When The Cookie Is Crumbling!
If the writer who claims I have ganged up to topple the
Moderator had appended his name I would have had time to tell him how in 2014
Fochang had told Fonki to run for Moderator while he Fochang ran for Synod
Clerk. When Fonki had agreed they had their first meeting with Kang Denis and
Masok, just the four of them in Douala.
According to the writer of this tract this should have been
considered a gang to oust Abwenzoh who as Synod Clerk was as better as likely
to be the Moderator and who was betrayed by some he called "sons."
The group of four expanded to include Foncham Ezekiel, Titatang Bobga, Njongai
Polycarp and others, including a mole of the Abwenzoh camp who always told the
gang what transpired in his own group meetings. As the group expanded Fochang
was elbowed. He did not belong. One of the other three boasted later on that the
three of them are Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Fochang did not bring a single
pastor to the group. Naive as he was he thought they were colleagues having a
common dream.
He was being tolerated because he was a popular candidate
who during nominations won all the 28 presbyteries while of all other
contestants none won above 15 presbyteries.
Fochang was being used to win the nominations of the pastors
for others. Each time a pastor called him, and asked the person he will like to
work with, he told them that Fonki was the choice since they had worked as
Secretary and Treasurer in EMSP. Even when Abwenzoh sent people to Fochang
asking him to team up with him, he prefered Fonki whom he Fochang asked to
stand as Moderator. Even when Abwenzoh told him he had all the advantages of
climbing in 2019 to become Moderator, Fochang still declined to be his running
mate. If the constitution is interpreted the way it is being done now Abwenzoh
would not have been giving Fochang such assurance of climbing in 2019.
Like I have said, this is just to say in 2014 when Masok and
Kang were making nocturnal visits left and right as far as Donga Mantung to
convince Eyakwe who refused to bow in to them, Fochang was just sitting where
he had been dumped at Ndobo. He did not campaign and he is not campaigning even
in this year. (I have qualms about this; it is history for future researchers).
As I am writing now a meeting is likely holding in Douala
with those who want to throw Fochang out; whatever reasons they may advance.
That is about the sixth meeting being held, including one organised with
the senior staff at the Synod Office to ensure that they support the incumbent
with the new running mate. The person who is being supported cannot be ignorant
of such meetings, I presume! I don't have any problem with people holding
meetings because our own group and other groups are also meeting. Nobody should
therefore tag one group as "ganging up to topple!" Every individuals
or groups know their interests.
We are waiting. I've never been a blackmailer nor a
manipulator as some are; and I won't start now. In the same way that I did not
ask people in America to write against the Moderator, so too I have not asked
anybody anywhere to write anything against anybody to my favour. There are many
people aspiring to be the next Moderator.
The constitutional issues I have raised are genuine until I
am disproved with clear evidence.
As to "topple" and "gang" go back to
your dictionary to read the meaning of topple. To topple is to overthrow
somebody in power. This would mean the person is in active office and you want
to take the person out of office.
However, when the term of an incumbent is coming to an end
and elections are being discussed for new leadership, aspirants start creating
alliances and identifying those they think should occupy an office. It does not
matter whether an incumbent is eligible for re-election.
A five year term mandate with possibility for re-election
presuppose that the electorate know that for some reasons, one term only may be
enough, otherwise it could just be said that the incumbent must serve a second
term before another election is conducted.
The flexibility for the possibility of re-election is the
same flexibility which gives room for the possibility of not being re-elected.
You use gang in a perjorative way and if you mean it, you should consider the
calibre of people you are addressing as gang members. Respectable and
honourable people who have impacted society and were recognised as such by
being appointed members of the Bosrd of Trustees of the Church you dare call
them gangsters! If standing for the truth and confirming that that the 2014 PCC
Constitution is still a draft as it was not adopted by Synod following the
prescribed procedure and so cannot be implemented makes the Board of Trustees
gangsters then we must be very intellectually dishonest. Who is the gangster?
One who mutilates the Constitution and insists that it was adopted or one who
tells the truth that it was effectively mutilated and not adopted? You know the
answer.
Therefore Prof to whom the unsigned tract is written,
"nobody is planning to topple anybody, but many are hoping to win in the
forthcoming nominations and elections Sir! We shall explain to you further and
give you details indepth when your addressee identifies self! Only a gangster
will write anonymously in times like these!"
It is our prayer that the Holy Spirit whom we are
celebrating will convict us in the innerman so that we address the issues that
plague us and stop making scapegoats of innocent folks!
May God bless and lead us to lead his people.
Babila Fochang.
PS: Excuse me for not making the text cumbersome with the
use of titles.
******************************
Dear Prof, thanks for your interest and worry about what is
happening in the PCC To give you a gist of the central issue, this is
Elections year in the PCC and each elections year in the PCC comes with
troubles like these.
This year is the hottest because the SC has been mobilizing
to topple the Moderator, so he mounted up a team to run down the Moderator. But
he forgot that the Constitution bars him from running to the office of the
Moderator after his first Mandate (Article 120ii). He can only do so at the end
of his second Mandate, but before this comes, he would not qualify because of
age. When this was brought to his notice, he and his team/gang then mounted a
fight against the Constitution of the PCC. That is the crux of the matter.
Barrister Nico Halle, Rev. Anye and a few others are members of the team/gang
and their strategy is sabbortage, raise false alarm, criticise everything about
the Moderator in order to demonize him.
But the Lord will vindicate his Anointed because the
Moderator has not done any of the things these people are scandalizing his name
about. They themselves know very well that they are raising false alarm about
this poor servant of the LORD and the PCC. The Lord is exposing them already
and they are seeing their scheming crumbling before their own eyes.
They are struggling now to apologise, but the damage has
been done and they see themselves failing woefully! It's the Lord's fight, not
even Fonki's because these guys are running down the most cherished PCC for
their private interests and for power to ruin the Church because this is not
how power is fought for in the Church. Everyone that matters in the PCC
knows their tricks and antics.
May God forgive them!
****************************
*A Response to Rev. Nganji’s Document titled “A Call for
Action* ”
I stumbled over a document circulating on Social Media
written by a very Senior Pastor, the Rev. Nganji Christian Ndi. The Rev. Nganji
has been a Presbyterial Secretary of the PCC for a very long time now and he
even says he is the longest serving Presbyterial Secretary. He was a member of the
Constitution Committee that amended the 1998 constitution to the 2014
constitution that we have today. Rev. Nganji is a member of the Executive organ
of the PCC, a member of the Synod and a member of the Synod Committee of the
PCC. Rev. Nganji Christian Ndi stood for the elections of 2014 as one of the
two candidates into the office of the Synod Clerk alongside the present Synod
Clerk the Rev Babila George Fochang.
I wonder why a person of Rev. Nganji’s calibre should
future among those who are causing the confusion that we see in the PCC today.
I feelso sad when I read the write up of a senior pastor in the calibre of the
Rev Nganji Christian Ndi.
From Rev. Nganji’s three page document, I have the following
concerns to raise.
*1. The Constitution*
Why would Rev. Nganji come to argue a constitution that went
into effect since 2014 only in 2019 which happens to be an election year? Why
would Rev. Nganji allow PCC Pastors and Christians to use the said constitution
to conduct the elections of Elders and group leaders in the presbyteries
only to point out its flaws at the threshold of the elections of the
Moderator and Synod Clerk? Which constitution did Rev Nganji and all his
pastors in Bui presbytery use to conduct elders and group elections if not the same
constitution he is asking for amendment?
Why would a seasoned church administrator like Rev, Nganji –
a member of the most respected body of the church the, EXCO carry Church
matters to the Social Media? The Rev. Nganji Christian was the one who noticed
the mutilation of the constitution by Rev. Dr. Ngwa Julius Ambe and drew the
attention of EXCO. Why did Rev. Nganji not mention at the time that the said
constitution was not adopted? When the Synod Clerk read out the recommendations
of the Constitution Committee to the 49th Synod of “Endurance” in Bafoussam,
why did Rev. Nganji not raise a motion that the said constitution was never
adopted? Why only now? These are questions that are begging for answers.
*2. Power of Attorney*
We, the younger Pastors have a lot to learn from Senior
Pastors like Rev. Nganji Christian. Since I became a pastor of the PCC, I have
never really known the content of the Power of Attorney, and I have never
bothered to know, perhaps because the execution of the content of the power of
Attorney has never been an issue with the two previous top Church
leaders. The Rev. Nganji says the present Power of Attorney was single
handedly drawn up by one person whom he says was Barrister Etta Bessong Junior.
He says, the said Power of Attorney was not submitted to any Church Board or
Committee for study, amendment or approval. The Rev. Nganji says the Power of
Attorney gives the present Moderator unprecedented powers not drawn from the
PCC constitution. Rev. Nganji failed to educate us as to how many persons drew
the Power of Attorney that was being used by the former Moderators, and which
Committee or Board studied or amended it. It would have been a good and
educative thing to me if Rev, Nganji gave us the content of the previous Power
of Attorney and the citations of the constitutional articles that were used in
drawing up it up.
It is even shameful to mention that the Chairman of the
Board of Trustees, the incoming Synod Clerk and the Secretary, Constitution
Committee signed a document they never knew the content. So who are they
blaming if they decided to sign such an important document without
understanding its content? But the joy is that top ranking Church officers
signed the Power of Attorney.
*3. The Call on the Board of Trustees for
Action*
If the Rev. Nganji is as seasoned in Church polity as he
makes younger colleagues and the laity to understand, he should have known that
the Board of Trustees is not a decision making body in the PCC. The Rev. Nganji
should have known that the Synod is the highest decision making body of the
Church. Rev Nganji should know that after the deliberations of the 49th Synod
of Endurance in Bafoussam, only another Synod has the power to upset the
decisions taken by that Synod and not the Board of Trustees. I see these Social
Media stuffs as cheap character assassinations and sabotage.
It surprises me that the Rev. Nganji attends EXCO meetings
were serious decisions are taken, Synod and Synod Committee meetings where
decisions are taken only to come out to disagree and sabotage the Church on
Social Media. To me, this is the Peak of anarchy and antagonism. In state
governance, this is tantamount to treason which goes with serious consequences.
*4. Pastors meeting in Tribal Meetings*
Since when did the meeting of pastors coming from a certain
geographical location in the PCC become a taboo? Rev. Nganji is an executive
member of Donga Mantung Pastors which goes by the name “Pastors of Donga
Mantung Origin” (abbreviated PADMO). This association like all others in the
PCC meet once in a year. If PADMO has not been able to meet this year, it is
just incumbent on Rev. Nganji to organise a meeting of the indigenous
pastors of Donga Mantung to deliberate on issues affecting not only their
individual functioning in ministry but also matters affecting their home
Presbytery. That is encouraged. So I don’t see why the meetings of Manyu, Momo,
Bafut and Menchum pastors should suddenly become such a huge issue to Rev
Nganji.
*5. Insubordination in the PCC*
Who will Rev. Nganji blame if greed and the incessant quest
for power has taken hold of our elder colleagues such that anytime a younger
pastor shows his head on the corridors of leadership, they want to crush him or
push him out. Some pastors have stayed for so long in leadership that the
Church is now their piece of property which they inherited from their fathers
and any other pastor is a total stranger in their family estate. Only they have
the power to suggest where the rest of the pastors should be thrown to while
they alone occupy the juicy positions in the Church.
If the Rev Nganji with all the privileges vested on him does
not see this his write up as insubordination to the entire system and
disrespect of constituted authorities, I wonder what it is.
We see and hear younger pastors and Church workers insult
the Moderator left and right and no official statement has been made so far by
any senior pastor. I would have expected seasoned administrators in the likes
of the Rev Nganji Christian Ndi to stamp their feet on the ground and hit their
fists on the table to say enough is enough. When young pastors like us are
writing trash about the Church and its authorities and posting on Social Media.
That is not done. Instead the reverse is true. What we have noticed is that
senior pastors like Rev Nganji take delight in exposing and running down the
PCC on Social Media. Sometimes they disguise and encourage short sighted
younger pastors to run down the system. In the event of all these
manipulations, they have quietly stayed behind enjoying these whole scenario of
insubordination and arrogance waiting for the year of elections so that they
can write things like these which according to them, can cause the Rt. Rev.
Fonki Samuel to be thrown out of office as Moderator so that they can
take over. These are people who do not bother to deliver the goods but
want to benefit from a mixed up. This is a high level of hypocrisy and
betrayal.
Today, they are calling on Pa Nku and Pa Asana who are
enjoying their deserved rest to come and clean the faeces which they have
defecated on their trousers. When these Moderators were in office, did they
ever respect them? Allow our retired fathers to rest and clean your mess
yourselves.
You can fool some of the people some of the time but
you can never fool all the people all the time. PCC pastors now know those who
are not fighting to build the church but for their self-interest. Only time
alone shall tell.
Rev.
Kang Denis Tem
