University of Buea Students Join Strike Movement

- Demand cancellation of tuition and reinstitution of bursaries;
- Involved in violent clashes with security forces;
- The Post reporter covering event attacked by demonstrators.
More details as story unfolds

UB Main Gate (Photo: The Post/Orock Etta)

Comments

[eyewitness]

UNIVERSITY OF BUEA ON RAMPAGE - AN EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT
(originally posted on the UB ALUMNI and CAMNETWORK e-groups)
***************************************************
It has been only a few months since the students of the University of Buea, burnt down the ID centre and today they are out on peaceful demonstration.

It was last week that the University of Yaounde went on a hunger and non -violent strike. What happened in Yaounde had indeed served as a veritable catalyst to what is happening in Buea right now.

University of Buea students this morning surrounded the entire university junction with placards, bearing inscriptions as "Njouma UB IS NOT YOUR HOUSE" "No Fees" "We Need Allowances" "All Courses Must come for Resit" etc etc.

The uncontrollable crowd went to classrooms and ousted students and lecturers from classes. Students were warned to either join the strike or receiving beatings from the comrades.

at the start, the Police came in their numbers but the Registrar asked them to keep away from the scene because their presence will aggravate the situation.

Standing by him, I heard him saying the following words " We acknowledge the fact that you have the right to strike, but please don't endanger yourself. Don't destroy anything because you will definitely need them"

But then some students could be heard shouting even louder, that "we don’t need you...call for your BOSS, call for the VC"

At this point, I could see students rushing towards the Open Amphi Theatre.... What was happening there.... I followed the banwagon...standing on top of a chair was a young man. in Blue jeans with a shirt of blue and white stripes. You could not see his face because it was covered with the loin of red and white in a veritable Yasser Arafat style

Who was he? He was the one who instigated it. He called for silence and the students became as calm as the sea. What did he have to say?

It was in pidgin that he addressed the student. "My brothers and Sisters, I thank wona all for the massive turnout this morning" was his first words. (Paraphrasing him in English) some of you are striking without knowing the cause of striking.

In the first case, I want you all to know that we are engage in what is known as an unviolent demonstration. Nobody should destroy anything whatsoever.

The following are the reasons for our move;

- We don't want fees let alone fees increase, and will appreciate students’ bursaries

- Resit exams for all courses

- Enough classes. Taps, toilets.

- No lies. There is no Amphi 750 but 650.

- Amphi 650 needs a speaker and projectors.

These are some though not all of what he said. After that, the students hailed him as though he was a messiah.

Within the twinkle of an eye, he could not be seen again. The echoes of his last words were as follows; "The strike continues until something is done. No classes and tomorrow 7:00 am we all gather at the school gate"

The Registrar at this point could be seen approaching the Open Amphi Theatre, but the students shouted at the top of their voices, "We don't need you. Go away"

At this point a journalist from The Post was sighted taking snapshots from a bush. Behold the students; taking him for a spy, bounced on him and his camera was seized. Behold, when the other students came, they didn't want to listen to anything. Sticks were already criss - crossing his bodies.

The student who seized the camera ran away with it. Too bad!. Those who came concluded that, the man who ran with the Camera was an accomplice to the suppose spy and wanted skin the life out of it. Some who had been there initially pleaded and the man's life was spared.

The students then continue their March ..when they got to the 2nd Division Security Post at Malingo, the Police came in to stop the March. The students sat down chanting a song that had the following lyrics " No Violence.... No Violence"

Later the lyrics changed to "Police... no 500, no 500"

On hearing this, the Police fired teargas.

That was how the atmosphere changed into a violent dance.

Stones were hovering the atmosphere like an air wind. The Police changed into law enforcement offices to officers of brutalisation. They didn't only bit students but entered off-licences and harassed old men and pregnant women who where having fun.

OBSERVATIONS

The students had no focus. At the initial stage, there were placards that read thus "We need free food". What a demand.

It laid bare the need for a Student Union. It was the difficulty to identify a leader that made it impossible for the Registrar to have dialogue with the students. If the riot was led by a student Union, it could have been easy to calm down the students, since they would have listened to their leader. The boy who instigated the violent and who addressed the students disappeared into thin air, probable because he didn’t want to fall a victim of a circumstance , only Heaven knows.

The police were wrong to have sent the first stone. It flamed the infuriation. Police could be seen beating a lady who was only selling her food in an off license. When the Police ran out of teargas, the started using stones. Under strict professional ethics, it is wrong for an officer to use his weapons against an unarmed civilian. I wonder whether Police forces take courses in Civil Military Relations.

Finally, the Registrars initiative to stop the police was a radiant move. But the Police failed when they later decided to take up arms.

This is coming from somebody who is observing and is presenting the information to without any bias. It is an eyewitness account.

[Anyambot Gideon]

UB is my alma mater (2001 Graduate,Chemistry), but i don't think strike action was the best option to solve student problems at the first instance. It was just an issue which can be first of all dialogued between the students and the UB officials and if not solved to the students satisfaction, violence can then take the course of action. Cameroon too is noted for it malignant adverse actions and pratices in all aspects and this is why the rate of people (especially intellectuals-'brain drain') emigrating is too much.Is better we see into mitigating the problems of Cameroon for the amelioration of the many and diverse problems we are facing which leads to instability.

[JP Tanyong]

It is clear that this strike has no real purpose or aim. I am afraid it has been hijacked by mere troublemakers. The students have not articulated any tangible grievances. Besides UB is very well organised. Why did they not at first instance try to sound the issues with the authorities. The real cause of this strike is the poverty and hopelessness amongst Cameroon youths. Unfortunately they will vent out their frustrations at the least opportunity.

Imagine students going on strike for free food!!!

Wonders shall never end.

[Munam]

The students on strike have genuine grievances. I graduated from UB in 1996 and I know how vicious the adminsitration of the place is (to counter the impression JP Tayong is trying to give). What happens at UB is dictatorship, pure and simple. I was in UB when two students' governments were dissolved.
Those who live in relative opulence (like JP Tayong perhaps) are often not sympathetic with the problems of the suffering masses.
I live in Cameroon and live with students so I know the problems they face. It is unimaginable that a university would operate without toilets and drinking water.
By the way, the strike atUB is only an extension of a strike in Yaounde that has been ongoing for one week. Students have explicitly enunciated their grievances in an 11 point memo to the Minister of Higher Education.
So, for apologists of the dictatorial administration at UB, the strike is not against Njeuma and her vicious cohorts but the entire rotten higher education system in Cameroon.
KC Munam, Yaounde, Cameroon

[Mike]

Crazy...we want free food? Is that one of the reasons for this strike?

What is happening to the calibre of students that we have in our universities these days? University students should call for pressing university reforms not free food, allowances or free tuition.

The above just cant happen and there is no rationale for that, rather they should call for a redress of the following

- elected Vice Chancellors not appointed ones.
- facility improvement
- management transparency in UB and reduction of power distance and bureaucracy.
- Resit for all courses.
- Powerful Student union
- easy assess to lecturers , more qualified staff and improvement of staff working conditions.
- more opportunity to English speaking students
- and better still political reform in the country.

This is not an exclusive list but I believe it addresses what UB Students and ex UB students think is the cancer of UB.

If the current students do not agree ....then they better get to classes and let the Uniyao 1 guys to the real stuff.

[boni]

People, People:
Your compatriots in the US work their tails off to pay for just one course. Violence and destruction is a pinheaded approach. Use your brains!

[Courtney Eko]

There are no re-sits in trully Anglo Saxon universities. whats' a resit? If unfortunately you do not make it,you go work make some money and come back next june!

[Ayeah Emile]

I believe that students have the right to strike, the underlying reason for striking is what qualifies an evitable strike.A lot of discoursive analysis can be deduced from this strike but atleast lets not pretend to know the country in which we come from. It is very easy to sit in the UK, US, Germany, France Holland etc and draw conclusions of your opinion on issues happening in Cameroon simply because you don't feel the pain, remember, it takes only a very conscious man to address a plight to a suffering masses understandably. Students need more than organisation in Cameroon, whether resit or no resit in an Anglosaxon University, as long as the tradition had been introduced in UB , it should continue in the proper way. Can you tell me a single anglosaxon University where the VC is a PhD holder and assisted by renounce Professors? It is very clear that dialogue has no place in the system which Biya has instilled for over 20 years in Cameroon, the simple fact that Universities in Cameroon do not have Strong Student Unions is very indicative students have to only follow instructions.It is too bad when you try to coin the meaning of a Hunger strike into free food so that you can express your ignorance on net like this, only makes some of us Anglophones real idiots of the first categories.

[JP TANYONG]

My people,

Please don't misunderstand me. I don't support
the system in Cameroon at all, but that does not mean people should go on strike just for the sake it.

The students carried placards demanding free food and did not just go on hunger strike. That already calls their seriousness into question.

Second, it must be known that every country charges fees for home students at a much subsidised rate. Foreigners in Cameroon universities pay around 600,000FCFA while nationals pay just 50,000FCFA. Even here in Britain, UK and EU students still pay fees albeit much reduced fees.

UB is modelled on an anglo saxon system which has no place for resit. Very few universities even in the UK have anything like resit. It encourages students to get really lazy. I used to know Yaounde students who abandoned school during the term in the hope of coming and doing everything at resit.

Every thing in UB is subsidised for students: meals, hostel rents, internet etc.

As I said before this strike has been hijacked by trouble makers. What business did they have vandalising university vehicles and loooting equipment. Unfortunately it is the students who will eventually suffer.

Let me say, because Yaounde students are on strike does not mean that UB should blindly follow. You cannot even begin to compare the quality of education at UB with the rotten one in Yaounde.

Finally I plead with all contributors to this forum to show respect for others. The fact that someone expresses a contrary view should not give room for nasty things to be said. At the end of the day we are all Cameroonians struggling to better ou lives and those of our countrymen

Yours brother,

JP Tanyong,
London, UK

[S N Augustine]

The situation in UB is not a war that ruthless brutes in the name of law inforcement officers should be sent to calm. It was as if these untamed animals were looking for the opportunity to stike on sudents and innocent civilians in bars. These students are out to express their grievances and ask for certain demands. They simply want thier rights to be recognised. The presence of the police sparked up the voilence that followed and this has unforeseen repercussions which would be difficult to handle. DOROTHY, please listen to the plight of your students, so that the good name of UB continues to prevail. UB students, I reiterate the rigister's remark that you circumvent the destruction of the already limited facilities you have. It would take long to replace. Lets pray to God that the worse does not happen.

[Ambe Johnson]

According to Le Messager (We now have to go to other sources since The Post doesn't think the story warrants a special report): About 15 people were wounded, among them the Gendarmerie legion commander for the SW and the commissioner of Police of the Buea 2nd district), dozens of students arrested, 13 cars destroyed, the university refectory looted, and computers destroyed.

Well, well, well, so much for our "Anglo-saxon" values. For once, the "wild" francophones of UNIYAO have taught us a lesson in non-violent and effective protest, while the "gentlemen" of UB have once and for all shattered that laughable myth that those on the West Bank of the Mungo have a superior civilization than our Francophone brothers.

For some pictures of the destruction, check out
http://www.lemessager.net/journal.php?code=286

Also check out http://www.quotidienmutations.net/ for the story on how the students went after journalists covering the story - what stupidity!!!

I pray that these vandals and barbarians be arrested, locked up and the key thrown away.

[a.jay]

Close UB. I guess All the troublemakers will be excited. I remember how a lot of people struggled before UB was open. Today students who are not handicapped want free food. If you want free food go get your farm fools

[James]

THE MASTER PLAN AT WORK.
Most people have no idea of the master plan at work here. What you are seeing in Buea now is only a tiny part of a master agenda put in place by the government years ago to undermind Anglophones, but to do so with a clean hand. The government is not out for the best interest of the Anglophone comunity in Cameroon. Yet they hold the key to the community's faith. They will continue to pull strings years in advance that can be expected to result into outcomes like this one and even worse. Biya and his planners are now smiling in their palaces and thinking of how to promote the master planner of these Grand Project as they continue to make progress toward their overall goal to franconize anglophones , further enslave us and put us down using any means.

[PETER]

DEAR COUNTRY MEN,
ITS HEART BREAKING TO HEAR OF SUCH EVENTS BACK HOME. WE SHOULD ACKNOWLEDGE WE HAVE GONE ALONG WAY TO BE STILL FALLING INTO SUCH TRIVIALITY AS WHAT I SEE POSTED ON THE POST WEBSITE AS DEMANDS MADE BY FELLOW STUDENTS AND THE MEANS THEY GET ABOUT ACHIEVING THEIR AMBITIONS. THE DEMANDS ARE LEGITIMATE AND TIMELY, BUT WE SHOULD RECOGNISE THAT, NOT ALL ARE AND WE COULD SURE GET A MORE PATRIOTIC WAY OF GETTING OUR DEMANDS MET WHAT'RE THE OBSTACLES ON THE WAY. YOU SHOULD BE PROUD OF YOUR UNIVERSITY, FOR ITS REALLY A CENTER OF LEARNING AND SURELY, WHEN ANY OF YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY OF COMING OVER HERE TO EUROPE YOU WILL SEE THAT, THE GOV'T AND THE POWERS THAT BE OUT THERE NOT LEAVING OUT YOUR LECTURES ARE MAKING A WONDERFUL SACRIFICE FOR YOU ESPECIALLY WITH THE HIGH STANDARDS SET OUT THERE. MOST OF US OUT HERE PAY MILLIONS OF CFA FRANCS OF OUR PARENTS STRIFE AND EVEN WONDER WHETHER U.B. WAS NOT GIVEN TO US "FREE OF CHARGE". BEGIN A GRADUATE OF U.B. MAKES ME PROUD AND I DEFEND THAT, RIGHT IN MY AMPHI' AND SEMINAR ROOMS EACH DAY OF MY LECTURE SEMINARS AT MY M.BA PROGRAM OUT HERE.DON'T DESTROY THE ONLY TREASURE THE ANGLOPHONES SEEM TO HAVE. IF YOU DO, YOU WILL SURE LIVE TO REGRET IT. I SEEM TO HAVE HARED SIMILAR COMMENTS FROM MATES AS: JP TANYONG AND AMBE JOHNSON. "A WORD TO THE WISE IS SUFFICIENT" AS THE ALWAYS SAY
DISTROY U.B. AND YOU ALL WILL, GO TO THE STRRETS AND FARMS AS 'NARROW-MINDS', KNOW THAT,
PETER,
THE INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE,

[Bumuh samuel]

Too sad to read about all the recent happenings in UB. This university is my alma mater. I am a graduate from Dept. of life science back 1998. I really don't think violence will ever solve any problem. Human wants are always very limitted and will never be 100% satisfied.Grievances will always be there.People need to put brains together,talk and look for solutions to problems, and not use violence as a means to force the administration to solve problems. I feel the students should have acted only when the list of grievances had reached the ministers office and nothing happening. Actions could take any form but not destroying anything. I currently study at the university of witswatersrand in south Africa. We do strike but make sure that we don't destroy anything cos we need those stuffs even after the strike.The police have to protect both human and properties. They can not stand and watch students destroy things and they 4 haven sake do not have to use their arms on the students for the hopes and dreams of the nation is in their hands. Is UB still the place to be.
Bumuh Samuel
Wits university . South Afria

[Fokwa Tsafack J.B]

I graduated from the University of Buea in 2000 with a Bachelor in Laws. I am very concerned with the prevailent situation at UNIBU.I would like to look at the crises from a different angle. Most of the comments that I have read from other students gives the impression that the students of the university of Buea in an attempt to express their grievances decided to resort to violent demonstration as the only option.I don't really think this is the right picture.Freedom of demonstration and assembly is enshrined in the constitution of Cameroon. This makes each and every Cameroonian to have the rights to freedom of peaceful demonstration and assembly.Cameroonians have always embarked on peaceful demonstration, but in most occassions, they've been a clash with the law enforcement officers.I strongly believe that the University of Buea students expressed their constitutional right to freedom of peaceful demonstration and asssembly, but the law enforcement officers reacted violently. In this scenario, the students in great disappointment where pushed to violent reaction.

I am not really in support of the fact that the students destroyed university property, but I think that the law enforcement officers did not handle the situation adequately.

It is alledged that almost five students are dead.Lets assume that the students reacted violently, but this does not give the law enforcement officers the right to kill.In most occcasions, self defence has always been used by the law enforcement officers as an excuse to shot and kill civilians. The students did not use guns, knives or dangerous explosives in the course of the strike. Why should law law enforcement officers react by using guns. There is no balance of force here.

The prevailent crises in Buea has been exacerbated by the manner in which the law enforcement officers reacted towards the students.Cameroonians have always embarked on peaceful demonstration and assembly as a means of expressing their grievances, but in most occasions,they've been violent reactions from the police officers.

There is the urgent need of the government of Cameroonian to train the law enforcement officers on how to handle crises that revolves around students.