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- Author, Armand Mouko Boudombo
- Role, Journalist -BBC News Africa
- Twitter, @AmoukoB
- Reporting from Dakar
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January 2, 2025
During their homilies on the occasion of the New Year's celebration, several Cameroonian bishops launched barbs, criticizing Paul Biya's governance, while the latter still says he is “determined to serve” the country.
End of thunderous homily on January 1, 2025 at Yagoua Cathedral, in the far north region of Cameroon. Bishop Barthélemy Yaouda Hourgo, wearing his beige miter, adorned with red decorations, looks agitated when he lets loose:
“We’re not going to suffer any more than that again. We have already suffered. The worst will not come. Even the devil, let him take power in Cameroon first, and we will see later. »
As soon as this declaration in front of his flock is finished, the man of God picks up his papers from the pulpit (table dedicated to the homily), begins to turn his back on the public, before pronouncing the traditional “amen”, which ends the homily.
This end of the speech was strongly acclaimed by the audience. The extract from this “exhortation” from the Bishop of Yagoua went viral on January 2 on social networks in Cameroon.
Just like that of the bishop of Ngaoundéré, capital of the Adamaoua region. Mgr Emmanuel Abbo preferred to focus on “the suffering that Cameroonians endure”.
“What have Cameroonians not yet endured? How is it possible that the unhappiness of Cameroonians does not push the leaders of this country to put an end to too much suffering? » asks the prelate.
Before continuing “The greatest suffering is that Cameroonians are prohibited from expressing their suffering by promising that the State is a steamroller, a Moulinex which reduces to pulp any Cameroonian who dares to express their suffering. Who will we govern when we have crushed all Cameroonians? »
In this homily broadcast on local television, the bishop concludes “We ask Cameroonians to avoid hate speech, but words of violence come to us from above. »
Cameroon will hold a presidential election in October 2025. Paul Biya, 92 years old, 42 of whom have been in power, has not yet said whether he will be a candidate or not.
This represents one of the major challenges of the year, according to Mgr Jean Mbarga, Archbishop of Yaoundé, who, in his homily, called on the State to “do everything so that the voice of Cameroonians is heard”.
Hostilities launched by Samuel Kléda
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This outburst started from Douala, the economic capital and largest city in the country. In French media last week, Samuel Kléda, the archbishop and former president of the National Episcopal Conference, did not mince his words to call on the Cameroonian president to leave power this year.
“What I want for my country (editor’s note): a peaceful transition. » Commenting on the age of the Cameroonian leader, Samuel Kleda said: “We are human beings. At some point we leave this world, we can't do a miracle. »
Adding that a candidacy of Paul Biya “is not realistic”.
An outing which made waves within public opinion, pushing a close friend of the ruling party to declare anonymously that “Mgr Kleda is taking up the game of the late Christian Tumi”, named after the only cardinal of the country, known for its harsh positions against the Yaoundé regime, who died in 2021.
Paul Biya still “determined” to serve
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Our efforts to obtain an official reaction from the RDPC, the ruling party, on these outings of the Cameroonian bishops, remained in vain.
But the Cameroonian leader seems to be plowing his furrow ahead of next October's elections. Although he has not yet given his position for this electoral deadline, Paul Biya does not seem less ambitious.
During his speech to the nation on December 31, the Cameroonian leader thanked his compatriots for the “massive support” that they “continued” to “give him during all these years”, and affirmed that his “determination to serving remains intact and strengthens on a daily basis.”
He described 2025 as a year full of challenges before being optimistic. “Yes, my dear compatriots, we will know how, together, as in the past, to transform these challenges into opportunities. And we will continue, together, our determined march towards progress, in security and peace. »
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Thomas Atenga, professor of communication at the University of Douala, believes that the position of certain members of the Cameroonian Catholic clergy is indicative of the fragmentation of “what we can call the real country to which the bishops claim to be close and in contact with the daily suffering of Cameroonians, their concerns, their suffering; and on the other side, the political class which is cut off from the realities of Cameroonians.”
For him, the Catholic Church, as a strong institution, “has no other choice in the times in which we find ourselves but to carry this message of liberation and freedom. Because after 42 years of power, it is still time for Cameroonians to experience other forms of hope, of government that allow them to think that the world is different from the one they have known for these years. »
He still advises temperance. Considering that this is not an official position of the Cameroonian Catholic Church, but that of part of the clergy.
The teacher also believes that this situation is “simply revealing of the fact” that within this church as an institution itself, there are lines of fragmentation today which are clear between those who have chosen to openly be the voice of the voiceless, the voice of the silent people, and those who continue to be with power, in a form of compromise which is in contradiction with the evangelical values, namely liberating man, being on the side of the oppressed, on the side of the poor, of the widow, of the orphan.”
