CBC: The daunting task ahead of Rev. Dr. Teke John as Chief Executive

By Hans Ngala

Rev. Dr. Teke John has been elected as the new Executive President (EP) of the Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBC).
Dr. Teke is currently senior pastor at Mizpah Baptist Church in Limbe where he has pastored for some ten years now. He replaces Rev. Dr. Nditemeh Charlemagne who announced on Saturday that he won’t be seeking reelection, preferring peace over power.
Dr. Nditemeh’s four-year tenure at the helm of the CBC was one of the most reformative of the CBC as he transformed CBC leadership, pushing for greater accountability from fellow leaders and transparency in leadership.
This was met of course with stiff resistance from some within the ranks of the CBC who were benefitting from the laxity that had permeated the CBC for many years. The daunting task now lies with Rev. Dr. Teke who takes over a fractured and tense CBC where mistrust and even hatred is the sentiment among some.
Dr. Teke has the arduous task of building on the legacy of Dr. Nditemeh who made it clear that his goal was never to grab power or wealth but to ensure that the CBC was run properly by its leaders.
Dr. Teke’s election in itself is part of Nditemeh’s legacy as the CBC had become largely influential only among those from the North West, tending to largely exclude those from the South West. Teke was competing for the CBC top job with another fellow South Westerner, the Rev. Dr. Liombe Timothy. However, Dr. Liombe only got 578 votes as opposed to 1,266 which Dr. Teke got.
This marks the first time since 1984 when the CBC last had an Executive President from the South West. This was the Reverend Samuel Becke and at the time, the office was called ‘General Secretary’.
Rev. Nditemeh revealed during the CBC Bible Conference in Kribi that a lot of corruption was going on in the CBC, leading to loss of money from the CBC to the tune of millions of Francs as well as some leaders not wanting to go on retirement even when they were long past retirement age. Other corrupt practices included property rentals being masterminded by some with CBC funds but the rentals, some as high as 5 million monthly, were going to their friends.
However, some feel that Rev. Nditemeh was too high-handed in his approach but whatever the case, the baton has been passed on to Dr. Teke and he has a difficult, yet noble job now to make history and changes in the CBC and unite a rather broken and hurting church.