Issues at stake: Atheism as state religion

In a sarcasm-packed statement that postulated the high level of spiritual emptiness in Cameroon, Cardinal Christian Tumi said recently that those who are ruling and misruling the country, are behaving as if God does not exist at all.

In tandem with this, a recent publication by the former Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic, Prof. Titus Edzoa, reveals an appalling world of occultism in Government.

Titus Edzoa published the book just before he was released from Kondengui

Prison last year. Such revelations are a glaring testimony that many big shots of the regime do not believe in the sovereignty of the Almighty God.

The late political activist, Charles Ateba Eyene, even named names in his book in which he describes Cameroon as a den of occultist practices wherein the blind quest for power is the norm everywhere.

The dreadful BBM in Bamenda used to have the inscription ‘’God No Dey’’ (God does not exist) on one of its walls. This blasphemous statement speaks volumes about the ephemeral triumph of atheism in the country of President Biya who narrowly missed becoming a priest.

Perhaps, it is from such a premise that the former Northwest Governor, Abakar Ahamat, mustered the gumption to ban prayers during official ceremonies in Bamenda. Even when the civil society activist, Simon Nkwenti of blessed memory unleashed an indicting media campaign against him, the man did not budge. Such ungodliness has made the task of the clergy more herculean. After all, Jesus Christ came to the world to rescue sinners.

Under the banner of one Civil Society Organisation, veteran journalist, Peter Essoka, and varsity don, Hans Nyaa, have been in a tough battle to ensure that the word ‘’God’’ is mentioned somewhere in the National Anthem and the Constitution of Cameroon. But conservative forces, as usual, have truncated the duo’s bid.

Peter and Hans were rather pooh-poohed as politically myopic “nanos” who chose to live in the fictional world by imagining that they could change the Constitution just to slot in the word “God”.

Many Christians in Cameroon look at the Ghanaian Constitution with envy, given that it appeals to the Almighty Father for the protection of the people.

In Cameroon, politicians commit blasphemy without blinking. Hear one of them: “the CPDM is the truth, the way and the light.’’ Another one even challenged God and his people by saying: “Those who want me dead should wait for 20 years.’’

When such people speak, the phrase “God so willing” never crosses their minds. Others even attribute divine interventions, like the sustenance of peace (which is the mere absence of war in our context) to mortal beings whose very existence remains an albatross on the country’s socio-economic and political fabric.

Ntumfor Nico Halle, a staunch Christian and the former Chairman of the Christian Men Fellowship, CMF, of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, PCC, is engaged in a crusade to ensure that Religion is counted as one of the main subjects in the General Certificate of Education, GCE, examination in Cameroon.

The critical lawyer is shouting even from treetops that any educational system that disregards religion, can only churn out clever criminals. Until Nico Halle and his followers succeed in their crusade, Religion remains a mere formality in our educational system. Instructions for job applications usually end with the injunction: “excluding religion.”

The ingratitude to God here has gone beyond human understanding. When Government officials and CPDM party barons survive certain risky situations, they attribute their survival to their god, President Paul Biya.

When the late CPDM bigwig, Françoise Foning, had the first accident a few years back and survived, she sang more than encomiums for the President for ferrying her to France for treatment. Never, never, did she mention anywhere that God could have used President Biya to save her life. When the second accident came last year, she succumbed, despite tremendous medical efforts to rescue her life.

In their spiritual blindness, many Cameroonians do not believe in pantheism by seeing God’s hand in everything that happens in their lives.

These are, somewhat, the trappings of the crude secularism in which Cameroon finds itself. With such spiritual emptiness, President Biya’s country remains a citadel of the superstitious who still believe that witchdoctors are the supreme beings who own their destinies. It is a fief of the metaphysical world wherein success is determined by one’s allegiance to sects.

That is why the MP for Momo, Hon. Joseph Mbah Ndam, never got a clear answer to his question at the National Assembly a few years back. The MP had virtually “docked” the Government bench to explain why FCFA 7 billion of the taxpayers’ money was reportedly paid to a sect in France. The Ministers simply babbled in a sophistic prevarication and the story ended with an unpleasant suspense.

Even as Cameroon claims to be a secular State, it seems that the State religion here is atheism. Since there is always an exception in every rule, I must state, in all sincerity, that there are many God-fearing members of Government. Yet, many others are mere churchgoers who still serve many other gods.

To them, the distance between church and the soothsayer’s house is alarmingly short. Biblical provisions and the divinations of soothsayers enjoy a certain marriage of convenience.

God Save Cameroon!