic and anti-people” even though the president has always claimed he is bent on modernizing and democratizing Cameroon.

Biya, who has ruled Cameroon for some 26 years, for example, still got his crushing majority in Parliament last year to amend the country’s constitution, removing term limits, against popular protest at home and abroad. The move was interpreted as Biya’s intention to become life president. His current and second seven- year mandate is expected to end in 2011.
Again, late last year Biya appointed several CPDM diehards as members of ELECAM (Cameroon’s so-called independent electoral body) and has since been widely criticized for not respecting the law which calls for the appointment of independent personalities. But the president does not seem to bother about the criticisms.
In protest, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), Cameroon’s leading opposition party has called for the boycott of any election organized by ELECAM, a call which if respected may plunge the country into violent confrontations.
Mgr Victor Tonye Bakot, Catholic Archbishop of Yaoundé (capital of Cameroon), who is also Chairman of the Organizing Committee for Pope‘s visit to Cameroon recently disclosed to the press that, Cameroon government and the church would share the financial cost of hosting the pope and his large delegation ,which could run in to hundreds of millions of FCFA.
It is worth noting that, the Pope was jointly invited to Cameroon by President Biya and the National Episcopal Conference

But the most certain thing that Cameroon would reap from the visit is the Pope’s Blessings to the leadership of Cameroon and its citizens

In Cameroon, the pope will also meet with bishops, Muslim authorities, and on March 19 celebrate an open-air mass on the occasion of the publication of the Instrumentum Laboris of the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops at Amadou Ahidjo Stadium, Yaoundé.

The Pope leaves Cameroon on March 20 for Angola’s capital, Luanda.
Pope Benedict’s predecessor Pope John Paul II had visited Cameroon twice -in 1985, and in September 1995 at the celebration phase of the African Synod.
And in his departure speech at Yaoundé airport on 16 September 1995, after his three-day visit, Pope John Paul II had called on Cameroonians “in positions of authority in public life and business… to contribute to removing the obstacles, which still impede the development that ought to benefit their compatriots”. He strongly remarked, “My visit to Cameroon has enabled me to see the many material and spiritual gifts which the Almighty God has poured out upon your country”
But despite Cameroon’s abundant natural and human resources a majority of its citizens still live in abject poverty as corruption, embezzlement of public funds by holders of public office, unemployment are at record high.
Cameroon recently emerged twice as the most corrupt country in the world, according to Transparency International, a Berlin –based good governance watchdog.

These social ills that are so rife in Cameroon are not unknown to Pope Benedict XVI
That is why on receiving Cameroon’s Ambassador to the Holy See last year, Pope Benedict XVI seriously warned the Biya regime to contain corruption, which has eaten deep into the fabric of this central African country

The Pope is coming to Cameroon at a time when even the country’s Catholic Church is known to be critical of the Biya regime, for not doing much to improve the lot of citizens

The Catholic Church in Cameroon has in the last two decades had several of its priests murdered in mysterious circumstances, prompting the Vatican to call on the Cameroon government to carry out investigations so to prosecute the killers, but results of such probes are hardly made public.

But many critical watchers of Cameron political arena are convinced that President Paul Biya, will this time take the Pope’ s God- inspired advice very serious and govern the country with the fear of GOD, which is said to the beginning of Wisdom.

According to Vatican Information Service, “Cameroon has a population of 18,160,000 of whom 4,842,000 (26.7 percent) are Catholic. There are 24 ecclesiastical circumscriptions, 816 parishes and 3,630 pastoral centres of other kinds. Currently, there are 31 bishops, 1,847 priests, 2,478 religious, 28 lay members of secular institutes and 18,722 catechists. Minor seminarians number 2,249 and major seminarians 1,361.
‘A total of 410,964 students attend 1,530 centres of Catholic education,
from kindergartens to universities. Other institutions belonging to the
Church or run by priests or religious in Cameroon include 28 hospitals, 235 clinics, 11 homes for the elderly or disabled, 15 orphanages and nurseries,

40 family counselling centres and other pro-life centres, 23 centres for
education and social rehabilitation, and 32 institutions of other kinds.’’