EDITORIAL: The CBC and other churches cannot continue to sit on the fence on matters of justice

By Minang Kongadzem

Last week, Banso Baptist Hospital (BBH) was in the news. We here at CNA reported about the arrest of three BBH staff including the head of administration, Jean Sama by the military. They were accused of treating wounded separatist fighters –which by the way is not a crime under international humanitarian law. Read mor on that arrest here
Two days later, “Amba” fighters abducted four more staff of the hospital including the Field Pastor of Nso. Field Pastors are heads of church associations (called mission fields in the CBC).
We at CNA spoke with sources in Kumbo who broke the story to us and told us in confidence that staff were planning a strike to demand the release of their colleagues arrested unjustly simply for saving lives.
We published that story and what followed was utter silence by the CBC authorities for days. When the Health Department of the CBC finally issued a statement on the matter in a release dated September 26, 2022; the letter was a hollow statement that simply denied that BBH staff were planning to go on strike.
Besides not having any name below the signature, the public disclaimer failed to acknowledge that BBH staff had indeed been arrested by the military. It refused to condemn the gross violation of the rights of their very own staff!
Again when the overall head of the CBC, the Rev. Dr. Nditemeh Charlemagne issued another public statement on the matter, his statement did not condemn the actions of the military or the separatist fighters. He simply said the CBC will “speak the truth, stand for the truth and will remain on the side of the truth no matter what…” but of course he did not say what “the truth” was. Like the Bible, we may be tempted to ask Rev. Dr. Nditemeh “What is the truth?” (John 18:38).
It would be helpful to look at the role that the Christian Church (and I speak of ‘church’ here collectively to refer to all churches) has played in ending similar conflicts or crises around the world. Perhaps more prominent is the role of the African-American church in ending racial segregation in the United States. Our Black brothers and sisters in that country were violently oppressed, denied the right to decent education, quality healthcare, housing etc. They were literally the underdogs of American society.
However, African American churches (and most of them were Baptist by the way) protested, held meetings and fought openly – risking their very lives in doing so – to bring an end to racial segregation. At the heart of the success of the Civil Rights Movement was the role of churches.
In fact, one American webstie ExploreGeorgia.org states that:
“African American churches were vital to the success of the Civil Rights Movement. They hosted mass meetings, were meeting points for rallies and marches, and provided much-needed emotional, physical, moral and spiritual support. These churches gave the community strength to endure and ultimately succeeded in gaining human rights for every American regardless of color or creed”.

The most famous church in this Movement was probably Ebenezer Baptist Church in in Atlanta, Georgia whose lead pastor, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr was also the Civil Right’s Movement’s most famous leader.

In South Africa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Cape Town’s first black bishop of the Anglican Church in that country became the most prominent voice in the anti-apartheied movement when all other leaders were either in prison or on exile . He understood that the church could not be silent about the issues of the day that were affecting the population.
That is how churches ought to stand.
It is understandable that even CBC leaders in Cameroon are afraid of getting arrested by government authorities for speaking truth to power.
However, this is also a clear sign that Cameroonian churches ought to start thinking seriously of creating the Christian Association of Cameroon (CAC) which like the Christian Association of Nigeria will be able to make a strong case for where the Christian churches in Cameroon, stand on certain matters.
This will also make it difficult for one particular church leader to be arrested as statements will be signed collectively by the heads of ALL the Christian churches whether they are Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian or Orthodox , they will speak more powerfully with one voice than as individual churches.
The church should (even in the absence of such an association) not be afraid to call a spade a spade.
Dr. Nditemeh and the Health Board of his denomination ought to come clear and clean and state that the truth is that two Cameroons came together as a starting point and that is a historical fact that is not debatable. And that French Cameroon has never respected the constitution which stated that there was supposed to be power-sharing where if the president was Francophone, the vice was supposed to be Anglophone and vice versa and that the fact that President Biya single-handedly deviated from the appellation “United Republic of Cameroon” to simply “Republic of Cameroon” (which was the name only French Cameroon had) is a clear indication of bad faith.
The fact that key decisions are made in Yaounde, and not Bamenda or Buea and the fact that jobs (even in places like the CDC and SONARA in the Anglophone regions) are mostly occupied by French-speaking Cameroonians are some of the issues that annoy English-speakers a lot.
The events of 2016 were just a boiling point of these (and many other) frustrations which Anglophones have bottled up over the years and unless the 40-year Biya regime shows a genuineness in wanting to resolve it, the country will never be the same again.
The CBC cannot afford to simply ask for praying and fasting when clearly that is not the only solution. Church leaders need to speak up and protest when necessary. Their calling is divine and they ought not to fear mortal men who decide to rule unjustly,so let Rev. Nditemeh issue a stronger statement and speak the truth by name.

Read also: Arson attack on Mamfe Church, priests others kidnapped