| CAMEROON IN DISTRESS.
By Rev. Fr. Paul Ajong, priest of the Diocese of Mamfe serving in the New York Archdiocese, USA, July 15, 2025 1. I just got the news that 92-year-old Paul Biya wants to run again for President of Cameroon after 43 years in power, come October 2025. 2. I write this today with so many tears and sadness in my eyes, but with hope in my heart. At 92 years old, Paul Biya, the longest-ruling president alive today, has already clung to power for over 43 years. And now, as if mocking our pain and insulting our intelligence, he has announced his intention to run again in October 2025. At my age today, I have never known any other president my whole life. Only one man, called Paul Biya and his crew who think they own Cameroon. 3. Let me be as honest as I possibly can: this is madness. This is wickedness. This is an affront to God and to the people of Cameroon. A man who has spent more than four decades destroying a nation cannot, at 93 years old, suddenly become its saviour. Those who pretend otherwise are either blind, dishonest, or complicit in the ruin of our homeland. What a shame. 4. When Paul Biya came to power in 1982, Cameroon was full of hope. We had natural resources, we had intelligent and hardworking people, and we had dignity. But under his watch, that hope has been systematically crushed. He has ruled through fear and repression, jailing political opponents, silencing activists, and disappearing critics. Kondengui Prison stands as a living hell, a symbol of his cruelty, where our brothers and sisters waste away in appalling conditions simply for daring to speak the truth. I do not doubt that I will be a target too from different directions after this message. But I am not afraid of him who can kill the body and can do nothing after that. (Mt.10:28 & Lk.12:4-5) 5. He has presided over the horror of the Anglophone Crisis( current war in the English part of Cameroon), where entire villages have been burned to the ground, hundreds of thousands killed, and millions displaced-all because our people asked to be treated with fairness and dignity. I have been and victim of this crisis myself since 2016. He has sat atop unimaginable wealth-oil, timber, gold, fertile land, yet more than half of Cameroonians live in poverty, many in abject misery, while he and his family fly to Geneva and Paris to gamble, shop, and seek medical care. 6. He has divided us, favoured a tiny ethnic elite, trampled on merit, and allowed corruption to eat the soul of our nation. We have wasted generation after generation of youth who are left with no future here and are forced to flee into exile, risking their lives at sea, while our hospitals collapse, our schools decay, and our roads disintegrate. 7. I am a priest of the Church. I know what the Church teaches: that priests must not be partisan, that we do not campaign for any candidate. And I stand by that. But this is not about politics. This is about morality. This is about justice. This is about the sacred duty of the Church, the conscience of society, to speak when the people of God are suffering. Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. The bishops, the priests, the pastors, the elders of this land have a moral obligation to tell the truth and to kindly but firmly caution Paul Biya: For the sake of your soul, for the sake of the children of God, for the sake of this broken nation, do not run again. It’s as simple as that. That’s all the Lord’s prophet had to say to evil leaders. They passed across the message, and the Kord took care of the rest. But how will the Lord act when his prophets in our nation can’t speak truth to power?! 8. How can anyone, with a working conscience, believe that a 93-year-old man who has failed for 43 years will suddenly succeed now? How can he, who has brought nothing but pain and shame for more than four decades, suddenly rebuild what he has destroyed? If you believe this, you are lying to yourself, and you are aiding this evil. 9. Quote me anywhere: there is absolutely nothing good that Paul Biya’s administration has done for this country. Nothing. If you can name me just two good things he has accomplished, I will name you a hundred good things that even one decent president could have done in just eight years, not to mention what five good presidents could have done over forty-three years. If you cannot see this reality, then you are either blind, ignorant, or an idiot. And worse, you will answer to God for your complicity in the suffering of His children. 10. To Paul Biya himself: You have already done irreparable harm. You have stolen decades of our lives. You have stripped this nation of its dignity. You cannot claim ignorance; you know what you have done. You know the pain you have caused. You know the lives you have destroyed. You will answer squarely to God for every drop of blood, every tear, every crushed dream. To your ministers, your generals, your enablers: you too will face the judgment of history and of God. Your hands are not clean. But you still have a chance to choose what is right before it is too late. 11. Cameroon is not your property. It does not belong to you. It belongs to her people, to every child who cries for bread, to every youth who dreams of a future, to every mother who buries her son, to every elder who prays for peace. 12. We must not remain silent. We must speak out, even if our voices shake. We must stand up, organise, vote, protect each other, and refuse to let fear win. My message to Paul Biya is clear: Do not run again for President. My message to Cameroonians is clear: Do not vote for this man. I know most of us have never voted for him, but have always had no choice but to accept the “results”. Go out massively this year again and vote him out. I hope our results count this year. 13. Let 2025 be the year we remember that freedom is never given, it is taken. Let 2025 be the year Cameroon reclaims its dignity. 14. And to the world: Cameroon is bleeding. Her people suffer quietly while you look away. We ask you to stand with us, to speak for us, to demand the end of this tyranny. 15. God of justice and mercy, bless our nation with courage. Give strength to the oppressed. Break the chains of tyranny. Open the eyes of those blinded by greed and power. Guide us to unity, peace, and freedom. May Cameroon rise again, for her children and your glory. Amen. 16. Long live Cameroon. Long live the spirit of her people. Down with tyranny. Cc: Jose Bettencourt CAMEROON IN DISTRESS. |
CAMEROON IN DISTRESS.
