Secretive Paul Biya, he had to wait for the Pope to visit Cameroon in order to confide his intention to no longer seek office again in 2011. That was the high-water mark of the Pope’s visit that was successful in all other respects. The challenge now is for Biya to go public with that decision and better still adopt measures to start implementing it. Cameroonians and the Pope want a credible election to permit them freely chose Biya’s successor in 2011. Unless so the president might slip back on his decision as it already happened before. He must now take the right steps in order to benefit fully from the blessings that he received from the Pope.
With the Pope’s visit now over we are much delighted to note that it was a great success. The Herald already hailed the four-day visit as such. Much of the success of the visit, we generously acknowledge, was thanks to Paul Biya.
We may never know how much money went into it, but it was clear to every onlooker that the government had spared no penny in assuring the material comfort of the Pope and his entourage.
There was so much more that went into the visit to make it the success we hail but we cannot go into it here.
Perhaps it would only be fair here to say that The Herald had the sympathy of the many who wondered why the Pope should have given Paul Biya and his regime the honour of making Cameroon his first stop on this first journey to Africa.
The point of that debate was an indictment of the Yaounde regime for failing to embrace necessary democratic reforms and being responsible for the economic hardship of Cameroonians, given the rich natural resources of Cameroon.
The debate was strengthened by the participation of Catholic Church prelates who take every opportunity to express their disagreement with the regime for the same reasons. These views were also echoed abroad.
Yet that did not change the Pope’s decision to come to Cameroon. Indeed there were further fears raised as to whether the Pontiff’s visit wasn’t going to be used for the political ends of the regime.
Now, with the visit successfully behind us, we can confidently say that those fears were unfounded. Instead the Pope took sides with critics of the government when in reply to Paul Biya’s welcome address right at the airport he called upon Christians «never to remain silent» in the face of poverty, hunger, corruption or abuse of office.
Regime’s errors
Those words gave much comfort to those, like The Herald, who often tell the regime’s errors to its face. We have no doubt that the President learnt from those words what the Pope understood about his regime, even though the pontiff was gentle and non-confrontational.
Again at the airport on his departure on Friday, the august visitor returned to his criticism of governance in Cameroon in a more forthright manner.
«People of Cameroon, I urge you to seize the moment the Lord has given you! Answer his call to bring reconciliation, healing and peace to your communities and your society! Work to eliminate injustice, poverty and hunger wherever you encounter it! …»
The Pope who had come on a pastoral visit and had absolutely no reason to meddle in Cameroon’s politics nor desire to keep his generous and respectful host uncomfortable, was nevertheless able to be so forthright, thanks to what had transpired between him and his host during their hour-long meeting on Tuesday morning.
The in-camera meeting was a profound spiritual experience and turning point (hopefully) for Paul Biya’s personal transformation. The president made his confessions in exchange for the Pope’s forgiveness and special blessings. No doubt Paul Biya was so contrite and penitent from that point. A bond of friendship became established from that moment between the sinner and his saviour.
The most significant bit that might interest Cameroonians from the in-camera meeting is the president’s vow to the Pope that he will not stand for office again in 2011!
For the great moral authority and counselor that he is, the Pope condemned the sin but not the sinner. Go and sin no more, he admonished his charge.
We congratulate Paul Biya for taking this decision. We trust that true to its spirit he will proceed without delay to begin to implement it. Public processes are by their nature open and transparent. It was completely unnecessary to wait for so long to confide such a decision to the Pope.
What he owes the Cameroonian public is to make that decision known and immediately followed up with other decisions to demonstrate his commitment to the vow he made privately to the Pope.
This is absolutely important partly because that is the right thing to do and also to protect the president from changing his mind and falling back on his vow. The president knows why we say this. In March 2003 during his reception at the White House in Washington, Paul Biya volunteered a similar promise to George Bush.
In 2004 he also volunteered the same promise to Tony Blair at his No 10 Downing Street office. He told the two leaders he would retire at the end of his second seven-year term in 2011. Then somehow the president changed his mind and began taking steps that negated his own pledge.
Worthy partners
Who will trust a man who tells a lie and is unable to heed his own word? Isn’t that the image Paul Biya has cut abroad of himself? Imagine a man holding such high office and wants to be trusted. He announces he will create a truly independent electoral organ. At the critical point of action he reneges, and still wants to be taken for serious?
Paul Biya has taken himself to a point at which he is losing worthy partners as fewer and fewer of them trust him. The president’s inability to get Nicolas Sarkozy to visit Cameroon, even to make a one-hour stopover at Nsimalen, is damning evidence of how far distrust for him has become.
For now Sarkozy can still affirm France’s historical relations with Cameroon and provide financial and economic aid, and even invite Biya to Paris. But international politics is changing rapidly. The global economic downturn is dictating joint solutions jointly taken.
That may very soon oblige common aid policies to be conditioned on good governance, and Cameroon could suddenly be isolated and treated as unfit, given Paul Biya’s untrustworthiness. Then France will also toe the line jointly drawn!
Those who doubt this prospect must learn soberly from what an old reliable friend like Canada has just done to Cameroon. It cut Cameroon from its aid list after nearly fifty years of being taken for granted! This prospect might therefore not be as far-fetched as it appears.
Distrust is not the only image that the president has painstaking carved for himself. The president has also faltered too long on justice, which is a theme that the Pope dwelt upon insistently. Injustice is deeply rooted in the president’s inability to give an equal opportunity to all Cameroonians.
The consistently lob-sided manner in which public positions and advantages are shared is the best proof of the regime’s injustice. Cameroonians are actually taught and forced to accept and live in injustice. What a shame that sections of the country keep crying marginalisation and the President is completely indifferent!
We rejoice with Paul Biya over the peace that exists in Cameroon. We need it and should do everything in our powers to avoid a war. But the president must admit that he cannot preach peace and at the same time uphold and practice injustice so glaringly and for as long as he has done. Paul Biya is in fact actively working towards social conflict or war. Never mind the time it takes to build up and explode.
Once again, having decided as Paul Biya has done to voluntarily taken a vow before the Pope to review his policies, we urge him to get to work without delay. There is an awful amount of work to accomplish.
Transparent election
What Paul Biya owes Cameroonians is to prepare the nation for a thoroughly free, fair and transparent election in 2011 that will allow for the choice of another president to succeed him. That, we have no doubt about, is the way indicated by the many blessings of the Pope.
The other thing that the Pope’s visit achieved was to reconcile Paul Biya and Christian Tumi, the cardinal. The Pope is not an easily excitable person but he was unusually alive, even clapping, when Biya and Tumi shook hands at the presidency on Tuesday morning.
He talked separately to both of them, we learnt. Cameroonians know that the wall separating the two men is hardly in the best interest of the country. Paul Biya is incontestably the political leader of the country while Tumi is the highest moral and spiritual authority of the Catholic Church in Cameroon.
The president sometimes wishes he could get the cardinal’s advice or opinion on issues, but the wall separating the two makes it impossible for him to consult him.
The cardinal on his part says that if it were possible to meet the president for an occasional meeting he wouldn’t be so vocal in criticizing him and his regime as he does. We know that Biya detests that profoundly and would do anything to stop the cardinal’s attacks.
What that means is that the two men need each other, not so much for themselves as for the higher interests of the state. In any case the animosity between the two serves nobody, no purpose, and is counterproductive.
We think it is high time for Paul Biya to invite the cardinal and talk with him and establish a working relationship with him. But this is not a one-way matter. We equally suggest a formal request for audience by Tumi.
Since they know themselves and their differences well enough it is now a matter of defining some common working ground. Many ordinary people do this, why not such very high personalities? The sooner the better.
In the end, we can say again that the Pope’s visit was successful, a lot more than our earlier skepticism allowed us to see. We thank Paul Biya for the unremitting commitment of the government. Still the full significance of the visit will depend on what the president makes of his pledge to the Pope.
Like the Christ that he serves, the Pope’s forgiveness and blessings on Paul Biya will only work and gain full and lasting value, for him and Cameroonians, if the president will «go and sin no more.»
Source: The Herald
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