The Entrepreneur - Cameroon's Premier Economic & Business Journal

The Five Richest Pastors In Nigeria

God is good, especially if you’re a Nigerian pastor with some business savvy. These days, millions of souls, desperate for financial breakthroughs, miracles and healing, all rush to the church for redemption. And while the bible expressly states that salvation is free, at times it comes with a cost: offerings, tithes, gifts to spiritual leaders, and a directive to buy literature and other products created by men of God. Pastors are no longer solely interested in getting people to Heaven; they’ve devised intelligent ways to make good money while reaching out to souls. Take Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, for example. He is the founder and lead pastor of the Christ Embassy, a thriving congregation with branches in Nigeria, South Africa, London, Canada and the United States. His publishing company, Loveworld Publications, publishes ‘Rhapsody of Realities,’ a monthly devotional he co-authors with his wife. It sells over 2 million copies every month at $1 apiece. He also owns television stations, newspapers, magazines, a hotel, a fast-food chain, and more.....

Cheers, Jeers, and Fears: The Death of Bin Laden

The fact that collectively our country (and various faith communities herein) have been celebrating the call and follow-thru for the execution of a man, by our Nobel Peace Prize recipient and Commander-In-Chief is nothing short of paradoxical. Please be clear, by no means am I attempting to undermine the severity of the heinous and inhumane actions orchestrated by an individual who has come to be the physical representative of terrorism, anti-western sentiment and misguided spirituality. The truth is, evil is evil! Yet, an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. Which is what so many of us seem to be. Whenever we celebrate the death of an enemy we seemingly neglect that we are singing along with the discords of reciprocal violence....

 

Should Catholic Priests be Allowed to Marry?

By Lisette Mbeng

The Catholic Church has been rocked recently by allegations of homosexuality and pedophilia. Across the globe, the church faces allegations from diverse communities. This has opened the centuries' old debate of whether catholic priests should be allowed to marry. Would marriage ease the sexual appetites of the Catholic supposedly 'celibate' men in frock? Are there any lessons to learn from Anglican Priests who do marry? We will be glad to read your views. Email me

Vatican's Number 2 Blames Homosexuality For Priest Pedophilia.
SANTIAGO, Chile — The Vatican's second-highest authority says the sex scandals haunting the Roman Catholic Church are linked to homosexuality and not celibacy among priests. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, made the comments during a news conference Monday in Chile, where one of the church's highest-profile pedophile cases involves a priest having sex with young girls.

Qu´Est-Que La Religion Africaine?

Par Mathias Victorien Ntep

Y a –t-il une religion africaine ou doit-on plutôt parler de religions africaines ? Depuis des lustres et même des décennies, nombre d´Africains, déçus par la duplicité et la perversité entretenues par bon nombre de missionnaires, qui introduisirent d´autres pratiques religieuses dans certaines contrées d´Afrique, et surtout rebutés par le rôle de certains dignitaires ecclésiastiques dans la conquête et l´exploitation coloniales, ont toujours enjoint d´autres Africains à retourner aux religions ancestrales d´Afrique. Mais quelle est l´essence de ces religions ancestrales africaines? Avant de cogiter sur cette question, il serait préférable de présenter quelques réflexions menées à ce sujet par deux Africains.

Un nouveau modérateur à la tête de la PCC

Rev. Festus Asana a été élu à Kumba à la faveur du 44è synode qui a connu un changement du bureau exécutif de la Presbyterian Church of Cameroon (PCC)

 

Par Pierre Alexis Kaptchouang

 

La Presbyterian Church of Cameroon, première congrégation religieuse chrétienne anglosaxonne au Cameroun à un nouveau chef; Rev. Festus Asana Ambe, porté à ce piedestal le 24 novembre dernier à Kumba lors du 44è synode électif baptisé « synode du changement ». Une alternance longuement attendue par les chrétiens de cette église qui était impatients de savoir qui allait succéder au président sortant, Rev. Dr.  Nyansako – ni - Nku,  arrivé au terme de son second mandat de cinq ans, et qui prendra sa retraite ce décembre. C’est au terme d’une consultation que l’heureux élu a été accepté par acclamation, après que son principal concurrent à ce poste, le recteur de l’Université protestante d’Afrique centrale (UPAC) Rev. Professor Emmanuel Anyambod Anya ait retiré sa candidature, faisant ainsi de lui l’unique candidat en lice. Néanmoins, les 92 délégués ont procédé à un vote de confirmation au terme duquel le nouveau modérateur a obtenu 100% du suffrage.

 

Open Letter to President Paul Biya of Cameroon on Abortion, By Chief A.S. Ngwana

Mr. President Sir,

ABORTION IS THE GREATEST HINDRANCE TO OUR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTAND PROGRESS

Mr. President, I want you to reflect on what a great loss it would have been to the CPDM and to Cameroon if your mother had aborted you. What a great loss to the Democrats and to America if Barak Obama had been aborted by his mother. The world would not have seen a black man in the white house.  In fact if any of us had been aborted by our mothers, we would have missed all the good things of life.

Africa and Condoms: A Case of Morality in Reality

Nigeria's Bishops Weigh In on Pope's Comments

Since the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, during his recent trip to Africa made statement about condoms and the fight against AIDS in Africa, an unprecedented media campaign has been launched against that realistic reiteration of the Catholic Church's moral position on the matter. The latest of the attacks was from the Belgium Assembly. On April 2, the House of Representatives in Belgium asked the country's government to "condemn the unacceptable statements of the Holy Father on his journey to Africa and to protest officially to the Holy See."

The Bible Treasures Blacks and People of Colour

By Mathias Victorien Ntep
Frankfurt/Main, Germany

The  debate on “Blacks and the Bible” launched many months back in the U.S.A. is indeed an excellent and rare opportunity for all thinking humans to use their God-given reason so as to sort out once for all the issue of the “Curse of Noah on Canaan” in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. The Bible says in Genesis 9 : 24- 27: “ When Noah awoke from his drunken stupor, and learned what had happened and what Ham, his younger son, had done, he cursed Ham´s descendants: “ A curse upon the Canaanites, […] / May they be the lowest of slaves/ To the descendants of Shem and Japhets […]God bless Shem,/ And may Canaan be his slave./God bless Japhet,/And let him share the prosperity/of Shem,/ And let Canaan be his slave.”

Zera: Climax of Modern and Enlightened Thought

By Mathias Victorien Ntep
Frankfurt/Main, Germany

If the Frenchman René Descartes  is regarded as the pioneer of “Modern Philosophy”, if many believe that Kant – the philosopher who borrowed the concept of the “Thing in itself” or “Noumenon” from Amo, the philosopher of Guinea in Africa – is the “greatest philosopher” of the “European Enlightenment”, then all those who´re hep to and familiar with the treatises of Zera Yacob  or Zar´a Ja´aqob would argue with me that the works of this East African philosopher represent the climax of both “Modern Philosophy” and the “Age of Enlightenment”.