Ca:meroon: Archbishop Andrew Nkea, the Biggest Hypocrite

By Nchumbonga George Lekelefac, B.Phil. (Mexico); S.T.B. (Rome); J.C.L./M.C.L. (Ottawa); Doctorandus, University of Münster, Germany; International Advocate for the Oppressed, Voice of the Voiceless, Defender of Fundamental Human Rights, Canon Lawyer/Jurist, Friend to the Vulnerable, and Lover of No Oppressor/Tyrant

Motto: “Not merely to recount what has been, but to share in moulding what should be.” — Prof. Dr Bernard Nsokika Fonlon, Editor of Cameroon Cultural Review, Abbia (1960–1980)

Abstract

In the shadow of St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Bamenda, Archbishop Andrew Fuanya Nkea, archbishop of Bamenda and President of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon, committed an unforgivable act of spiritual treason. He squandered a divine kairos (sacred opportune moment) – a heaven-sent chance granted by God Himself – to speak veritas (truth) boldly to power. Instead of echoing the fearless prophetic thunder of Pope Leo XIV, who confronted systemic injustice with the full weight of the Gospel, Nkea orchestrated a disgusting, sanitized spectacle of half-truths and outright lies, shamelessly funded by the very Biya regime whose hands drip with the innocent blood of the long-suffering Anglophone people. This was no mere pastoral lapse; this was corruptio optimi pessima (the corruption of the best is the worst). Hypocrisy dressed in purple vestments, a fake shepherd who traded his pastoral crook for a cheap medal of compromise and political favor – Nkea stands exposed today as the greatest betrayer of Southern Cameroonians since this brutal crisis began. The Pope came as a voice crying in the wilderness for justice; the Archbishop deliberately silenced and castrated that voice inside his own cathedral walls. Shame on you, Nkea! Your cowardice is revolting.

1. Mendacium Initii: Nkea’s Pre-Visit Deception and the Pope’s Thunderous Rebuttal (The Lie at the Beginning)

On Friday, March 20, 2026, during a press conference in Bamenda, Archbishop Nkea declared with fake certainty as he is well known to do: “The Pope is not coming to Cameroon as a political arbiter. He is coming here as a pastor.” What a bold, shameless lie!

Barely three weeks later, on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, at the Presidential Palace in Yaoundé, Pope Leo XIV delivered a powerful address that destroyed Nkea’s pathetic fiction. Speaking directly and fearlessly to President Paul Biya, civil authorities, and the diplomatic corps, the Holy Father invoked Saint Augustine: “Those who rule serve those whom they seem to command… not from a love of power, but from a sense of the duty they owe to others.” He openly named the “tensions and violence” in the Northwest, Southwest, and Far North regions. He decried the lost lives, the displaced families, the shattered futures. He thundered against corruption, the idolatry of profit, and the manipulation of religion, demanding “peace founded on love and justice” – a peace that is “unarmed” yet powerfully “disarming.”

O tempora, o mores! (Oh, the times! Oh, the customs!) What Nkea had deceitfully sold to the people as a purely “pastoral” visit turned out, in the Pope’s own uncompromised words, to be a fierce clarion call for justice, accountability, and the common good. Overnight, as confirmed by a Cleric of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province, Nkea frantically rewrote his entire script to desperately mimic the Pontiff’s language. The same hypocrite who had carefully prepared the faithful for cowardly silence on politics suddenly “remembered” that pastoralis cura (pastoral care) and politics are inseparable when the very lives and dignity of God’s suffering people are at stake. The shepherd was caught red-handed in his own trap. Nkea, your initial deception was exposed for all to see – a disgraceful failure of leadership.

2. Silentium in Templo: The Orchestrated Sacrilege of the Bamenda Meeting (Silence in the Temple)

When the Pope finally arrived in Bamenda, the so-called “peace encounter” in the cathedral became nothing less than a disgusting CPDM theater of the absurd and a blatant sacrilege. Every speech had been pre-vetted, heavily censored, and shamelessly sanitized under Nkea’s fearful and controlling eye. The Fon of Mankon, a well-known CPDM loyalist, wasted precious minutes of this historic moment reminiscing about his father donating land for the cathedral – as if some old ancestral real estate mattered more than the rivers of blood spilt by the Anglophone people.

Not one single speaker dared to name the true architect and sustainer of this wicked war: the Cameroonian government, Paul Biya, who himself initiated the war and its brutal military apparatus. The horrific massacre in Ngarbur – the very atrocity that Nkea himself was once officially tasked to investigate – was coldly airbrushed from history. The cold-blooded killing of Fr. Cosmas Ombato Ondari, reportedly killed on November 21, 2018, in Mamfe by the Cameroon military, which occurred when Nkea was still Bishop of Mamfe, was conveniently erased from oblivion. Even the kidnapped Sisters who spoke only dared mention vague “armed groups,” never the state forces that actually initiated, armed, and sustained this deadly conflict for years. English-speaking Cameroonians like His Excellency Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe rotting in prisons, falsely labelled as “terrorists,” received zero mention. Political prisoners? They simply did not exist in Nkea’s carefully controlled narrative.

3. Tempus tacendi et tempus loquendi (There is a time to keep silence and a time to speak – Ecclesiastes 3:7).

Archbishop Nkea deliberately chose the time of silence when the hour of truth-telling demanded bold speech. This meeting was never a genuine dialogue; it was a shameful CPDM political rally dressed up in clerical vestments. The Amba boys were scapegoated as the only villains, while the regime’s blood-stained hands were publicly washed clean in the house of God. No invitation whatsoever was extended to the other side. Truth was not merely absent from that cathedral – it was violently excommunicated by Archbishop Nkea himself. What a betrayal! Nkea, you failed miserably. You had the platform, the authority, and the moment, yet you chose comfortable silence over costly truth. Your cowardice has deepened the wounds of your own people.

4. Pecunia Sanguinis: The Blood Money That Bought a Cathedral and Silenced a Voice (Blood Money)

Why this disgusting, craven silence from a man who should be a prophet? The answer is as filthy as it is obvious: it lies in the very stones of the cathedral itself – refurbished and beautified with government largesse, its walls built not on prayer but on pecunia sanguinis (blood money). In November 2025, Nkea eagerly received a medal from the same regime during the visit of Vatican Secretary of State Archbishop Paul Gallagher. Compromised, co-opted, and proudly decorated with state honours, the Archbishop sold his moral voice for a plate of pottage.

This is the same man who once co-signed the historic 2016 Bishops’ Memorandum, bravely denouncing Anglophone marginalization. Today, he behaves like a pathetic CPDM acolyte and errand boy. As I, Canon Lawyer Nchumbonga George Lekelefac, rightly and fiercely denounced on the April 17, 2026, ABS News Network panel, Archbishop Nkea has become a living scandal. The cathedral, once meant to be a house of God, has been turned into a monument to hypocrisy (hypocrisy) – a whitewashed sepulchre full of dead men’s bones (Matthew 23:27). Archbishop Nkea, your hands are stained with the compromise you chose over the suffering of your flock. History will never forget this sell-out.

5. Vox Prophetae: The Pope’s Bold Witness and the Nuncio’s Shame (The Voice of the Prophet)

Now contrast this shameful performance with the courage of Pope Leo XIV in Yaoundé. He boldly boycotted the traditional presidential greeting before and after Mass, as was done by Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. He refused to give communion to President Biya. He completely ignored the dictator and tyrant at the end of the celebration. The Successor of Peter did exactly what Archbishop Nkea was too cowardly to do: he embodied caritas in veritate (charity in truth). Nkea’s episcopal Motto is “In Spiritu et in Veritate” (In spirit and in Veritate), but Nkea failed to emulate his episcopal motto. He failed to speak truth to power as the Pope had done to Biya.

And where was the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Jose Avelino Bettencourt, during all this? In Bamenda, when suffering faithful Christians dared to boo at the mere mention of Biya’s name, the Nuncio arrogantly yelled at them, thundering that he was the Pope’s representative and that “justice is not perfect.” This is the same man who enjoyed private audiences with Biya even before fraudulent elections on October 12, 2025 and who has remained disgracefully silent on electoral theft and the suffering of Cameroonians. He serves not the Gospel, but the Biya regime. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who will guard the guardians?) When the guardian himself becomes the accomplice and enforcer of silence, who then will defend the oppressed?

6. Non Basilica, Sed Scandalum: The Refurbished Cathedral That Will Never Be a Minor Basilica (Not a Basilica, but a Scandal)

Archbishop Nkea had desperately hoped that his gleaming, government-funded cathedral would be rewarded with the prestigious title of Minor Basilica, as was alleged by a cleric of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province. To the eternal credit of the Vatican, the request was firmly refused as alleged. A church beautified with stolen public funds and consecrated in cowardly silence over the graves of the marginalized can never be elevated to such honour. It remains forever a scandalum (stumbling block) – not a beacon of light, but a monument to betrayal and silenced truth.

Conclusio Potens: The Reckoning That Must Come (Powerful Conclusion)

The Pope has spoken with clarity and courage. The world has heard. The blood of the innocent continues to cry out from the soil of the Northwest and Southwest regions. Archbishop Andrew Nkea, you had the cathedra (bishop’s seat of authority) in your hands during this sacred kairos, and you chose instead the cheap throne of the CPDM political compromise and personal comfort. You silenced the cries of the suffering, whitewashed the crimes of the guilty, and prostituted the pulpit of God for a worthless medal and a few meters of tarmac. History will record you not as a true successor of the Apostles, but as Nkea hypocrita maximus (Nkea the greatest hypocrite) of this entire crisis.

Yet the Church does not belong to you. The people are not yours to muzzle forever. The veritas (truth) that liberates will eventually outlast every cowardly betrayal. Let this sacrilege committed in Bamenda Cathedral serve as the final, stern warning to all hireling shepherds: Exsurge, Domine! (Arise, O Lord!) Rise up, O Lord, and do not allow these faithless shepherds to scatter and betray your flock any longer. The hour of authentic, fearless prophecy has finally come. The faithful of Anglophone Cameroon demand – and fully deserve – nothing less than the full, uncompromised truth.

Nkea, your failure in this moment will be remembered as one of the darkest chapters in the history of the Church in this land. Repent, or be judged by the same Gospel you claim to serve. The blood of the Anglophone people cries out for justice, not only peace; they cry out for JUSTICE, and silence is no longer an option. Amen.

Ca:meroon: Archbishop Andrew Nkea, the Biggest Hypocrite