THE ROLE CATHOLIC CLERGY AND LAITY PLAYED IN ANNOUNCED NATIONAL DIALOGUE

BAMENDA CATHOLIC AUTHORITIES HELPLESSLY OFFER RANSOM 

AFTER CAPTIVITY PRIEST TELLS TOUGH CONDITIONS PLACED BEFORE HIS FREEDOM

BY MILDRED NDUM WUNG KUM

Not until two days after his kidnap, the priest was quite reserved about bringing to the knowledge of the press, the story of his capture and freedom.  Reverend Father Augustine Nkwain spent two days in the confines of his kidnappers. The Roman Catholic Priest of the archdiocese of Bamenda Cameroon serves the Church as the Catholic Education Secretary. In an interview with me on Sunday 6th October 2019, he narrated a tingle tale about his captivity.

He details his experience as well as tells his conviction about the spate of happenings in Cameroon vis a vis the Cameroon Anglophone crisis.  His kidnap is connected with ugly intricacies of a crisis that has since 2016 put inhabitants of the North West and South west regions of Cameroon and to some extent the rest of the eight regions in the country in a difficult political, economic and social situation. Read the interview below for insights.

Image of kidnapped priest upon freedom from captivity. Fr Augustine flanked on the right by Archbishop Cornelius Fontem Esua and Fr Paul Fru, to the left by Bishop Michael Bibi.

INTERVIEW WITH FR AUGUSTINE NKWAIN ON HIS KIDNAP

Rev Fr Augustine Nkwain Catholic Education Secretary for the archdiocese of Bamenda, what are the circumstances that led to your abduction?

It was on the 3rd of October 2019. I was in the office and I was told that some boys had come around the school and were rather asking that they didn’t like the fact that school was going on and they wanted to discuss with me and they told me that there was not going to be  any problem and so I went down to the school to see what was happening and to find out what they wanted from me and when I went there, in a very short time they became very aggressive and started threatening to take me to their camp and all they were saying was that they didn’t like schools to go on and I told them that we have conflicting voices coming which one do we follow? They got more aggressive and threatened us with the gun; myself and the staff in St Joseph College Mankon. Seeing what was happening we had to manage the situation they finally asked me to go and get my car and I got into the car with them. They took me along to a camp somewhere and kept me there for two days until I was released

While at the camp for two days in the hands of your kidnappers, what was your experience?

At the camp I would honestly say that first of all the fact that I was taken there at gun point, I was blindfolded along the way it’s not a good experience.  It was traumatising to know that you get up not prepared to have such an experience and then suddenly you go through such a difficult experience and taken to places you don’t know. But while at the camp, I was indeed not molested but they questioned me on so many things, part of it was demand for money which I did not have then since I couldn’t give them the money that they wanted; I was kept there for that length of time but indeed they did not molest me and all they needed was the money paid and I don’t know what happened but eventually I was released.
Are you saying that when they came their first problem was why are schools going on and when you got to their camp it became a want of money?
I think that was the trajectory that they took because they came there and eventually it was not about school but they were getting annoyed that I questioned them and because I questioned them, I had to go to the camp; I was trying to get an understanding why they give commands where we get conflicting messages from them. From there they got so irritated but I would guess that they came with an intention to take me because we could see how things were orchestrated to take place around. The atmosphere in the morning on the campus was not one we knew so they had staged things to happen. Then at the camp what came up was money. Anyway, how it was solved we managed and I was released.
Can you disclose to the press the negotiations that brought about your release?
The truth is that there were some negotiations for my release. The negotiations were done and I got released, however I was not involved in that but my authorities had to meet them and talk with them to get to understand what the issue was. But I know that eventually when that happen I had to stay there from that 3rd  till about 4pm on the 4th and in the meantime the negotiations went on and the boys came and handed over my belongings to me and asked me to get into the car. So I was blindfolded again and taken to the road and asked to go home.

You are a priest; you spent some time in captivity at the camp; while there were you able to speak messages of repentance or change, I mean messages concerning the twist the Anglophone crisis is taking?

Well sometimes you have to judge the situation and know when the message is welcomed and when it is not and also the situation there. When you realise that people are rather irrational and you cannot reason with them because their interest lie completely elsewhere... because the main thing was about money they were not rude to me, they were not wild they didn’t molest me but the main thing was about money. Clearly I told them that I am a priest and I am only doing my mission as assigned to me by my bishop and I’m trying to do the will of Christ through the church, and I’m not working for money but they thought that I was there actually working for money. With all of that if I tell them that I am a man of God trying to carry out my mission as a man of God and they don’t understand and in a situation where I am put in captivity against my will and completely isolated with all of them there how do I even start a decent conversation with them? Because they were not even there, they left me in a situation where I get into complications for particular reasons. So I didn’t think that at that time it was convenient for me to start a conversation in that regard. But I must say that they were respectful towards me. But I regretted seeing decent looking young men who could have been very useful to society but engaged in such unbecoming activity. It was so very sad to see that and my hope and prayer is that something should happen very quickly so that this young men can catch up with their lives. That sort of part of life to choose is simply a dead end. You lead your life in places that can expose you to destruction. So my prayer is that such things should stop and citizens should not be traumatised and young men should be given a chance to make something of their lives.

Talking of giving these boys a chance, they need rehabilitation, who takes the task of transforming these young men who are expressing their frustration by taking to kidnapping and destruction?

Well everybody should be involved. First of all it is the role of the Church and as a man of God that is what we have been doing.I said Mass on that day I was kidnapped and part of my work is to make sure that we conscientize people so that they know that they have to choose the right part in life but society has to help as well; civil society governments, NGOs and  all sort of people in the society should help  first of all to change the conditions under which they live because i know that these young people have been pushed to such an action because of the conditions they have been placed under. Some of them have no job. In fact most of them don’t have jobs they are frustrated with the way things are going and they see no future, they don’t have decent jobs. If their energies were employed somewhere, they wouldn’t be doing things like that so they lack opportunities then the devil takes over and we have the crime that is going on so society has a lot to do in order to create opportunities for such young people and then with the church also helping in evangelisation and moralising they would have the proper values that they need in life.  My prayer is that such activities should be put on the ground so that they can begin to recover especially many of these young people that are lost under this terrible condition

These guys are expressing frustration by taking up arms, staying far away in the bushes and all sorts of despicable mundane behaviour. Given this forum to address a message to them, what's your say?

I think we have seen it all; we are at a point where we have seen it all; there were agitations, demonstrations anger and picking of arms to defend ourselves. I think we have seen what it has led us. The society is becoming impossible. I have one belief, when you create anarchy you become the victim of anarchy and that is where we are now. Everybody is a victim of anarchy and not even these boys are spared even though they seem to be in a position of strength they are exposed to destruction because when they meet the forces of law and order or even members of their own group, sometimes they get killed so it a situation where all of us become a victim so I think that we have seen it all. Already there is what is called dialogue and I hope that the decisions that come out are properly implemented and justice done so that everybody can have a peace of mind and that the society can begin to have social reconciliation and then people begin to pick up their lives and move forward e so that we don’t have to live this experience again.
You have had the experience of being held in captivity, what is your state of mind in relationship with the environment now?
I have the belief that we are in God’s hands. Even before my kidnap that’s always my belief and now it’s still my belief that we are in God’s hands.  It’s not a good experience...its traumatising and anybody doing that to every human being is doing grave evil because the human being is unique. When you do it today know that maybe tomorrow you would be a victim of such circumstances. That is something to eradicate from the society. It’s not good for anybody. I hold on to my faith and that is what has always inspired me, I have my conviction about my mission and I would not give it up for anything. I was called to be a servant of Christ and I would continue to be, I only ask that God continues to accompany me as I carry out my duties. My prayer is that young people who do things like that should be converted and that many people should see a reason to change their lives and that we work for the good of the society and build for ourselves and our children the kind of society we desire to live in.
Fr Augustin Nkwain, you are the Catholic Education Secretary of the Archdiocese of Bamenda. In what other ways have Education in the archdiocese of Bamenda been affected even before your kidnap?
Gravely! I think we are almost at the point of losing our souls as Anglophones because education is what promotes the culture of the people; once you lose it you lose the soul of the people because how else do you transmit that culture? It is through education that culture is transmitted from one generation to the next.  There are formal and none formal ways. None formal ways are there but they are not researched as compared to formal so it would be poorer if you do away with the formal education. As Anglophones do we do away with the things that is dear to us as Anglophones?... it may not be perfect, they need corrections but don’t destroy it to destroy everything and start from nothing because by the time you start from nothing there is so much gap and so many things lost that you can’t pick up the pieces anymore. I think and firmly belief in education because that’s what makes who we are. If we are fighting today it’s because we have something and we are afraid that its getting lost. We don’t have to lose it because what’s happening is that we have taken so many decisions that have actually gone to destroy what we have, that is Anglophone sub system of Education. I hope that we can come back to our senses now, gather those pieces together and build a stronger base for us to be able to have our own heritage in this country called Cameroon.

HOW THINGS TRANSPIRED IN BAMENDA ON 3rd OCTOBER 2019

Bamenda is head quarter of the North West region of Cameroon. Inhabitants of the city awoke with optimism to resume work following a two day ghost town. Commuters set to work until around 11am when shooting guns started thundering sending many back home. An eye witness who was caught by the shooting at the premises of the St Joseph Metropolitan Cathedral Mankon Bamenda told Ndum Wung’s Info Snippets that “we heard gun shots and suddenly we witnessed Fr Augustine being kidnapped. The shooting became heavy and died after a while. Later on shooting resumed and that’s how the day went. It appears the kidnappers first shot to clear their way and then the military followed suit with shooting” he said. For neighbourhoods in Bamenda like Nkwen and Mankon, they knew no peace from guns on that day. At least one person was shot dead at the Atuakom neighbourhood. This incident was happening during the 4th day of “a major national dialogue” in Cameroon’s political capital Yaounde; a dialogue deemed by the Biya regime to solve the socio political crisis in the North West and South West regions.

SYNOPSIS OF KIDNAPS

It is now clear that in the wake of the Cameroon Anglophone crisis, the issue of kidnap has for umpteenth times affected the Catholic extraction of Bamenda. Similar authorities of the Church captured and later released by kidnappers given the appellation “unknown or identified gunmen” also refered by others

as "the boys" include the archbishop of Bamenda Cornelius Fontem Esua, the Principal of St Bedes College Ashin Kom Fr William Neba, Bishop Michael Bibi of Bamenda and the Registrar of Catholic Religious Studies Examination in the archdiocese of Bamenda Fr Peter Foleng. Many more persons including the lay faithful of the church, members of the Cameroon government, people of the civil society, NGOs and expatriates living in Cameroon have also suffered kidnaps killings and destruction amidst the crisis. The atrocity is allegedly being blamed on separatist fighters of English decent in Cameroon combating for an independent state from The Republic of Cameroon where there have been growing conflicts and confrontations about marginalisation of the English minority by the French majority