AFTER THE POPE HAS COME AND GONE, MISERY CONTINUES
My freedom to despair comes from the existential fact that most pessimists are always disappointed optimists. That a regime that has neglected its town’s infrastructure suddenly, in one month, is transforming it is good. But the fear is that when the reason for their show of goodwill, which is the pope’,s visit, will no longer be there, the development will stop automatically. The contractor’s money will not be paid since this is a Cameroonian, and impossibility is not a Cameroonian attribute. Washwashed airports will rot waiting for the coming of the next pope. This is in consideration of the fact that the airport in Bamenda, for example, was constructed 40 years ago, in 1985, for the first coming of Pope John Paul II. The real political animals in the church will come out in sermons praising the cordiality between the church and the state, as evidenced by the pope’s visit. With this Papal benedictions, alms will flow, and the gospel will be compromised in favour of the politicians who finance church budgets. The government, on its part, will fine-tune the machinery of lies and torture with impunity as the church is counting alms and proceeds from the Pope’s visit. After all, the Vatican, which is the most powerful state on earth, has just ratified the sovereignty of Cameroon to be holy, infallible, inalienable and indivisible. With this recognition, the head of state will become a titular god of the state, as the church preaches the gospel and celebrates atheism. The people lying on the pedestal of despair, like the man on the Jericho road beaten by thieves, will have to consult the good Samaritan of a Marabout, witchcraft, sorcerery and even outright magic to solve their problem. The spirit of Pentecostalism will run amok as those disgruntled catholics will create their own church since God has become a democrat. The end-time melodrama that always accompanies Pentecostalism will be a spectre for the streets. Jesus talks of a generation that meets at the crossroads, and everyone is talking, and no one is listening. While all this is going on, the state will gradually implode from within due to impunity, greed, and callous indifference to the future. Let this remain my personal nightmare and not a reality at the gates when the Pope comes and goes.
Bawe Louis Tarawo
