Constitutional amendment saga: Christians drag CBC Executive President to court!.

We gathered from very credible sources within the CBC that the Executive President, Rev Dr Nditemeh Charlemagne, was, at 9:45 a.m. on Friday April 12, served a summons by a bailiff for a court case at the High Court of Mezam Division, North West Region.

According to a Motion on Notice, signed by Barrister Changbuin Sanda Wilfred, Counsel for the applicants, dated April 5, 2024, a copy of which The Guardian Post has seen, applicants or plaintiffs are Tansah Jones Ndzi, Samuel Bongajum (both of First Baptist church, Ndu), Luma Albert (Bethany Baptist church, Buea) and Emmanuel Tantoh (of SCBC Ndu). 

Meanwhile, the defendants in the court summons are Rev. Dr. Nditemeh Charlemagne (CBC Executive President), Mkong Yosimbom John (Chairman of CBC), and the Cameroon Baptist Convention. 

The case, we learned, is principally about the amendment of the CBC constitution, on June 10, 2023. The applicants, we also gathered, are suing for illegality, unconstitutionality, procedure, illegal acts, etc, with eight counts. 

The applicants, according to the Motion on Notice, are praying the court for “An order for accelerated hearing in suit No. HCMB/04/2024, between the plaintiffs and respondents; An order restraining the respondents from applying the supposed revised constitution; and for such further order or orders as the honourable court shall deem fit and proper to make in the circumstances”.  

It should be noted that there have been tussles within the CBC since the amendment of the said constitution. 

Reports say a majority of CBC pastors are against the constitutional amendment and are strongly against its implementation. 

The issue is said to have been taken to the Senior Divisional Officer of Mezam, in the North West Region. It however ended in a deadlock as both parties failed to agree. 

After having done all to resolve the matter within the Church, former Prime Minister, Philemon Yang, himself a senior faithful of the CBC, was brought in to try and seek a solution. 

Yang is said to have invited the belligerents for a meeting in Yaounde to discuss the issue. The meeting is said to have been attended by Rev Ambola David, Lead Pastor of the Menda Baptist Church in Nkwen; Rev Ncham Godwill, former Executive President of the CBC; Rev Dr Nditemeh Charlemagne, among others.

It would appear there was no compromise arrived at during the meeting in Yaounde. Philemon Yang is said to have sent the belligerents back to Bamenda, telling them to resolve the matter within the Church and make sure it does not go to the courts.

However, the CBC Executive President has still been dragged to court.

A source within the CBC, who did not want to be named, said the persons who have taken the matter to court “are floor members of the church, but they may be powered and tele-guided by some big people within the church”.

Fears heighten majority congregations may break away

As the saga, which has now gotten to the court, rages on, there are fears that a majority of congregations may end up breaking away from the CBC. It should be noted that a huge majority of CBC faithful are from Ndu Subdivision, Donga Mantung Division of the North West Region. Three of the plaintiffs in the case are from Baptist churches in Ndu. Baptist churches in Ndu have huge populations of Christians, Ndu also hosts the CBC seminary and one of the church’s renowned secondary school, Joseph Merrick Baptist College.

The complainants in the matter are said to have told the SDO of Mezam that the amended constitution does not reflect the CBC that they know and which voted Rev Dr Nditemeh into office. They have insisted that they cannot implement “it because it doesn’t belong to the CBC”.

A CBC Christian, who did not want to be named, said: “It is either Rev Dr Nditemeh goes and creates his own CBC that will respect that constitution, or he resigns, or he accepts the old constitution and stays till his mandate ends”.

It should be recalled that years back when there was wrangling with the CBC, the Belo Field in Boyo Division of the North West Region had threatened to break away from the church.

Origin of constitutional amendment saga

It should be recalled that the bickering over the amendment of the CBC constitution started in March 2023, when the CBC Executive President, Rev Dr Nditemeh Charlemagne, was accused of “gross illegality” in the constitutional review process.

In a letter dated March 27, 2023 and addressed to the CBC General Council, through the Executive President, a copy of which The Guardian Post had read, the CBC Legal Advisory Committee, Justice Wanki Richard, had decried what he termed “the consistent and persistent subversion and violation of the rules laid down in the CBC constitution and by-laws to start and complete the process of amending the CBC constitution and by-laws”.

Justice Wanki had also pointed out “serious procedural irregularities and lapses already observed and other grievous irregularities or violations that have been programmed or are in the pipeline”.

Some of the irregularities as was listed by Justice Wanki, included “setting up a constitutional Review Committee without receiving any proposals for amendment, non-endorsement of proposals for amendment by CBC Fields, the General Council setting up constitutional Review Committee in violation of the constitution and by-laws, the General Council violating the by-laws regarding the composition of the Constitutional Review Committee, no report from the Constitutional Review Committee accompanying the draft constitutional amendment, no deliberations by the General Council on the first draft amendments of the constitution and by-laws, the General Council violating the constitution on the composition of General Session...”.

On the last point, Justice Wanki had written: “Article 9(3) of the CBC constitution as read with Section 2(1)(a) of the by-laws clearly regulates the composition of the General Session as follows:

 "Delegates from each local church in a ratio proportionate to the membership of the church with equal voting rights in all session and members of the General Council with equal voting rights in all sessions. The ratio proportionate to the membership of the church is defined in Section 2(1)(a) of the by-laws thus: ‘Each member church must designate two delegates for the first one hundred members of part thereof, and one extra delegate for each additional two hundred members or part therefore’,” he had stated further.

“Unfortunately, the General Council ignored the above provisions on the composition of the General Session and laid down its own rules concerning a special extra-ordinary General Session to be convened in June 2023 in the following resolution: ‘GC 23200 MSC 1) That a special extraordinary General Session shall be held in June 2023; a day after the General Council meeting with the single goal to deliberate and adopt the amended CBC constitution and by-laws; 2) that each local congregation shall send two delegates (pastor and laity) to the Special General session and one delegate for churches without Pastors,” he added.

Justice Wanki had continued that: “...the structure with the composition in the resolution of the General Council does not exist in the CBC. It is an illegal body fabricated by the General Council and given the name of one of the CBC structures. This is very embarrassing…”. 

This, he said, was embarrassing because “the General Council’s duty is to ensure that the constitution should be applied not to be front runners in persistently violating the constitution, the General Council has no power or competence to set aside rules clearly stated in the constitution and by-laws regarding the composition of the General Session, the General Council is not competent to lay down new rules regarding the composition of the General Session”. 

Menda Baptist Church Senior Pastor, Chairman also hit Nditemeh

Meanwhile, the Senior Pastor of Menda Baptist Church, Rev. Ambola David, and Barrister Fet Sama Aloysius, Church Chairman, in a letter dated March 16, 2023 titled;): ‘Response to Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBC) constitution revised and adopted Bamenda June…2023’ and Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBC) By- Laws adopted Bamenda June…2023’, had also faulted the procedures being followed in amending the constitution of the church. 

They particularly cited Article 20(1) in the new constitution which states “without any retroactive effect whatsoever all elective officers of the convention, Boards, Ministries, Standing Committees, Fields, Associations and local churches are to hold office for a term of five years”.

“We do not know what the reason is to change from four years to five. However, it looks like the phenomenon we are facing with corrupt national governments in Africa where people in power try to change terms of office to stay long in office,” they stated.

They picked holds with Section 11(1)(C) of the proposed by laws which stipulates that a candidate for the position of Executive President be at least 45 years and at most 55 years of age.

“We do not see any spiritual, leadership or administrative reason for these limits. An experienced pastor at age of 40 has everything it takes to do the work of Executive President in the CBC. Great nations of the world are ruled by people below 40 years,” they stated.

As their recommendations, Rev. Ambola David and Barrister Fet Sama Aloysius had said: “The ‘Special General Session’ in June 2023 is unconstitutional and should not hold, the procedure enshrined in our constitution and by-laws for constitutional amendment should be followed. At such a time we shall joyfully submit our own proposals for amendment through the right channel and make inputs on other people’s proposals for us to continue building the CBC on the foundation we inherited from those who have gone ahead of us”. 

Rev Dr Nditemeh Charlemagne fires back

Meanwhile, the Executive President of CBC, Rev Dr Nditemeh Charlemagne, had fired back, accusing his critics of not being sincere and not acting “for the good of the church”.

In a letter dated April 21, 2023, addressed to members of the General Council of CBC, a copy of which The Guardian Post had stumbled on, Rev Dr Nditemeh had said, “at the heart of the social media write-ups of Justice Wanki and others, are irrefutable evil intentions or wishes”. 

“If their intentions and wishes were good and pure, they would not have gone to the social media-a global public space. By so doing, it is in evidence that they did not act with sincerity for the good of the church, or in interest of the CBC, and for the glory of God,” Rev Dr Nditemeh had written.

“Brother Wanki Richard has never sought any audience with the Executive President to talk about the unconstitutionality and/or illegality of the procedure of the constitutional revision. The Executive President had been open to receiving everybody. Following repeated complaints from Justice Wanki to the CBC Chairman, the latter admonished him to no avail to meet and talk with the Executive President,” he had said.     

Nonetheless, despite the bickering over the constitutional amendment, Rev Dr Nditemeh still went ahead with the process. The amended constitution is today the source of the turmoil rocking the foundation of the CBC.