Pope Benedict XVI is in Cameroon for a four day visit during which he will hold talks with political and religious leaders of the continent. As is customary with visits of this nature, the population of Cameroon in particular and Yaounde, the Capital in particular must have been preparing frantically to clean up the environs to dignify the presence of the august visitor and his entourage on the soil of this privileged country – Africa in miniature.
Did I say privileged country? Oh yes because we have all that it takes for a country like ours to stand up and be counted – the natural, socio-cultural and human resources, the ‘peace’ and its strategic position on the continent.
This visit is the third by a Roman Pontiff to the country in a quarter of a century, which is eloquent proof that the Vatican still considers Cameroon as the nerve centre from which the Holy Father's message of love, peace and hope can reach out to the entire continent and by the same token to the rest of the world.
Of course, having covered such a visit before, I know for sure that the presence of those in authority in the country will be very prominent during the four-day stay of the Pontiff in Cameroon – some of them surely after having pulled their bibles out of the rubble and dusted them for the occasion. Will there be a place for those suffering from AIDS (who’s cause Pope Benedict XVI is so concerned about), the lepers, the handicapped, the poor, the unemployed youths, the prisoners or simply put the downtrodden or the neglected of the country to come in close contact with the Pope as a source of hope as was the case during Christ’s mission on earth?
The national media and the politicians will strive to use the visit for scoring political points. I am not trying to be cynical or downplay the importance and the impact of this third visit of the Head of the Catholic Church to the country. It could help to touch and soften hardened hearts of some of Cameroon’s leaders if they so do wish. There is always room for a new beginning.
We have learnt through the media of how corruption, favouritism and patronage have eaten deep into the fabric of Cameroon leadership; how at a time the country is classified as one of the poorest in the world, the leaders in the legislative arm of government (national assembly) of the country are greedily seeking to guarantee feeding fat off the system both in active service and at their retirement; how leadership is ageing (the majority of those in authority in Cameroon are aged around 70) and the old guard is stubbornly hanging on to power while the young and youthful (‘leaders of tomorrow’, they say) are searching far and wide for subsistence and a deserved space under the sun.
The long queues at the US and British Embassies for Visas are eloquent proof of this quest to move on even if it means leaping into the dark.
The brain drain continues and the country is thus deprived of a much needed active age group to drive forward its development efforts. There are lots of Cameroonians in the Diaspora anxious to be part of their country’s development process but bottlenecks and political positioning make it difficult for them to chip in their expertise.
In my opinion and I hope it is shared by the visiting Pope, preparations for his visit would have had more meaning and impact if instead of laying emphasises on the outward beauty of Cameroon during the visit, there was a deeper cleansing of all the vices (corruption, squandering of state revenue, patronage, favouritism, human rights abuse, high-handed suppression of freedom of expression, misuse of the forces of law and order, political victimisation etc.) imbued in the hearts and systems of the leaders of the country in preparation for the coming of the man of God.
Maybe in passing mention should be made here of the fact that Cameroon has witnessed the assassination of Catholic priests and the religious in mysterious circumstances in years gone by and to this day no one has been brought to book for the killings. I just hope the Pope will be third time lucky to change the way of thinking as well as the ‘façon de faire’ of the leadership of Cameroon in particular and the entire continent in general.
Will they (leaders) be ready to make an effort for change in the right direction and thus open up their hearts to let the Saviour in? We can only hope and wait and wait and hope, or else it will be business as usual and when the dust of this visit settles, the nightmare of the vices standing in the way of meaningful development of the continent, will be staring at us in the face.
