He continues, “The emphasis is rather on the individual, the group, the clan, the ethnic group, the lobby, which sacrifices the majority of the population, thus pushing it inexorably towards impoverishment and misery.”
According to Archbishop Kleda, “Bad governance disrupts political life and hinders the social, economic and even religious growth of our country. It destroys the achievements, compromises the legitimate aspirations of the citizens, and jeopardizes the trust between the people and the rulers.”
Faced with the dangerous threat posed by “bad governance and corruption to our country”, the Cameroonian Archbishop queries, “Do we have the right to remain silent? Will our citizen and Christian conscience not place us before the court of history for having been accomplices, direct or indirect, passive or active supporters of a plot that has contributed to the destruction of Cameroon and mortgaged the future of millions of people, especially the youth, of this Africa in miniature?”
“In the present day of our history, can we stand before the Creator and affirm that we are managing well this country so rich with so many resources that He has entrusted to us and that we have inherited from our ancestors?” the Catholic Archbishop further poses in his March 2 pastoral letter.
He bemoans the fact in Cameroon, corruption has affected “all areas of social life, including ordinary life: administration, education, finance, public procurement, the army, the police, judiciary, religion, public health, etc.”
“Corruption not only leads to the plundering and wasting of public resources, but also paralyzes the functioning of the state, creates injustice and inequality among the population and plunges the whole society into despair in the face of an uncertain and mortgaged, even bleak, future,” the Local Ordinary of Cameroon’s Douala Archdiocese says in his 13-page pastoral letter.
He notes that “for our country to regain its nobility, it is high time for every Cameroonian to rediscover the fundamental values on which any self-respecting society should be based: Respect for the dignity of every life, truth, justice, honesty, responsibility, freedom, love, equity, loyalty.”
“Above all, let each one have the courage to renounce the sin that makes him complicit in the drift of our country. Let each one of us contribute to the fight against the ‘structures of sin’, which paralyze and destroy Cameroon, its development, its growth and the well-being of its people,” Archbishop Kleda says.
As a way forward, the 63-year-old Cameroonian Archbishop suggests “adopting good moral values, preserving the institution of marriage and family, protecting people, promoting justice and peace, living reconciliation, fighting poverty, caring for the poor, fighting corruption, seeking the common good, reforming the education system, and creating jobs.”
“Working to build a well-governed and well-managed Cameroon without corruption is not a utopia. If, indeed, we do not put up with corruption and bad governance and do not turn a blind eye to these scourges, we will build a strong, prosperous, stable country, a true haven of peace where it is good to live as brothers,” he says.
