UB Crisis And The Flight Of Innocence

By Charly Ndi Chia

A University, scientifically speaking, is a corporate body, devoted to study, teaching and investigation. The term must have had its etymological origins from "Universal", which in itself, is a term or concept of general application. By universal here would mean belonging to, or done by all persons or things in the world or class concerned; better still, applicable to all classes.

In a genuine university setting, methodology is routine and every decision is sanctioned by reason and philosophy. In other words, truth is the constant to which every member of the university community must submit themselves, willy-nilly.

A politician has been described at certain times as a person with self-interested political concerns and who strives for power by manipulation. It therefore follows that a politician could easily manipulate systems and procedure, including varsity procedure. Cameroon, like every country else, belongs to homosapiens, brought together by an accident of nature; by sheer divine intervention, if you like. There is little or nothing we, the inmates of the country can do about this fact.

We are Cameroonians, doomed to live together, to do business, quarrel and reconcile; regionalism, ethnicity and other cultural variables and considerations notwithstanding.  We are doomed to be this way until another accident of nature or political precedence intervenes…if ever. Yet, in striving to live like one people whom the strong wind of fate has blown to a particular corner of the world, care must be taken of political, ethnic and regional hawks that would stop at nothing even to eat the baby's food as it were.

I heard for the first time last week from the likes of Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo that there is a text governing public examinations in Cameroon. Ndongo, Nnomo and Ndong employed every adrenaline of overkill, in both national and international media, to castigate the University of Buea, UB, Vice Chancellor, VC, for running afoul of laid down procedure. According to this trinity, national character and regional balance must be considered when it comes to admissions into institutions of higher learning. They conveniently invoked this text to justify why names of certain individuals were surreptitiously injected into a list of candidates that had to be interviewed for admission into the newly created UB School of Medicine.

I asked myself the following questions: Why was this text only applied when it had to do with admission into UB? Why is this political provision never invoked when it comes to admission into CUSS and the Polytechnic in Yaounde, to name only these two? Why is it that those singing national character in UB have never coughed when over half the number of military and police officers were recruited only from one single ethnic group when Cameroonians from all four cardinal points wrote the exam?

Fame Ndongo and other born-again nationalists should take a second look at their list of discord and tell the rest of us why they had to force in the names of two more Northwest candidates into it, even after crying that Lambi's version was infested with names from that region. There is, yet, one other disturbing coincidence: Students' strikes happen in other universities in the country. But in none of these cases has any student been shot like has successively been done in Buea. Again, is it such a coincidence that only students of Northwest origin are selectively shot during student riots?

Let us give the champions of regional balance and national character, Fame Ndongo, Marcelline Nnomo and Norbert Ndong a fair chance. Let us assume that the text they are hanging on to is a product of social engineering, aimed ostensibly to forge unity among the diverse ethnic units of the country. It would be, indeed, an apt demonstration of unity in diversity.

But of course, there are yet, no records to be quoted to the effect that names of candidates of Northwest and Southwest origin were ever unconventionally introduced into a list for either Polytechnic or CUSS admissions in submission to regional balance. On the contrary, it is on record that the Polytechnic is almost a no-go area for Anglophones. Ditto for ENAM and other public schools.

Whatever the case, the Ahmadou Ahidjos who founded our public institutions surely had lofty ideas and great dreams for the motherland. Institutions of learning in particular, were designed as the bedrock for further cementing Cameroonian unity and establishment of new relations and new friendships across ethnic borders and boundaries.

They were meant to transcend the over 250 tongues that dot the landscape and foster culture mix among Cameroonians. Time was, when these objectives were pursued with vigour and tenacity of purpose and students were admitted to schools on merit and equity. The trinity of Fame, Nnomo and Ndong cannot pretend not to know that in their time, merit was made the first casualty of political expedience. Admission into certain schools became a thing for practically one region.

Today, they are preaching regional balance for personal effect. Tell me, should someone from the Southwest Province who scored say 335 marks on 500 at the UB School of Medicine exams be dropped in favour of a candidate from the East Province who scored 230 just to satisfy regional balance or a repugnant piece of social legislation? What informs such unlearned argument of offensive government policy and texts? The decision to hijack the conduct of admission from the authorities of UB does not in the least, foster national unity, not to say intellectual rigour and industry.

The likes of Nnomo, Ndongo and Ndong are sanctimonious hypocrites. Only they and their ilk stand to benefit from the sleaze that is going on at the University of Buea. This culture of sleaze, mediocrity and political chicanery must stop for there to be true love among Cameroonians.

The ordinary Cameroonian knows love and is his brother's keeper. They are blind to the alien concept of tribe and region. They intermarry and celebrate common football victories without ever asking that there be regional balance in the choice of the national team. Fame Ndongo's newfound law/text on public exams and its bloody consequence in UB can only mean one thing: the flight of innocence and a scary call for our children to live on the frontiers of love and unity. For our children's Cameroon of tomorrow, let us give our today. Let's give them love and not hatred.

Comments

[rexon]

Charly,

Brilliant article. We have heard these stories over and over. They know how to pick words from the dictionary and lecture us. But when it actually matters, these words are nowhere to be found. One of their agents in this forum, the legendary Dr Agbormbai was very good at employing these words to defend actions like these.

Those who have ears should listen, those who have eyes should see. La Republique Du Cameroun have killed 4 of your own who did nothing. Then, they are using "choice of words" to defend themselves. We heard theeir colonial VC said,"Monumental error", their prime minister said, "based on the principles of equity, transparency, objectivity, etc", their minster of health is saying, "texts governing entrance examinations".

Were have we been all these years? Above all, these are the most evil group of bandits and occultist that the entire universe have ever produced. Every on of theirs is a very bad person that should never be listened to. The earlier southern Cameroonians realise that they have the responsibility to stand against these evil groups of people and their children who will always stand here to defend the wrongs of their parents, the better. I have nothing personal with any of these authorities, just that i have to fight for my rights as freedom is a human right.

[Tekum Mbeng]

Charly Ndi Chia, you are the Voice of Reason and my Man of the Year 2006.

In the Francophonia of Cameroun lurks a few dinasaurs. Fame Ndongo is an ancient lizard of zero principles whose claim to fame lies in the fact that he shares the same ethnic group with President Paul Biya. Otherwise he would never see a microphone to lecture trash.

The fact that Ndongo's ministerial "jury" added 2 more NW students to a list already over-populated with NW student talent ridicules his concept of regional balance.

It is also a pity that Agbor Tabi has not learnt a lesson from the tragedies of E.T. Egbe, S.T Muna and others.

UB students need to learn to express their grievances through peaceful demonstrations. Property destruction is a criminal activity not tolerated any where on earth.

[Muki StoneHall]

Charly Ndi Chia,
I wish your cries and lamentations could be echoed by just half a dozen other S.Cameroonians.But unfortunately should tremendous efforts as you make will always be thwarfted by the likes of Agbor Tabi, Inoni, Ngole,Achidi Achu etc,who are only out to protect their jobs and satisfy their selfish ends.According to them,anything done or said by the minister is correct.It doesnot matter whether Anglophones are admitted to CUSS or ENAM.If the minister turns round next year and say 99% of those to be admitted to UB must be francophones,it will still be Ok to these individuals provided they maintain their jobs.It is a real shame!!

[Kene]

What an article? Word will never describe how good a writer you are. This is one of the best article ever published on this forum. Please, Charly Ndi Chia share your knowledge with other; even those who are 'veterans'.

[Kene]

What an article? Words will never describe how good a writer you are. This is one of the best article ever published on this forum. Please, Charly Ndi Chia share your knowledge with other; even those who are 'veterans'.

[Kene]

What an article? Words will never describe how good a writer you are. This is one of the best article ever published on this forum. Please, Charly Ndi Chia share your knowledge with other; even those who are 'veterans'.

[vito]

Mr.Ndi Chia,how could you on earth could you send that child to interview the Vice Chancellor over a burning and pertinent issue like this?

[vito]

... how on earth could you...

[JB Samba]

'Kudus' to you Charly.

[JB Samba]

'Kudus' to you Charly.

[ftroit]

Can anyone cite me to this much talked about 'text on regional balance'. I thought this is a mechanism that Ahidjo employed during the nationalism era, while 'building' the nation. Well, here we are more than 40 years later, I don't think it worked for us, did it?

[Ma Mary]

Very good Mr Charly. Somebody who does not live by the principles he prescribes unto others (in this case, regional balance) is a mere opportunist. Spit on his face. He deserves it. These people like to eat their cake and have it again and again and again.

[Watesih]

" The rolling stone that gathers a lot of moss",there you go again! Tell it as it is supposed to be.Your mind is our minds,and by reading this ,there`s always a healing somewhere.In psychology ,it might be refered to as a release valve.They know that we suffer when they dish this out to us,but they laugh at us to please their sick humour.Thanks Charly!

[Langai]

The shooting dead of the 2(4) students was no accident. But let me digress a little. If there was any hidden agenda, it was not on the student side of this catastrophe. The hidden agenda was rather on the government side through the agency of the VC and his lieutenants. I blame the PostNewsLine for allowing its cyber space to be used as a government tabloid. We have been too used to seeing this type of interview or question time in the National handclapping congregation in Yde where ministers "defending" their budgets are not asked follow-up questions. (Parliament,which gets its name from the French "parlement", where people go to speak constructive ideas, in CMR becomes an oppressive instrument in the hands of the executive, and its members have no way of influencing policy.) I can only guess that the Post obtained the right to interview VC Lambi only on condition that E. Sumelong ask him only those questions chosen by the VC for which he had ready answers intuitively designed by him for his self-preservation or dictated to him by the commandeers of this mess. So we will never know the truth, whether the additional list from Yde was from the Minister of Public Health (as has been mooted in some reactions) or from that of Higher Education (as would be expected in the circumstances) for whom merit is a far-fetched word. That is the same fellow who claimed that he, as director of ESTIC/ASMAC, could train anglophone journalists in a period of 1 month, just to show that they come 2 for a dime and were not important in the corrupt set-up run from Yde. For a proper interview that clears the air, we need to know where the additional list came from and that it will not be taken into consideration. Or else, as suggested by Ma Mary, someone should leak the list on line so we know which doctors to boycott in the years ahead since the system will go ahead and push them into the medical school in Buea anyway.
Now to the issue: was the shooting an accident? No. Have a look at the gruesome pictures of the 2 students. You will notice that they were shot in the facial/neck area. For a bloodthirsty system like CMR's which thrives on blood-letting, the particular point of entry of the bullet was important. Count Dracula was reputed to suck the blood from the neck area of his victims' bodies. When important issues are on the table in CMR, eg, football, elections, HIPC completion point, IEC, where the ruling house believes it has been pushed against the wall, it resorts to this tactic of blood-letting so as to shield itself from any demands being made of it. Usually, they go for able-bodied Cameroonians to eat and drink their blood, as it were, and to be fortified against the wishes of the majority of people. The 6 trampled in Bda in 90, the zero mort in 91, the others in Kumbo, Ndu, Ndop, Buea, Kumba, Muyuka, Douala and many other places go to join this catalogue of atrocities to sustain a vampire system. That is why the hidden agenda is that of the government and not of the students. The black berets or red berets are only an instrument in achieving these dark designs on an unsuspecting public, a public that has no one to turn to for sympathy, certainly not France or those other Western "democracies" which supply the arms, grenades and tear gas. God is our only help in these dark days.

Langai

[Langai]

This is vintage Charly Ndi Chia. No one could have done better than this in bringing out the realities of this tragedy. The hidden rules which are said to apply in this country are only brought out from the dusty drawers when it comes to my brothers and sisters on the other side of the divide also enjoying the fruits of research, as in the creation of this Buea School of Medicine. No cockroach has ever been known to win an argument in the court of chickens. Like a kite and its baby kites, this ugly minister will swoop down on the chicks until he has his way and pushes in the 26 candidates of the big people's lists. As for me, I am resigned to anything that these hawks will do because they have too many resources at their beck and call, not least the use of brute force. You cannot fight a villain like this with bare hands. Our own ideologues on this forum should come up with strategies for us to respond to this other outrage: Riccardo, you are not welcome to comment on this; any idea you put up here as the high priest of the repressive regime will be ignored. So you better not waste valuable space, even to earn your keep as an agent of darkness.

Maverick

[Danny Boy]

Bobe Charly, I have always known you as a brilliant journalist. Your words have always given me succour since the days of "Cameroon Calling". You are a patriot with gumption. Keep writing. Nobody can silence the pen. I look forward to your next piece of sheer poetry. Bate Bessong, eat your heart out.