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French police to investigate Paul Pogba’s claims of extortion

29, August 2022

French police to investigate Paul Pogba’s claims of extortion 0

French police have opened an investigation into World Cup winner Paul Pogba’s claims he is being threatened and targeted for extortion by gangsters, a source close to the case told AFP on Sunday.

Pogba’s allegations came after his brother Mathias published a bizarre video online — in four languages (French, Italian, English and Spanish) — promising “great revelations” about the Juventus star.

A statement signed by his lawyers, his mother Yeo Moriba and current agent Rafaela Pimenta said that the videos published on Saturday night “are unfortunately no surprise”. “They are in addition to threats and extortion attempts by an organised gang against Paul Pogba,” read the statement.

“The competent bodies in Italy and France were informed a month ago and there will be no further comments in relation to the ongoing investigation.” Mathias Pogba, 32, promised “great revelations about (his) brother Paul Pogba and his agent Rafaela Pimenta”, who took over as head of the company of former agent Mino Raiola who died in April.

He said the “whole world, as well as my brother’s fans, and even more so the French team and Juventus, my brother’s team-mates and his sponsors deserve to know certain things”. Also a professional footballer, Mathias Pogba said people needed to know what he knew in order to judge whether his brother “deserves his place in the French team and the honour of playing in the World Cup. If he deserves to be a starter at Juventus.”

“All this is likely to be explosive,” he concluded without adding any substance to his “revelations”. According to two sources close to the Pogba family contacted by AFP, large sums of money are being demanded from Paul Pogba if he wants to avoid the dissemination of the allegedly compromising videos.

Paul Pogba, who won the World Cup with France in 2018, returned to Juventus on a free transfer this summer after six years at Manchester United, and is currently sidelined with a knee injury. The 29-year-old is expected to return to action next month.

Source: AFP

Southern Cameroons Crisis: 2 Cameroon gov’t soldiers killed in Mbot ambush

29, August 2022

Southern Cameroons Crisis: 2 Cameroon gov’t soldiers killed in Mbot ambush 0

At least two Cameroon government soldiers were killed early Saturday by Ambazonia fighters in the Northwest region, army sources said.

Separatist fighters ambushed and attacked the soldiers in Mbot village of the region, according to a local army official who declined to be named.

“The soldiers were riding on a motorcycle when they were waylaid and shot at by the separatist terrorists. The motorcyclist who was transporting them was also killed in the attack,” the official said and added that army reinforcement was in pursuit of the fighters.

Since 2017, separatist fighters seeking to establish an independent state in these regions have been clashing with government forces in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions, Northwest and Southwest.

Source: Xinhuanet

Why God Must Not Be Set Aside

29, August 2022

Why God Must Not Be Set Aside 0

“There is no saint without a past; there is no sinner without a future” Meditations on the Life of Augustine of Hippo (AD 354 – 430)

I love the month of August, for particular reasons: It is the month of my birth, but more importantly, August is the month of my favorite saint, Augustine of Hippo (August 28). His feast day is preceded by that of his mother, Monica (August 27). And this particular August, I had the great joy of baptizing my niece, Mariette, a very promising young girl. I have repeatedly said to a few close friends that during the liturgy of my Christian burial, I would love two texts to be placed on my casket: the Bible and my Loeb’s Classical Library version of Augustine’s The Confessions. I stopped keeping count on the number of times that I have read Augustine’s Confessions. It is the one text that have accompanied much of my intellectual maturation and career. Why I am here? What is the purpose of life? What is the purpose of suffering? What is the source of everything? What does it mean to love and be loved? Can the bliss in sexual expression bring about complete human fulfillment? (Plato’s Symposium and Benedict XVI’s Deus Caritas Est). Is there a relationship and if there is, what is it, between love, sex and friendship? Why is love and its expression the defining quality of human life – amor meus, pondus meum, wrote Augustine. What does it mean for the human being to be free? And above all, Who is God? Does God know me? Is God interested in me? Am I seeking God or is God the first to go in search of me? These, and more, are some of the questions that characterize Augustine’s Confessions.

Greek philosophy grappled with the question of the meaning of life from the perspective of understanding the source of everything. The Pre-Socratics, heavily cosmological, gave different answers: water, air, fire, boundless or the unlimited, animated by two forces, love and hate; and change or no change: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Parmenides. I have often marveled at how close the Pre-Socratics came in getting the correct sacramental symbols that would thousands of years later, mark Christian initiation: Thales’ water (Baptism); Anaximander’s “boundless or unlimited” and Anaximenes’s “air” (could very well correspond with the Holy Spirit’s presence at Confirmation); and the same could be said about the Heraclitean fire. But that might be stretching the significance of ancient Greek philosophy a little bit too much! 

What is of consequence is that humans have always sought to resolve the question of their purpose in this world, and religion has played a crucial role in this dilemma. One can only think of Kenjo Jumbam’s The White Man of God or Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Both portray the dramatic tension that characterizes this question in the light of a clash of religions and civilizations. When we understand the meaning of our existence, even if not fully, such a consciousness has a profound implication on how we continue to live, as Viktor E. Frankl demonstrates in his Holocaust-survivor retrospections, Man’s Search for Meaning. In summation, and here Frankl cites my German friend Nietzsche, “he who has a why to live for can bear almost any how” (p. 104). Let us return, once again, to Augustine.

As my great teacher of Augustine at Boston College, Peter Kreeft, himself, a little Augustine, a little Aquinas and a little Lewis, often repeated, Augustine is the first modern and contemporary philosopher, for when Augustine uses “I,” it is in the sense in which contemporaries use “I,” – but only without the egoism of contemporary culture. Augustine remains a figure too interesting to be ignored. You can either admire him and esteem and appreciate his life and work, or you can hold him in scorn and disregard. But it is difficult to completely ignore him all together. On almost all the major themes that have come to define Christianity, the fingerprints of this great bishop of Hippo are noticeable, for good or for ill. He shaped the way Latin Christianity came to see God, politics, war, sin, grace, freewill, psychology and the practice of religion. At his death, he left behind over 5 million words of writings. 

Amongst his writings, Augustine wrote three histories that will never go out of relevance: the history of God (De Trinitate); the history of the world (De Civitate Dei); and the history of man and woman (De Confessiones). Only an Augustine could have thought of writing a history or a somewhat biography of God! But such was Augustine, whom I have come to love profoundly thanks to the path established by Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, a contemporary and living Doctor of the Church from Bavaria. I will focus on Augustine’s history of man and woman, as captured in his Confessions, noticeably different from the two other Confessions that have marked the literary world, namely, The Confessions of Jeremiah as contained in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah; and The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. For now, let us focus on two key passages in Augustine’s Confessions that I believe, fittingly capture his dramatic life and can speak to us today: 

Passage One: “You inspire us to take delight in praising you, for you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” (Confessions, I, I, (1)).This is the most quotable phrase in all of literature outside the Bible. To understand why this is so, we must look at, even briefly, Augustine’s existential itinerary. This phrase of the restless heart speaks to many of us because, in the final analysis, we see ourselves in Augustine. In my opinion and that of many persons more intelligent, that explains why Augustine commands so much attraction. He is like us. He is like me. His story is my story: of sin, brokenness, estrangement, and yet, of forgiveness and return. He grew up a young man in Thagaste (present day Algeria), under a pagan father and a very pious mother. Augustine, like many a contemporary young person, was attracted to the delights of sensual pleasure and fame. His various trappings reveal a youth bent on exploring all that life has to offer. And yet, as Augustine would notice, in the delights that enslaved him, what he was really seeking was love, who’s most fulfilling form is God. 

Fame, power, money, knowledge, sexual gratifications did not satisfy Augustine’s soul. There was always what Blondel later characterized as the wedge between the willing will and the willed will. The more indulgent Augustine became, the more he realized that he was chasing shadows. Augustine had his back against the wall. He could either ignore the emptiness or void within him and go on living as if that void was not there; or, he could face the music and say, I have tried all else, I need help! 

If there is one thing that Augustine was incapable of, it was self-deceit. Augustine could not lie. And so, at this point, seeing the futility in everything, Augustine cries out from the depth of his soul: “I have made myself into a barren land” (Confessions, II, 10, (18). Long story short, Augustine, following a religious experience reminiscent of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, allows himself to be taken over by God. He had spent a greater part of his previous years searching for meaning. And now, he finally comes to the realization that rhetoric, fame, money, power and sex cannot make him happy, if these are severed from God. It is only in God that these human desires and manifestations attain their true meaning and deepest potentials. In effect, Augustine arrives at the realization that no created reality can fulfill the deepest yearnings of his soul. Without God, even the best of pleasurable encounters left him feeling empty. Why? Because God made us for God’s self, and nothing less than the very Divine life can satisfy the human soul. This is an a posteriori realization that is both penitential and yet, liberating: only in and with God do I find the true meaning of my existence. Every other choice continues to leave my heart restless. 

Passage Two: Hence, it is precisely the realization of the barren land that becomes a fertile ground for the new Augustine. As Ratzinger points out while reflecting on Augustine, every conversion is a new beginning for the Bishop of Hippo. Augustine, under the light of truth, arrives at the retrospective consciousness that every saint has a past, and every sinner, a

future: “Late have I loved you, O Beauty, so ancient and so new, late have I loved you. And see, You were within, and I was in the external world and sought You there, and in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely, created things that you made. You were with me, and I was not with You. (Confessions, X, 27, (38)). Augustine is now at a point in which he allows himself to be found by God. While initially Augustine might have thought that his restless heart was he seeking God, at this second layer of consciousness, Augustine arrives at another new discovery: It was not Augustine that was seeking God. It was God seeking Augustine, unbeknownst to him. God’s love for Augustine predated Augustine’s waywardness and estrangement from God – Seroteamavi. God’s love for Augustine never withered, even when Augustine was consumed by sin. While Augustine was carried away by external delights, God was busy working within in Augustine’s soul, pulling Augustine towards Himself. As Ratzinger poetically pointed out in the homily inaugurating his pontificate in 2005, we suffer on account of God’s love, for the world is saved by the patience of God and destroyed by the impatience of men and women. 

What do these two texts, restless hearts and the realization that God was within and Augustine, without, teach us? Firstly, they tell us that to find God is to find myself. That was Augustine’s great discovery. God does not deprive me of what makes my life beautiful, true and good. If anything, finding God brings me to the fullest realization of who I am, of my purpose and the meaning of my life. If this Augustinian conviction is true, namely, that by finding God I end up finding myself, then it follows that to set God aside is an injustice against man and woman. It deprives us of a depth and breadth that encountering God opens us to. To find God is to allow my small agendas to be broken into by the ocean of God’s power, which is love. Finally, we can resolve the Socratic puzzle: Man, know thyself! I know myself when I know God, and I know God when I know myself, for God has created me for God, and only in God can I find the meaning of my life. Secondly, with Augustine, I make another great discovery: I was not the one seeking God, after all. It was God seeking me. I have personally found that so consoling, so empowering, and so encouraging: Maurice, you have not been the architect. God has been, all along, even when you were not conscious of it. God has been the one seeking you, from birth in Mamfe till the present in Boston. God has been there all along, even when you made choices against God, embracing a life of sin. God has been searching for you, offering you a future, for, to cite Augustine again, there is no saint without a past, and there is no sinner without a future. 

As we celebrate the feast day of St Augustine today, August 28th 2022, may his example serve as an inspiration to us, that only God can satisfy the longings of the human heart, and that God’s love is so much that every sinner has a future, myself inclusive, if only I but turn to God for mercy, for, as Augustine again wrote, do not despair, one of the thieves was saved; do not presume, one of the thieves was condemned. St. Augustine of Hippo, pray for each one of us, for our world, and for our Holy Mother the Church, she, the Daughter of Zion. Pray for us not to set God aside for what appears to be other pressing concerns, for, as your life teaches us, to set God aside eventually ends with us setting ourselves aside. But with God, we have a future. For the sake of human beings, therefore, we must not set God aside, for to do away with God, to postpone entering into a living relationship with God, to delay allowing God to find us, to exclude God because we have more pressing concerns, eventually ends up excluding us and leading us up a Sisyphean hill!

By Fr Maurice A. Agbaw-Ebai  

Pope Francis expands ranks of cardinals in charge of electing new church leader

27, August 2022

Pope Francis expands ranks of cardinals in charge of electing new church leader 0

Pope Francis elevated 20 more churchmen to the rank of cardinal on Saturday, formally expanding those now eligible to vote for his successor in case he dies or resigns — the latter a step he has said he’d consider if the need arises.

Of the churchmen being named new cardinals in the consistory ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica, 16 are younger than 80 and thus eligible to participate in a conclave — the ritual-shrouded, locked-door assembly of cardinals who cast paper ballots to elect a new pontiff.

The 85-year-old Francis has now named 83 of the 132 cardinals currently young enough to join a conclave. The others were appointed by the previous two popes, St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, whose unexpected retirement in 2013 paved the way for Francis to be elected.

With the eight batches of cardinals Francis has named, prospects are boosted that whoever becomes the next pontiff will share his vision for the future of the church.

Francis reminded the cardinals of their mission, which he said includes “an openness to all peoples, to the horizons of the world, to the peripheries as yet unknown.”

Underlining Francis’ attention to those on society’s margins, among the new cardinals is Archbishop Anthony Poola of Hyderabad, India. The prelate, 60, is the first member of the Dalit community, considered the lowest rung of India’s caste system, to become a cardinal.

One by one, the newest cardinals, whose red cassocks and headgear symbolizes the blood they must be prepared to shed if necessary in their mission, knelt before Francis, who placed on their head the prestigious biretta, as the three-peaked hat is known.

That intimate moment was a chance to exchange a few words with Francis, who smiled to put them at ease. At times, the seated Francis, himself hobbled by mobility problems, lent his own arms to help kneeling cardinals stand up.

In choosing San Diego Bishop Robert Walter McElroy, Francis passed over U.S. churchmen leading traditionally more prestigious dioceses, including San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone.

McElroy has been among a minority of American bishops who opposed to a campaign to deny Communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion rights. Cordileone has said he’d no long allow U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to receive Communion for her defense of abortion rights.

While staunchly against abortion as a grave sin, Francis has also decried what he calls the weaponization of Communion.

McElroy last year was also among a small group of U.S. bishops signing a statement denouncing the bullying that is often directed at LGBTQ youth.

Francis has tried to make gay Catholics feel welcome in the church, whose teaching holds that same-sex intercourse is a sin.

Among the newest cardinals is Bishop Richard Kuuia Baawobr from Wa, Ghana, who has spoken out against LGBTQ rights. The African prelate felt ill when he arrived in Rome on Friday and was hospitalized for a heart problem, the pope told the other cardinals, asking them to pray “for this brother who should have been here.”

Asked by The Associated Press about such contrasting views among church leaders, McElroy replied that “there are always cultural differences within the life of the church as there is within in the human family. And different cultures approach these questions in different ways.”

McElroy added: “My own view is that we have an obligation in the church to make the LGBT persons feel equally welcome in the life of the church, as everyone else.”

With electing future pontiffs a key role for cardinals, McElroy, 68, was asked what he thought of Francis’ saying that resignation for popes is a valid option.

“In principle, I think it is a good idea at a particular moment when they feel they can no longer carry the burdens of that office, but I think this pope is far from that moment,” the U.S. prelate said. “I believe he sees himself as far from that moment. What he has is a mobility issue, but it has not affected his mind. I can tell you he is still on top of things.”

Archbishop Ulrich Steiner of Manaus, Brazil, became the first cardinal from the Amazon, the vast, environmentally-vulnerable region in South America on the Argentine-born pontiff’s home continent. In remarks to The AP, Steiner expressed concern about increasing violence in the Amazon.

“But this violence was not born there, it came from outside,” Steiner, 71, said. ”It is always violence related to money. Concessions, deforestation, also with the mines, also with the fishing.”

At 48, the youngest member among the cardinals’ ranks is an Italian missionary in Mongolia, where Catholics number some 1,300. Francis “knows how important it is supporting these little communities,” said the new cardinal, Giorgio Marengo.

Originally, the pope had picked 21 new cardinals. But retired Belgian Bishop Luc Van Looy declined the honor, citing his own inadequate handling of cases of sexually abusive priests while he led the Ghent diocese from 2004-2020.

Source: AP

UNICEF slams Ethiopia air strike that ‘hit kindergarten’

27, August 2022

UNICEF slams Ethiopia air strike that ‘hit kindergarten’ 0

The UN children’s agency UNICEF on Saturday condemned an Ethiopian air strike that “hit a kindergarten” in the rebel-held Tigray region, killing at least four people including two children.

The government denied targeting civilian areas in Friday’s air raid and accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) of staging deaths.

 “UNICEF strongly condemns the air strike …  (that) hit a kindergarten, killing several children, and injuring others,” the agency’s executive director Catherine Russell said on Twitter.

“Yet again, an escalation of violence in northern Ethiopia has caused children to pay the heaviest price. For almost two years, children and their families in the region have endured the agony of this conflict. It must end.”

The bombardment came just days after fighting erupted on Tigray’s southern border between government forces and TPLF rebels, ending a five-month truce and dashing hopes of peace talks.

The TPLF said the air strike, the first in many months on Tigray, demolished a kindergarten and hit a civilian residential area.

The government said only military sites were targeted and accused the TPLF of “dumping fake body bags in civilian areas” to maximise outrage.

Kibrom Gebreselassie, chief clinical director at Mekele’s Ayder Referral Hospital, told AFP four people died in the strike, including two children.

Nine others were receiving treatment for injuries, he said.

Tigrai TV, a local network, said the death toll had reached seven and broadcast footage of mangled playground equipment and a brightly painted compound in ruins at the apparent scene of the strike.

The claims could not be independently verified as access to northern Ethiopia is severely restricted.

‘Respect international law’ 

The EU condemned the strike and called for a peaceful settlement to the 21-month war.

“I urge again for the respect of International Humanitarian Law. Civilians are #NotATarget,” the EU commissioner for crisis management, Janez Lenarcic, said on Twitter.

In March, the UN said at least 304 civilians had been killed in airstrikes in the three months prior in northern Ethiopia.

The UN human rights office has warned that disproportionate attacks against non-military targets could amount to war crimes.

Ethiopia’s air force operates the only known military aircraft over the country’s skies.

A truce in March paused the worst of the bloodshed and allowed aid convoys to return slowly to Tigray, where the UN says millions are severely hungry, and fuel and medicine are in short supply.

But on Wednesday, the warring sides each accused the other of firing first as fresh offensives erupted along Tigray’s southern border.

The flare-up alarmed the international community, which has been pushing both sides to peacefully resolve the war in Africa’s second most populous nation.

The conflict has killed untold numbers, with widespread reports of atrocities including mass killings and sexual violence.

Abiy sent troops into Tigray in November 2020 to topple the TPLF, accusing the region’s former ruling party of orchestrating attacks on federal army camps.

Source: AFP

Of Moderator Fonki Samuel and the numerous PCC scandals: The 19 Questions to the Synod

26, August 2022

Of Moderator Fonki Samuel and the numerous PCC scandals: The 19 Questions to the Synod 0

Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report investigation into Moderator Samuel Fonki is an ongoing investigation by the editorial board of the Concord Group into Mr. Fonki’s handling of the financial and moral scandals that have rocked the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon.

Cameroon Concord News Group now understand from Moderator Fonki’s reactions through Ndi Richard  that it is exactly 22 years today since  PCC Synod Executives and Synod vowed to fight against the reformation of  the PCC  which was embraced by thousands of Christians. After 22 years, we of the Concord Group can testify, that these conmen have waged a war for 22 years against God.

Our cream of investigative journalists have framed 19 questions on behalf of Presbyterians and the general public for Mr. Moderator to answer them accordingly. The office of the Moderator is sacred and public. So, based on your actions since you became Moderator, this research questionnaire will help us understand the way the PCC operates.

If Moderator Fonki Samuel fails to answer these questions within the next two weeks, Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report shall be compelled to put up an obituary announcement on him!

Question One

How much money has the Cameroon Government given to the PCC as subsidies to the PCC schools since you became Moderator in 2015? Can you account for how you , the Education Secretary and Education committee used it  because teachers are angry  about being mistreated , poor pay ,poor working conditions and going for months without pay . Where did the Education Secretary of the PCC get the money to build such a big mansion, which is not even finished? Where is he going to take money to complete and maintain such a big mansion? 

Question Two

How much money do you folks collect from all Presbyterian Schools as school fees from students? How much money does the Health Department of the PCC generate from Health /hospital bills? These include Pressbook, Prescraft, Printing Press and RTC Nfonta and RTC Kumba? PCC is a non -profit organization registered under the Ministry of Territorial Administration. This denomination is not a political party, a social club nor a cultural Association!  Under the non-profit status, the church does not pay taxes to the government. However, the workers are expected to pay their taxes to the government as employees (workers) of the PCC.  

Question three

How much money have you collected from overseas and what have you done with the money? Which are the PCC overseas partners that donated money to the PCC? Please, kindly provide the names of the overseas friends and partners as well as how much money they have donated till date. Also, provide a statement of expenditure of these finances. You claim that you are building infrastructures but were those infrastructures a priority and how did you raise money for those projects and did not use the same method to raise money to solve the problems of teachers? Please, we need to see the letters of correspondences in order to evaluate the content of your requests because from what we in Cameroon Concord News know, you folks use women, children, teachers, the poor and youths to raise money from foreign partners but once the money is sent, you never use it for the purpose for ,which you requested the funds. So, Presbyterians are entitled to know everything about the PCC finances from all angles with respect to what comes as income (budget) and what goes out in terms of expenditure and what is leftover as balance. This is more than auditing. It is about transparency and accountability because PCC is a non-profit organization whereby Presbyterians are stakeholders.   

Question Four

Why do you tax the PCC Congregations? Who are you to tax Christians and congregations? Are you the government? How many types of taxes do you collect from these congregations, Christians and workers? Quite apart from tithing, do you have any scriptures or law that backs your illegal actions? Are you the one who built these congregations? Do you own these congregations and Christians? The PCC was not your vision. It was not your idea and it was not founded by you or your parents. You are controlling Pastors and collecting illegal dues and levies from congregations under what biblical justification?

Commentary

We need to know about the cash flow, budget, expenditures and balances of every department including the various Ministries like CMF, CWF and CYF. You are running the PCC like an animal farm and at the same time you claim the CPDM government is corrupt. If every department of the PCC reports to you, then the question is, what is the function of the Synod as the highest ruling body of the church?

Question Five

You arbitrarily decided to buy a car for about 60 million FCFA because you are the Moderator! Who gave you such powers to abuse church finances? Please, provide the receipts of the price you paid for the Cars you drive, taxes, insurance, maintenances like fuel etc. Please, also provide the receipts of all the cars driven by the Secretaries  of various Departments of the PCC like Education, Health Care, Communication Secretary, Committee of the Ministry , Synod Clerk , Presbook, Prescraft etc How did you come up with the budget to buy such expensive cars for yourself and who approved the budget? Did the General Assembly (Synod of the PCC) approve the budget for your cars? Do you have the minutes? Is there a written policy on operating motor vehicles in the PCC?

The Moderator is “First among Equals” and not a King. So, how come you look down on other Pastors and living above your means while your colleagues are barely surviving? Your greed is alarming because people who live above their means are thieves. They have to steal and maintain the statusquo in order to keep up, which is exactly what you have been doing with your club of illegal shareholders. Do you understand the meaning of “first among equals”?

Question Six

 You do not own the PCC.  You never founded the PCC.

Who are you to claim that you are the Proprietor of Schools and CEO of the PCC? You are a Pastor and was offered the position of Moderator and how come you now claim CEO, which is the basis on which you are paying yourself 1.5 million francs Cfa? In what committee was this decision reached? Do you have the minutes so we can review? Who are the various committee members of the all the businesses of PCC. Please, provide all the names of those who make up the Education Committee, Health Committee, Pressbook Committee, Presscraft and their salaries and benefits.

Question Seven

You are just a Pastor called to special function to lead the rest of the Pastors. Who are you to be appointing Pastors and Presbyterial Secretaries to Congregations? Are you the one who pay these Pastors?

Question Eight

Who are you to close down Presbyterian Primary Schools and dismiss teachers? Who are you to go to such length inside a non- profit organization? Are you the one who created the schools? Did the General Assembly of the PCC (SYNOD) discuss and voted to close down schools?  

Question Nine

Why are you sowing seeds of confusion in the PCC congregations by imposing Pastors of your special club on Christians when they do not want them? Who are you to decide for the congregations? Do you have the right under the Presbyterian system to decide for the congregations?

Commentary

The congregations are the ones who select their Pastors in consultation and collaboration with the Committee of the Ministry where you are a member and perhaps chair. That does not mean you own these pastors and Christians. The church and Christians are owned by Jesus Christ who is the head of the church. You do not pay the Pastors. The congregations pay their Pastors. These Pastors are accountable to the congregations and not to you and your selfish Synod Office. In the event of a crisis, there is due process in conflict resolution that ensures accountability and transparency in leadership and management.

The congregations have the right to keep their Pastor as long as they want if they love him or her. They have the right to expand their congregations, plant and develop more congregations and hire more Pastors. The congregations have the right to terminate the services of a Pastor if they no longer want his or her services and to look for a replacement. The pastors report to the congregations and not to the Moderator or Synod Clerk. The Moderator and Synod Clerk do not pay the Pastors. 

Question Ten

Why are you tossing Pastors left and right in the name of transfers? You use transfer as a punitive weapon to retaliate against your critics including Pastors who do not collect enough taxes as well as give you special envelops. Do you transfer every Pastor? How much money do you request from Pastors as a special envelop? How much have you collected since you became Moderator? You want every congregation to give a special envelop whereas you already have a salary. You are dictating on these congregations through the clique you set up in every session of the congregation how much they should pay to you. In the PCC USA is the same thing you are doing and everywhere you stress up the people while you and your crime syndicate embezzle money in the name of Moderator’s visit. Your pastoral visits end up with more problems.

Commentary 

Pastors are frustrated about how you treat most of them with unnecessary stressful transfers and financial demands. Yet you have your club of friends whom are untouchable and planted in wealthy oriented congregations forever because of favoritism and tribalism. Presbyterianism is based on self – governance starting at the level of congregations to the Presbyteries and Synod. Do you really understand the pastoral functions of a Moderator because you never cite scriptures in any of your letters to Pastors? Presbyterians train their Pastors. They donate money to train their Pastors including you and if any funds are donated from overseas it must be reported and accounted for. The schools are managed and run by Presbyterian congregations, Presbyteries and Synod as part of the social justice ministry. So too are other departments like Health, Agriculture Pressbook , Prescraft, Printing Press etc 

Question 11

Teachers have been calling out on you about their pay and working conditions!  There are documents, which show that these problems where created by you. Did you ask the synod when you were closing down PCC schools? Do you think the parents and children of those schools you closed are happy? If Basel Missionaries did not come to Cameroon, would you be driving in an expensive car and living in big mansions? Where have you kept your sense of empathy and gratitude as a Pastor? Why is it that you don’t pay the salaries of teachers and yet you have money all over the PCC?  The way you mistreat your colleagues in the ministry is horrifying. You have forgotten that some of these Pastors, teachers and Christians nurtured and fed you in your village in Akwaya. You close down schools for children in a period in history when education is seen as the cornerstone of self-development and pursuit of “life, liberty and happiness”?

Question Twelve

Rev Fonki Samuel what effort have you ever made as a Pastor to solve any of the problems plaguing the PCC? Instead you hypocritically created your deceitful “Peace & Justice Center” when you are one of the most unjust and corrupt men now living! Do you think the Cameroon government can even listen to you about dialogue and peace when they know you are a corrupt dictator within the PCC? 

Commentary

Your case is sad because you are the Moderator. You glitter in your own lies because you have your propaganda machine to help spread your lies about who you are not. You have transformed the PCC into a dungeon of despair when it was really supposed to be a community loving people flourishing. When people are very serious about finding solutions to real life threatening problems you quickly resort to elections and dismissal. Instead of stepping forward to address these problems responsibly you throw mud at those you accuse of throwing mud at you.

Question Thirteen

Have you ever reflected over the fact that your colleagues in the PCC ministry are scared of you?  Has anyone ever told you that you are seen as a monster tyrant who is out to axe anyone who challenges you? As a Pastor do you really go to bed each time and feel good about yourself? Do you really have a conversation with your wife and can boast that you are a servant of God when people are afraid of you especially your “colleagues” in ministry?

Question fourteen

You Rev Samuel Fonki  is the man with the fattest and largest cross ✝️ across your neck and chest when you have no mercy, grace, empathy, compassion and love for God’s people? Why could you not copy the examples of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Dietrich Bonheoffer, Cardinal Tumi and Martin Luther King Jr who stood on the side of the oppressed, downtrodden, poor and the afflicted?  They could never allow the regime to invade and destroy our communities, displaced thousands of women and children under their watch. What happened to you that you presided over the regime cracking down on innocent civilians? 

Question Fifteen

Do you really understand the context in which Presbyterianism was founded? Did you study the church history of the Presbyterian Church with respect to theology; doctrine and polity (Presbyterian belief system) while a student at PTS?   

Question Sixteen

Do you have any charitable and humanitarian programs in the PCC that provide charitable and humanitarian services to Presbyterians, Cameroonian citizens, strangers, foreigners afflicted and living in poverty? What programs in the PCC provide assistance to Presbyterians, who are sick and cannot afford medical care, medical bills, cannot send their children to PCC schools etc? Do the Pastors of the PCC have the same benefits you have and if not, why? What about widows, how do you treat widows in the PCC? What did you do when Rev Akih Mathias whom you appointed as the Coordinator of the CARE TAKER COMMITTEE OF PCC USA suspended one Elder of the PC Beltsville, Maryland in the USA for raising $4000.00 with the CWF EXCO for humanitarian assistance to women and children suffering in Cameroon? This is the case where Pastoral care was required. Instead you suspended her and then dissolved the EXCO. The elder you suspended is a widow and in spite of that she comes up with an initiative to help others. Now you suspend her and the Exco in order to steal the $ 4000.00. Did you look after the widow and her humanitarian project to help orphans?

Question Seventeen

Rev Fonki Samuel you asserted through your spokesperson Ndi Richard that Rev Jonathan Awasom was dismissed from the PCC as a foster son of his uncle late Moderator Rev H.A Awasom. Do you folks have any birth document that proves that he is a foster child of Moderator Rev H A Awasom?  We will appreciate if such a document or detail information about this be made public to all Presbyterians because it sounds like blackmail and defamation.

You also asserted that he was dismissed. Please, do you have any document that shows that the Synod of the PCC which is the highest ruling body of the PCC voted in majority to dismiss him for publishing 100 theses to reform the PCC? Do you have any evidence that shows the Synod Executive Committee of the PCC in 1999 invited him to defend his actions before them? Do you have any evidence that he was summoned by the Synod Body to defend himself?

Question eighteen 

How will you feel if the President of Cameroon or any other country appoints his unqualified and inexperienced wife the Minister of Communication? What criteria did you use to appoint your wife, PCC Communication Secretary? So what happened to the family that you sacked as Communication Secretary and replaced them with your family? You have a budget and your wife has a budget.  Is this based on qualification and competence?

Question Nineteen

In terms of conflicts at the level of the congregations, you instructed the Secretary of the Committee of the Ministry of the PCC not to intervene in the conflict in the PCC USA! Why did you prohibit another Pastor from performing his pastoral duties? So, what happens if there is no Fonki? How is it possible that one man could be all over the place? How is it possible that you could solve all the problems of the PCC without collaboration and support from your colleagues?

Over to you Moderator Fonki Samuel

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, Isong Asu and Rita Akana

Southern Cameroons Crisis: IG censures Yaoundé’s recent heinous crimes in Belo, Ndop and Chomba

25, August 2022

Southern Cameroons Crisis: IG censures Yaoundé’s recent heinous crimes in Belo, Ndop and Chomba 0

The Department of Foreign Affairs of the Ambazonia Interim Government has denounced the recent killing of ten Southern Cameroonians as documented by Human Rights Watch.

The ten Southern Cameroonians were reportedly killed by several bullets after Cameroon government forces violently broke into homes in Belo, Chomba, Missong and Ndop in the North West region.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the killings were all extrajudicial and premeditated assassinations.

The Ambazonia Interim Government statement noted that “The killings in Belo, Chomba, Missong and Ndop are an extension of the series of executions and field assassinations committed by Francophone army soldiers on instructions from Yaoundé.”

The IG statement furthered that the French Cameroun troops committed the crimes in a heinous manner justifying the complete and total absence of international protection for the people of Southern Cameroons and the international community’s disregard for the crimes of the Francophone soldiers, the murder and assassinations that go on daily without any accountability or trial.

The Ambazonia Interim Government said the Francophone soldiers did not even try to arrest the Southern Cameroonians, but rather broke into their homes with the intention to kill them.

Cameroon Intelligence Report sources hinted that the ten Southern Cameroonians were shot point-blank with a live round as they opened their doors. The Francophone soldiers then forced their way into the houses and ransacked the buildings. Six other Southern Cameroonians who were wounded during the raids in Belo were left bleeding on the ground.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files

US: Biden announces student loan forgiveness plan

25, August 2022

US: Biden announces student loan forgiveness plan 0

President Joe Biden said on Wednesday the U.S. government will forgive $10,000 in student loans for millions of debt-saddled former college students, keeping a pledge he made in the 2020 campaign for the White House.

The move could boost support for his fellow Democrats in the November congressional elections, but some economists said it may fuel inflation and some Republicans in the U.S. Congress questioned whether the president had the legal authority to cancel the debt.

Debt forgiveness will free up hundreds of billions of dollars for new consumer spending that could be aimed at homebuying and other big-ticket expenses, according to economists who said this would add a new wrinkle to the country’s inflation fight.

The actions are “for families that need them the most – working and middle class people hit especially hard during the pandemic,” Biden said during remarks at the White House. He pledged no high-income households would benefit, addressing a central criticism of the plan.

“I will never apologise for helping working Americans and middle class, especially not to the same folks who voted for a $2 trillion tax cut that mainly benefited the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations,” Biden said, referring to a Republican tax cut passed under former President Donald Trump.

Borrower balances have been frozen since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, with no payments required on most federal student loans since March 2020. Many Democrats had pushed for Biden to forgive as much as $50,000 per borrower.

Republicans mostly opposed student loan forgiveness, calling it unfair because it will disproportionately help people earning higher incomes.

“President Biden’s student loan socialism is a slap in the face to every family who sacrificed to save for college, every graduate who paid their debt, and every American who chose a certain career path or volunteered to serve in our Armed Forces in order to avoid taking on debt,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday.

The administration has yet to determine the price tag for the package, which will depend on how many people apply for it, White House domestic policy adviser Susan Rice told reporters. Student loans obtained after June 30 this year are not eligible, she said.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters the administration has legal authority to forgive the debt under a law allowing such action during a national emergency such as a pandemic. Earlier, Republican U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik had called the plan “reckless and illegal.”

American university tuition fees are substantially higher than in most other rich countries, and U.S. consumers carry $1.75 trillion in student loan debt, most of it held by the federal government. Biden said other countries could bypass the United States economically if students are not offered economic relief.

Pandemic pause

The administration will extend a COVID-19 pandemic-linked pause on student loan repayment to year end, while forgiving $10,000 in student debt for single borrowers with annual income under $125,000 a year or married couples who earn less than $250,000, the White House said.

Some 8 million borrowers will be affected automatically, the Department of Education said; others need to apply for forgiveness.

The government is also forgiving up to $20,000 in debt for some 6 million students from low-income families who received federal Pell Grants, and proposing a new rule that protects some income from repayment plans and forgives some loan balances after 10 years of repayment, the Education Department said.

A New York Federal Reserve study shows that cutting $10,000 in federal debt for every student would amount to $321 billion and eliminate the entire balance for 11.8 million borrowers, or 31% of them.

Inflation impact

A senior Biden administration official told reporters the plan could benefit up to 43 million student borrowers, completely canceling the debt for some 20 million.

After Dec. 31, the government will resume requiring payment on remaining student loans that were paused during the pandemic. The official said this would offset any inflationary effects of the forgiveness. Payment resumptions could even have a dampening effect on prices, the official said.

Former U.S. Treasury secretary Larry Summers disagreed. He said on Twitter that debt relief “consumes resources that could be better used helping those who did not, for whatever reason, have the chance to attend college. It will also tend to be inflationary by raising tuitions.”

Similarly Jason Furman, a Harvard professor who headed the Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration, said debt-cancellation would nullify the deflationary powers of the Inflation Reduction Act. “Pouring roughly half trillion dollars of gasoline on the inflationary fire that is already burning is reckless,” he said.

Moody’s analytics chief economist Mark Zandi sided with the White House, saying the resumption of billions of dollars per month in student loan payments “will restrain growth and is disinflationary.”

Source: REUTERS

Football: Barcelona loan injury-plagued Umtiti to Lecce

25, August 2022

Football: Barcelona loan injury-plagued Umtiti to Lecce 0

French international Samuel Umtiti bedevilled by injuries and a loss of form since winning the 2018 World Cup has been sent on a season long loan to Serie A side Lecce by Barcelona.

The 28-year-old defender is due to undergo a medical later on Thursday at Lecce, who won Serie B title last season.

“Barcelona and Lecce of Italian Serie A have reached an agreement on the loan of defender Samuel Umtiti until 30 June 2023,” read a statement on the Barcelona website.

“There is no purchase option.”

Spanish sports paper Marca reported that Lecce and Barcelona will share his salary, but that Barca will get bonus payments depending on games played.

Umtiti was one of the players Barcelona wished to offload before the end of the transfer window on September 1 so they get under the pay cap and register new signing Jules Kounde.

Umtiti played an important role in France’s World Cup triumph despite a troublesome knee. He scored the only goal in the semi-final win over Belgium.

A succession of injuries saw him fall down the pecking order at Barcelona and last season played just once in December.

In January, he underwent an operation on a broken foot and in his six years since joining from Lyon, Unmtiti has played just 133 times for Barcelona, scoring twice.

He still managed to win seven trophies including two Liga titles and three Copas del Rey.

His international career has suffered too. He made the last of his 31 appearances in a 2-0 loss to Turkey in 2019.

Lecce have lost their first two matches since their return to the elite for their 17th season in Serie A.

Source: AFP

Boko Haram Crisis: Biya regime partners Borno Govt in Nigeria for repatriation of refugees

24, August 2022

Boko Haram Crisis: Biya regime partners Borno Govt in Nigeria for repatriation of refugees 0

Cameroonian Government in partnership with Borno State Government have embarked on a strategic approach to ensure repatriation of thousands of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs taking refuge in some parts of Minawawo camp.

This was disclosed on Tuesday by the Governor of Far -North Region of Cameroon, Mr Midjiyawa Bakari, who is also the sitting Executive Secretary of the Forum of Governors of Member States of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, LCBC, while he led a 19-member delegation including representatives of International Non- Governmental Organisations, INGOs on a courtesy call on governor Babagana Zulum of Borno state.

Bakari said, they were in Borno as part of bilateral cooperation to ensure restoration of peace and civil authority in some parts of the communities ravaged by insurgents in the region, which has left thousands of innocent civilians homeless, without means of livelihood in the past seven (7) years.

“It is a singular honour and a privilege for me to take the floor this day in Maiduguri, capital of the Borno State, in my capacity as the Sitting Executive Secretary of the Forum of Governors of Member States of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, on the occasion of my working visit to member States of the said Commission.

“Let me first of all use this opportunity to express my gratitude to the Governor of Borno State, His Excellency, Professor Babagana Zulum and to the Nigerian people of Borno State for their warm and hilarious welcome that was given to me and my delegation since our arrival on Monday.

“I would also want to express my very profound gratitude and my

recognition to His Excellencies Muhammadu Buhari and Paul Biya, Presidents of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Republic of Cameroon, respectively, for their magnanimity and very high sense of clairvoyance in authorising this working visit.

“Their personal engagement in the fight against transborder insecurity in the Lake Chad Basin, attachment to the ideals of peace and durable development have remained major sacred challenges.

“Let me also use this opportunity to magnify the quality of relations which characterise the good neighbourliness between the Far North Region of Cameroon and the Federated State of Borno, sharing a common border, signifying the similitude of security challenges, economic growth and sustainable development, which led to the peaceful repatriation of about 5,000 refugees from Cameroun back to Banki community of Borno state last year.

“The main object of our working visit comes as a follow-up to the resolutions of the last Session of the Forum of Governors of Member States of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, which took place from the 4th to the 5th of October 2021, in Yaounde (Cameroon).

“During this forum, I solemnly took the engagement to follow up in each member State, Region and Province of the Basin of Lake Chad, the putting in place of priority actions of our Territorial Actions Plans (TAPS), that were presented to our development partners, validated and sanctioned in the Final Communiqué.

“It is therefore an opportunity for me, as announced earlier, to see the reality of the realisations and acquaint myself with the realities in the field, the challenges encountered, so that together we can know our strengths and weaknesses.

“Recall that the region has faceda global menace, and there should be a global action and common strategies to combat it.

“It is not a secret to anyone here that the Far North Region of Cameroon, and the Federated State of Borno in the Federal Republic of Nigeria share certain common preoccupations, whether in the humanitarian, security or socio-economic domains.

“The present working visit will give us the occasion to present the Transborder Security Context and the Perspectives of the Synergy of operations.” Bakari stated.

He added that, the meeting will present the perspectives of ameliorating transborder cooperation in the management of ex-associates and ex-fighters of Boko Haram and the problematic of transitional justice and the procedure of the repatriation of ex-fighters of Boko Haram after executing their prison terms.

Beside, Bakari said, “The Challenges of autonomisation of the women, in view of their effective participation in the process of stabilisation; – The progress made in relation to Joint Transborder Territorial Action Plans and the perspectives of consolidation of acheivements; – The situation of Nigerian refugees in the Far North Region, internally displaced persons and the perspectives of repatriation would take the centre stage of discussions.

“The mutualisation of our visions and approaches for sustainable solutions to our preoccupations, necessitates the present initiative whose final objective resides in the need for a synergy of actions, to mutually achieve beneficial results, notably the complete eradication of the nebulous Sect, Boko Haram.” He said.

Responding, Governor Zulum of Borno state, commended Bakari for the visit, and pledged that his administration will continue to give maximum support and cooperation to find a lasting and durable solution to the over decade crisis.

Zulum said, since the displacement of people living in the shores of the lake Chad, Borno people taking refuge in Cameroun, Niger and Chad Republic are treated in good manner, and is very encouraging.

“On behalf of the Government and people of Borno state, i commend His Excellency Mr. Bakari for the visit, and i assure you of my administration’s resolve to continue give maximum support and cooperation in order to find a lasting and durable solution to the over decade crisis.

” Since the displacement of thousands of innocent people living in the shores of the lake Chad, Borno people taking refuge in Cameroun, Niger and Chad Republic are treated in good manner, and is very encouraging.

“Last year, when we repatriated our refugees back to Banki community in Bama local Government area, Camerounion Government through your good office as Governor and Far-North Region has assisted us with over 100 vehicles, with food and non-food items which helped in the stabilization and restoration of their means of livelihood.

“The crisis in the region is enormous that requires enough resources to mitigate, and with the improved peace, we call on all and sundry to come to our aid in this trying moment.

“I am hopeful this Technical Review Meeting, TRM will usher a new course for strengthening our Internal reintegration, enhance border security and reopen markets for sustainable development”. Zulum stated.

Culled from Vanguard

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