02/09/2021
FROM JOURNALISM TO EVANGELISM.
How My Journey to New Bell Central Prison led me to TB Joshua.
Paddy Mbawa
Part 2
When I met Prophet T. B. Joshua, he simply invited me, “Come, follow me, and Jesus will use me to make you a fisher of men”. In other words, “Jesus will restore all your wasted hours and you will remember your sorrow no more. The new position God will put you will be so great that you will forget the reproach of the past.” It was indeed a promise of radical transformation. Today, my case has become an argument. My days are filled with glory and testimonies and I have become an asset and not a liability to my people.
International community intervenes.
While I was in the New Bell Central Prison, Amnesty International, human rights groups all over the world, press freedom groups diplomatic missions and the American State Department all mounted unrelenting pressure for my release. From the facts made available, they were convinced that my case was politically motivated and my imprisonment was, so to speak, unmerited. Every day tons of mails besieged the presidency of Cameroun, ministry of justice, the ministry of foreign affairs, and Cameroun diplomatic missions abroad, demanding for my unconditional release. Instead of releasing me, the State of Cameroun unwisely joined issues by filing a seven count charge against me, claiming various infringements of the press law and non compliance with censorship requirements. Their chief accusation against me, was that I deliberately, intentionally and purposely refused to be submitting my newspaper dummies for vetting to the ministry of territorial administration. This was an irritating practice that required a publisher to deposit his prepared dummies with the Ministry of Territorial Administration to overview same before the newspaper hits the newsstands. This administrative bottleneck usually caused unnecessary delays for newspapers to meet their datelines and make news items to become stale. So newspaper business in those days could not be considered a gainful venture but a crusade for press freedom, human rights and democracy. Due to frustration and anger, I usually ignored the procedure and go to town with un-vetted publications. This uncompromising steps I took usually landed me in police detentions time without number. The climax of it all was during the launching of the Social Democratic Front, SDF, party in May 1990 to challenge the one party system in Cameroun. The government was bent on stifling all information about the preparation and launching activities of this party. To the administration, it was a subversive move that should be nipped at the bud. In order to prevent the launching, the government used all intimidating instruments at her disposal, security operatives, the Cameroun National television, CRTV and the government organ, the Cameroon Tribune. Although I was not a member of the SDF, I associated myself with the ideals of freedom the party was advancing as the chief aim of its cause. Majority of Southern Cameroonians had counted on the SDF as the long awaited hope for freedom. I, therefore, used my newspaper Cameroon Post to act as an unofficial mouth piece of the SDF. This pitched me in direct confrontation with the government, especially as I ignored the press censorship law and proceeded to publish what the people needed to know. My newspaper and I were a target as I resulted to gorilla tactics to publish. Every printing press that I used to print the newspaper was policed. In my ambition to keep the public informed about the political climate in the country, I went underground and decided to cross to nearby Calabar, capital of Cross River State of Nigeria to print the newspaper. After printing, I will wrap same in cellophane paper to prevent it from becoming wet by water since I was transporting same through speed boats across the high Atlantic waves. In my quest to keep Cameroonians informed, I continued this underground activity for quite some time. My task was facilitated by the “ghost towns” that rendered the country ungovernable for close to nine months in 1991. In many occasions, law enforcement agents would confiscate some copies displayed in kiosks dotted in various parts of the country on the orders of the government. This ding-dong battle continued until government was forced to put the democratization process on cause. Had it not been for the Cameroon Post that kept the public informed on regular bases, the democratization process would have slowed down. The fact that we continued to amplify interviews, statements and press releases from the SDF, in spite all odds, frustrated government efforts to muzzle the press and kill the democratization process that was imposed on the Paul Biya regime. This was a victory, I believe Cameroon Post warn at the price of my liberty.
Multi-party politics now was reluctantly accepted and in October 1992, the SDF and scores of other registered political parties entered the presidential race. The coming of multi-party politics in the country, momentarily eased tension on me and my newspaper and allowed me some breathing space. This was just a stopping interval that was not to last for long. The presidential election results of October 1992 was to spark up another wave of pressure and tension that affected all domains of the life of the nation. The way and manner the presidential election results was handled and tinkered with brought another controversy in the Cameroun political scene that was to be debated for a long time. The supreme court judge, Justice Alexandre Bipanda Moelle who headed the Constitutional Court that declared the result, had declared incumbent Paul Biya of the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM, candidate winner, as against John Fru Ndi of the SDF who was widely believed to have swept the pools. The judge had admitted in a way of public confession, that “my hands were tied.” This simply was a public confession that he announced what was against his will. The results seemed not to reflect a testimony of his conscience. The judge had perverted justice, no doubt due to pressure from France that was bent to see President Biya remain in power to safeguard her interests. After the proclamation of the controversial results, there was wide spread discontent and agitation from all over the country, notably in the opposition stronghold, Bamenda city, North West of the country birth place of the SDF and home town of John Fru Ndi.
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