This unprecedented denunciation comes shortly after President Paul Biya’s end-of-year speech, in which the nonagenarian head of state suggested that he could run for a new term.
This position of the Catholic bishops is all the more significant as their Church is a respected and influential institution in Cameroon.
This is the first time that the bishops of Cameroon have criticized with one voice the governance of Paul Biya, in power for 42 years. In his New Year’s homily, Emmanuel Abbo, bishop of Ngaoundéré, denounced the suffering endured by Cameroonians:
“How is it possible that the desperate call for help from Cameroonians does not push the leaders of this country to want to put an end to their too much suffering? And the most serious suffering is that Cameroonians are prohibited from expressing their suffering by promising them that the State is a steamroller, a Moulinex which will reduce to pulp any Cameroonian who dares to express their suffering. Who will we govern when we have crushed all the Cameroonians in the Moulinex or when we have passed over them with the steamroller? How can we promise death to those who only ask for the minimum to survive?”
The correspondence of Elisabeth Asen
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Other prelates followed one another to put the regime on trial, notably Samuel Kleda, metropolitan archbishop of Douala, and Yaouda Hourgo, the bishop of Yagoua in the far north of the country. Everyone finds Paul Biya’s new candidacy for the 2025 presidential election unrealistic.
While some religious leaders call for change, others favor institutional stability, which creates an unprecedented divide in the national political-religious landscape. This is the case of the central imam of Douala, Mouhamad Malik Farouk. For his part, he describes the bishops’ statements as “personal points of view, devoid of binding force.”
An interreligious ping-pong which reveals the deep divisions within Cameroonian society on the question of presidential succession.
This position of the Catholic bishops is all the more significant as the Catholic Church in Cameroon is a respected and influential institution.
So for Nestor Nzetou Félix, sociologist and pastor, religious leaders also have their share of responsibility.
CLIP
“When you go to a Catholic university, you have more than a million to pay. They even know that Cameroon, as they describe it, is a poor country. How can they not adjust the price of schooling according to the standard of living of Cameroonians?
They can certainly, through their output, influence, but they do not decide the people’s choice.”
Cameroon has nearly ten million Catholics, or 38.4% of the population, spread across 24 dioceses. A later survey estimated this figure at 7 million (26%) in 2023.
This rupture could be felt during the presidential election which will take place next October.
