2, April 2020
Coronavirus, African Imams and Men of God: The New Trinity 0
The coronavirus remains on course to inflict uncountable health and economic damage the world over. It’s a resistible force of nature that is keeping most of the world up at night. Numerous elements have come together to help the virus spread unchallenged and it has claimed over 47,521 lives around the globe.
Immediately science and technology accumulated enough data about the virus, broad recommendations were set out to slow its spread while research laboratories went to work for a cure or vaccine. The determination of COVID-19 is being matched by that of world leaders and scientists.
Social distancing is the foremost measure imposed and encouraged by political leaders and experts all over the planet. So far, statistics suggest that the curve is flattening in many parts of the world. To curb the spread of the pandemic, the population has a role to play which is simply following government and medical directives. It is here that the current absurdity of religious fanaticism in Africa comes into play.
Cameroon Concord News Group believes that many pastors and religious clergies in Africa are putting the lives of their followers at risk in seeking to start the age-old God versus science squabble game in the middle of a global crisis. Insisting on holding church services at this time in defiance of scientific and government guidance is reckless and very dangerous.
Science and religion are two sides of the same deep human impulse to comprehend our universe. Embracing both helps mankind in understanding our place in it and to marvel at the wonder of life and the infinite universe we are surrounded by. Let’s keep them that way, and not let one usurp the role of the other.
The actions of some of our religious leaders during this coronavirus pandemic in leading vulnerable and gullible people into early graves are completely unacceptable. The denial of science amongst Christian and Muslims fundamentalists now haunts countries in the Sub-Saharan region.
In professing to be wise, by their actions and denials of the ferociousness of the coronavirus, our Imams and men of God, are becoming fools because this global killer knows no race, age, social status, religious beliefs nor borders. The number of avoidable fatalities in Africa is rising at catastrophic rapidity as people continue to ignore social distancing guidance and mindful of Africa’s poor record keeping history, the full extent of the damage will never be known.
Today, it is difficult in Cameroon, Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, Chad and Equatorial Guinea to differentiate people with COVID-19 and a common flu as many have mild symptoms like tiredness, fever and dry cough. Consequently, a person may be carrying and transmitting the virus without any knowledge. The virus is particularly aggressive among the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions resulting in a higher death rate amongst this group. Armed with these facts, Cameroon Concord News Group believes that any responsible religious leader would instruct his followers to adhere to social distancing for their own good.
Churches and Mosques in nations that started Islam and Christianity have all shut down in line with government policy. But those in Sub-Saharan Africa are still operating claiming that their leaders have the backing of the Holy Spirit and Prophet Mohammed. This is going on in areas with little or no healthcare system and ventilators.
The evidence is prodigious that Christians and Muslims fundamentalist leaders in Sub-Saharan Africa have considerable power in society with millions of followers that can never be challenged especially during a pandemic.
Cameroon Concord News Group including thousands of our readers is caught in a state of disbelief! What kind of religious beliefs could propel church leaders in the 21st century to challenge scientific evidence when thousands are dying?
This hostility to science will deplete thousands in Africa over the next few weeks. Correspondingly, we of this publication salute the Ugandan government decision to arrest three Roman Catholic priests last Sunday for celebrating Mass publicly, in alleged defiance of government orders banning religious gatherings during the pandemic.
Isong Asu
London Bureau Chief
4, April 2020
West shields Biya from coronavirus, but not his CPDM regime 0
The West through the American ambassador to Cameroon, Peter Henry Barlerin moved decisively and cautioned the 87 year old Paul Biya of the dangers posed by the coronavirus to people of Biya’s age and advised the regime in Yaoundé to adopt a tough and more rigid response to the pandemic. Biya was rushed immediately to Mvomeka’a and since then nothing has been heard about the French Cameroun head of state.
Biya’s minister, Gregoire Owona and senior members of parliament reportedly mixed with the National Assembly Speaker, Cavaye Djibril who a well-placed source has revealed contracted the coronavirus in a hospital in France. Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that many of the ruling CPDM MPs who met Hon. Cavaye Djibril have isolated themselves raising questions about President Biya’s bill of health after a session with Minister Gregoire Owona who had met House Speaker Cavaye Djibril on camera after his reelection.
Parliamentarians and members of the so-called House of Senate have been meeting in Yaoundé but it is President Biya from his self isolating fortress in Mvomeka’a who announced the government’s solidarity fund to combat the spread of the virus. The CPDM plan that was made public by Prime Minister Dion Ngute did not take into consideration Cameroonians forced out of work and their means of livelihood because of the virus.
The Cameroon government plan does not also include ways to escalate social distancing strategies for tackling the virus. Thousands are busy going about their daily activities and in rural areas; large-scale gatherings are still the order of the day making the coronavirus pandemic to look like a joke and above all, a Sino-US-Europe affair.
As the total number of confirmed cases in Cameroon rose to 509, the CPDM regime with no aggressive plan and a failed public-health system has carried its begging bowl to the World Health Organization. Biya and his CPDM crime syndicate are holding on to nothing-not even the social distancing measure which has been very successful in European countries such as Ireland and Germany. We of the Cameroon Concord News Group can now reveal that the Biya-CPDM strategy is no longer to contain the spread of the coronavirus but to propagate its spread in Cameroon and collect millions of US dollars from the World Health Organization and other Cameroonian donors.
So far, the Minister of Communication who himself is not in President Biya’s inner circle has carefully regulated the flow of information on Biya’s health to the Cameroonian public. People all over the country are now focused on what might come next if Biya dies than the deadly coronavirus. The situation in Cameroon has been made more intractable with news of the arrival of French soldiers into the country from Gabon.
Cameroon Intelligence Report is yet to confirm this latest French deployment to Cameroon but what we do know is that the Prime Minister and Head of Government is still pursuing a Francophone policy in Southern Cameroons and has recently appointed Minister Paul Tasong and Njong Donatus as National Coordinator and deputy national coordinator of the presidential plan for the reconstruction and development of the North West and South West regions.
Cameroon government officials have avoided any situation that highlights President Biya’s health and the coronavirus and they have continued to be low key about the dangers of Biya’s passing to eternity. Biya cannot fly abroad and does not plan to be tested by any Cameroonian medical practitioner. He is very frail and there are reports that those who claim to be custodians of power in Yaoundé are taking measures ahead of the game to ensure a smooth transition and continuity with the status quo.
Now, however, some Cameroon political commentators are calling on the regime barons to shift course — from begging and borrowing to sustain the regime and contain the coronavirus to sitting down with the Ambazonian leader, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe in a transparent forum and discuss the future of both British and French Cameroun. A stitch in time saves nine
But there has been palpable alarm in Etoudi ever since Biya started his self isolating process in Mvomeka’a. The coronavirus is already having a significant impact on the Cameroonian economy, which is now without support from the oil and gas sector. For 37 years as Head of State, Biya has done nothing to keep Cameroon and its people healthy and financially secure.
Consequently, the coronavirus is slowly but surely signaling the end of Mr. Biya-a monstrous liability of a head of state and a political disaster that has been around for decades.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai