The Most Cruel Exit of a Militant Media Guru
By Sylvester Atemnkeng
On June 18, the dreadful giant and enigma, called death,
descended on a towering Journalism icon and mentor. The sad news stormed my
ears with the force of a tornado. I prayed hard that the news should turn out
to be one of those April fool jokes. “But how can we have this kind of cruel
joke in the night of June 18” I wondered.
 |
| Chief Foanyi Nkamayang Paul |
My scepticism was further fuelled by the
journalistic instincts in me-that discipline of the verification of facts and
going the whole gamut of the reportorial enterprise, just to separate facts
from fiction. As my mind did a tour of the abstract world, another family
member lent a bold tongue to my colleague’s tidings. “Yeah, the man is dead,”
he confirmed.
After
coming face to face with the reality, I consoled myself in the words of the
English poet. “Death, be not proud”. I told death, the great enigma, not to be
proud for having harvested a great intellectual, because Chief Foanyi Nkamayang
Paul lives on.Yes, he lives on in his legacy.
His
legacy is a simulacrum of his immortality. It was the English poet and
sermonist, John Donne, who typified death as “a mere cessation of breathing”.
So even without breathing, Chief Foanyi Nkamayang Paul lives on in the critical
contributions he made towards the repair of Cameroon’s Journalism edifice.
The
fearless Chief Foanyi Nkamayang Paul is an exceptional star in the galaxy of
the few media providence who chose to call issues by their real names in the
country’s policies. He was a daring Journalist whose ideas were unsparingly
frontal and catholic in scope.
All the
same, death, that callous reaper, harvested him at his media apogee. It has
reaped many fine brains in our country.
His
contributions as a Journalist, President of Cameroon Association of English
Speaking Journalists (CAMASEJ), Commonwealth Journalists Association in
Cameroon (CJA) and Vice in Africa, just to name a few and his participation for press freedom and
onslaught for change, proved that he was a genuine intellectual.
Chief
Foanyi Nkamayang Paul’s write-ups on issues of great national import were
unsparingly frontal. He hit the facts on
the head and called issues by their real names. The man was far from the
madding crowd in a country where hypocrisy has been taken to the pedestal of
virtues.
He kept a safe distance from
hypocritical oafs and pseudo-Journalists who had long sold their consciences
just to line their pockets and fill their stomachs. He was a genuine
intellectual who lived in self-denial and abnegation. He reiterated freely with
friends and fully enjoyed life through quaffing wherever he found himself.
But one
thing remains consoling, that Chief Foanyi Nkamayang Paul lived for the nation
and not for himself. That is why the applause is loudest even after he has quit
the stage.
RIP
Chief, you were a great man, wonderful intellect and Writer of wit and verve.
Though you quit the scene after a fulfilled career, your landmarks in the life
of the nation ripple on.
In the
wake of eternal spiritual uncertainty, it will be safer for every mortal o pray
for a good death. Nobody should waste his or her time praying not to die at
all. Death is inevitable and we must live for others and serve God in those we
find around us, instead of living only for ourselves. Whether you are big or
small, rich or poor, tall or short, ugly or handsome, we are all corpses in
waiting, sir.
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