This is an exclusive story from our colleagues at Municap Updates
The President of National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon, NECC, His Grace Andrew Nkea who doubles as Head of the Catholic Archdiocese of Bamenda, has emphasized that while bishops have the right to express civic opinions and condemn societal ills, they do not determine who runs for elections.
In an exclusive interview with Municipal Updates, Archbishop Nkea noted that Bishops can only also condemn wrongdoings but not people, harping on the Church’s role as an instrument of peace and reconciliation. He averred that religious leaders can address social challenges while avoiding personal attacks on individuals. The Archbishop also said the relationship between the Catholic Church and the State is excellent, restating that the position of Bishops on issues can only be known through the episcopal conference. He also urged citizens to become more involved in nation building.
He shared his incisive and revealing thoughts with Municipal Updates Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Cham Victor Bama, on the sidelines of the 48th annual seminar of Bishops in Buea. Read on…
Good day, Your Grace Andrew Nkea, President of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon and the Archbishop of the Bamenda Diocese. Thanks for talking to Municipal Updates Daily .
Good afternoon, Mr. Editor-in-Chief.
Now the 48th annual seminar of Bishops is holding in Buea. Under what context is it holding?
We are holding our seminar this year it in Buea under the theme Synodality: to live Synodality in the Cameroonian context.
And this is important because the whole church has received this final document after the synod on synodality. And we are looking at how to contextualise this document in the church in Cameroon. And this is very important for us because the document brings out the new way of being church and it is a very big achievement under the pontificate of Pope Francis.
How is the conference helping to resolve challenges faced by different dioceses?
One of the most important things is what I call pastoral consultations. When we come together, like we are doing now, we share ideas from various ecclesiastical provinces and we look at how the pastoral plan of every diocese is functioning and every province. And in that way, we interchange ideas and it is very, very helpful.
Is there any special message from the Pope during this seminar?
There is no special message from the Pope for this seminar. But we are holding this seminar in the context of 2025, which has been declared by the Holy Father as the Jubilee Year of hope.
And therefore all that we are looking at, we are looking from the perspective of hope, knowing that as the Holy Father puts in the letter that he wrote to all of us, hope will never deceive us.
You said the Church has been helping together with the population and the state to work towards the return to peace in the crisis-hit South West and North West Regions. How has the Church been involved?
First of all by our message of peace, by our message of reconciliation, our message of love, message of unity. We have done a lot in propagating these messages and above all, trying to reduce hate speech.
And when we do this, the population changes its behaviour and they look at things from a different perspective. Secondly, we run institutions, educational institutions, medical institutions. You know that one of the greatly hit institutions during this crisis has been the schools.
But as of now, I think the Church has thrown open all her doors to all the schools and all our schools are functioning well and we have given again Cameroonians, young Cameroonians, the opportunity to go to school; have the required education that they need. And lastly, by collaborating a lot, you know, with the population and with the civil authorities by sharing strategic ideas on how to bring peace, reconciliation and justice.
Now, Your Grace, how will you rate the relationship between the Church and the state of Cameroon?
As of now, I can say that relationship between the Church and the State is excellent. The foreign Minister of the Vatican, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, just left here two months ago and we think that in spite little challenges, as always, we are still enjoying a very good relationship.
What is your take on the move by some of your colleagues, bishops, making very critical outings on the state of the political atmosphere of the country, asking for the Head of State not to seek re-election and getting involved in some key political issues?
One of the things I must let you know is that we have only one foreign bishop in this conference.
All the rest of the 25 bishops are Cameroonians. And as Cameroonians, they have a right to their civic opinion. But their civic opinion does not represent the position of the Catholic Church in Cameroon. And so if any bishop comes out with his own opinion about a certain idea, that does not represent the position of the Catholic Church. It is only the conference, after deliberations in the General Assembly, that can come out with the position of the Catholic Church.
So people say that the church has that…. The Church has said that, but those are individual bishops. It doesn’t represent the Catholic Church.
But Your Grace, does it mean there’s disunity in the Church given their different declarations?
No, there is no disunity in the Church. On the contrary, the Church is very united, because when we talk about unity and disunity, we are making reference to doctrine, faith and morals that we are very united. But if you have 200 individuals, those 200 individuals have their 200 different opinions, and each individual opinion does not represent a position of disunity. So it has nothing to do with our unity as bishops.
Your Grace, what is the position of the National Episcopal Conference on this year’s presidential election and the political climate?
If you remember, last April, I personally called for people to participate massively and register for the upcoming elections. Secondly, the conference has not met in a general assembly to discuss this. So until we meet and discuss, we stand at what we said that people should go and register massively and prepare themselves for the upcoming elections. But it is not our position to start declaring who should stand or who should not stand. That is not part of our job as bishops now.
Your Grace, are you for priests who preach that there should be change in Cameroon and what change?
I think if you listen carefully to President Paul Biya’s speech during the night of 31st December, he himself was insisting on change.
Change of attitude of Cameroonians, change of corrupt officials, change of bringing development projects. That’s very important. Everybody wants positive change in the country, but positive change is relative. And secondly, there is a constitution in our country which guides elections and all those things. So your opinion does not change what the constitution says. And I think that as people of law, we follow what our constitution says. If they want to change the constitution, they will debate that in parliament. It is not from the pulpit you change constitutions.
But it appears your message of hope for peace has been misinterpreted to mean that you are calling for a change of power at the helm of the State?
Well, I think journalists need a lot of education because they are the propagators of hate and misinformation. I did not say that they should change the authorities in power. I said that all of us are looking forward to a bright Cameroon where all of us are looking forward to positive developmental projects in our country.
Does it matter to me who brings it? So nobody should put words into my mouth. And like I said yesterday to the journalists, everybody should take their responsibility. Journalists will not do their own work by misinforming the public. They should do their work by giving the public correct information. So I did not say that.
Now, Your Grace, what message do you have for Cameroonians in crisis-hit regions ?
I’ve said this many times over that we need to be focused on regaining peace in our regions. And some people have said, no, no, no, there can be no peace without justice. And I keep going back to my point that working for justice does not mean lack of peace.
We continue to work for justice, but we need a peaceful environment to continue to work for justice. As human beings, there cannot be any full just society because human behaviour itself is very funny.
So therefore, working for justice is an everyday preoccupation. You don’t say that we have arrived at justice and therefore we have peace. Justice is an ongoing process that we have to labour until We die.
And if you look at the world, I will ask you to show me one just society. Many things are still happening even in very civilized societies but they have peace and that is why I will say to the population of the North West and South West Regions that we all should fold our sleeves and work towards developing this country. Everybody should contribute their own effort towards making Cameroon a strong and united country but at the same time, people should stop pointing figures at others. We must all focus in making our country focused and peaceful.
But it seems as if the Church ignores talking to the opposition, but focuses on the ruling. Why?
That too is not true, because I talk for myself. We have also focused a lot on, especially during this crisis, talking to the separatists and trying to bring them to understanding and criticising some of the atrocities that they commit.
We have been trying to have a balanced approach towards life. And like I explained before, we condemn the ills of society, We don’t condemn people. sometimes personally or from personal opinion, some bishops can go aboard in expressing their personal opinions, but that does not mean we have problems with anybody. No, on the contrary, we are messengers of peace. We are messengers of reconciliation as men of God.
Lastly, your Grace, where do you see Cameroon 20 years from now?
I am a positive person. In my thinking, 20 years from now I can see a very, very strong and prosperous economy. Because we can only go ahead. We can never go backwards anymore.
And I can give you the example that 20 years ago I was in Buea as the Bishop’s Secretary and coming back to Buea 20 years after, Buea has developed into a city. Where you and me are sitting now was a banana plantation. If you look at the traffic that you see in Buea, in another 20 years we will have skyscrapers in Buea. I can judge from what I know. In 20 years to come, Buea will be one of the biggest cities in this country.
Thank you very much for talking to Municipal Updates
Thank you very much
