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