UB Strike Pays Off

By Ernest Sumelong & Walter Wilson Nana

The two-week long University of Buea, UB, students' strike action has seemingly paid off with UB authorities conceding to eight out of the students' nine demands during a negotiation meeting on Saturday, December 30.

Prof. Titanji:UB VC

Both student leaders and university administration brokered a deal that granted immunity to the students against all property they had destroyed during the strike while the students agreed to commence classes on Wednesday, January 3.

The university administration with the help of the Regional Secretary of the Human Rights Commission, Christopher Tambe Tiku, had managed to get the student leaders to agree to a peace deal to call off the strike.

Tambe Tiku, who masterminded the negotiation told The Post that the university had agreed to step down fees at all levels of degree programmes in the university to FCFA 50,000,

while those who had paid more than the amount for postgraduate programmes would be refunded the balance. He also revealed that UB authorities also accepted to offer transcripts to students without cost, except when they request for an extra transcript,

in which case, would they be required to pay FCFA 1000.
The Human Rights Secretary admitted that the students had scored a major victory in the strike action and he could not afford to see them lose it, so he had to help them through the negotiations.

One of the student leaders at the negotiation, Donatus Wan-Obi disclosed on Thursday that the administration has offered the Student Union an office, which it is in the process of equipping.

He admitted that fees had been maintained at FCFA 50,000 and that those who had paid FCFA 5,000 as penalty for late payment of fees would be refunded their money.

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Wan-Obi also disclosed that the administration has tabled a request for the findings of the death of two University of Buea students during the 2005 strike action.

He, however, denied claims that the administration had given them money but said the administration has offered to sponsor the activities of UBSU so long as they present their calendar of activities.

"We have requested the University to sponsor the student unions elections, which is coming up soon," Wan-Obi said.
Classes however resumed on Wednesday, January 3, although classrooms are yet to be full.

Avoid Detractors

The new Vice-Chancellor, VC, of the University of Buea, UB, Prof. Vincent Pryde Kehdingha Titanji, has cautioned his students to avoid being used by third parties for undeclared aims.

Titanji was speaking during the installation of some University administrators appointed last December following certain changes at the institution.

"The main pre-occupation of students in a university milieu should be to make their career. Please, remain focused on that. Our students constitute a precious resource and the raison d'être of our action," the VC said.

Titanji assured the students of the "availability of his administration and readiness to teach them all the skills they need to be good citizens".

He said they were bound by the dictates of communal life to live and work together as a community; students, teaching staff, support staff and the community hosting the university.

He also advised his collaborators to be careful in the management of the financial, human and material resources placed at their disposal.

"Remember that the staff under your charge are fellow citizens that deserve consideration and fairness. University of Buea Decree No. 93/034 bans all forms of discrimination; race, ethnic origin, sex, place of birth, family origin,

linguistic groups and more. Make the units under your charge a veritable cradle of national unity and integration," he said.

Comments

[Akoson]

"The two-week long University of Buea, UB, students' strike action has seemingly paid off with UB authorities conceding to eight out of the students' nine demands during a negotiation meeting on Saturday, December 30" - By Ernest Sumelong & Walter Wilson Nana.

Which other demand wasn't met? Refusing the 26 names Yaounde sent? You journalists should be very prepared when submitting your papers for publication! My eyebrows are still raised!

[rexon]

The University Of Buea Students’ Strike:
Some Lessons From The Fallout

Injustice begets strike.
Strike is an instantaneous and effective way of calling injustice to order or neutralising it. It is rebellious because injustice carries ingredients of aggression .As a flash back; it was, thanks to the Sasse College students’ strike of 1958 that the quality of students’ food was improved and the incidence of stomach trouble and other related ailments on campus considerably reduced. So, strike works!
The boycotting of lectures and staying away from normal university activities as the students of UB did in November 2006 in protest to Yaounde’s provocative and fraudulent imposition of extraneous candidates on the School of Medicine is a typical example of a positive attempt to neutralise injustice. And coming as it did, at the peak of the nation’s widely publicised war on corruption, it should be admitted that by the strike, the students were fighting a significant battle against the endemic corruption that has bereft our educational and professional institutions of the excellence they once enjoyed. Against this background the students’ strike was right and proper and they deserve not only mere applause but standing ovation! Otherwise, the ongoing war on corruption is either meaningless or a wholesale deceit .Any resistance or revolt with the objective to overturn injustice is justified. But by exploiting the inability of an evidently sickly, frail, and temporarily imbalanced Vice-Chancellor to come to grips with the gravity of their crime that left at least two dead, the perpetrators craftily thrust the blame on the helpless VC and thereby wriggled themselves off the hook.
To the alibi the culprits tried to establish ,Prof Fame Ndongo ,the Higher Education Minister, added accusatory and derogatory statements, lies and ridicule to make Lambi look like a buffoon. He stated “…Informé de cette situation contraire a la décision ministerielle organisant le concours ,le Ministre de l′Enseignement Supérieur a immediatement ordonné le respect des textes reglementaires (publication des admissibilités par le president du jury et pris en compte des équilibres sociologigues, garants de l′integration et de la stabilité nationale)et a declaré nulle et de nul effet la liste signée illicitement par le Vice-Chancellor qui a du restes, reconnu publiquement sa faute devant les enseignants,les étudiants et les medias.( La Revelation No 092 du jeudi, de decembre 2006, p.2)
The fact that Prof .Fame Ndongo is now claiming to be an apostle of regional balance in the apportionment of public goods, when ,as one of the anointed power brokers of the regime he knows,deep-down he is only propounding a theory,is simple proof that he has been caught pants down, in his own wrongdoing.
By appealing to regional balance which their inordinate greed proscribes, the Minister has opened a can of worms .Why would the Minister regularise an act of irregularity by yet a grotesque act of irregularity? His regulatory text ordered the short-listing of the 72 top successful candidates in the written examination for orals .The Vice-Chancellor short-listed 127, a grievous offence one would say, and according to the enraged Minister, nearly all Anglophones. Then the learned Professor regularised the situation by increasing the already out of proportion number of 127 to153,81 candidates or nearly 120% in excess of his initial prescription of 72.In the process ,he increased the Anglophone quota he had bitterly criticised jeopardized regional balance! Sounds bizarre! And looks like Fame Ndongo is in a deal?
The students’ strike and its fatal consequences might have caught the Minister off-balance and an offhand defense was mandatory to appease the university community, the population, and the international community. At that decisive moment the offhand argument of regional balance sounded so plausible and convincing but little did the Professor know that this was only on the surface .The regional balance argument is hollow for the following reasons;
1) Since the thrust is on the apportionment of public goods between Anglophones and Francophones, the Minister should have cited the law he was relying on that gives the formula for the apportionment of public tangible and intangible goods between Anglophones and Francophones that Prof. Lambi violated. In the absence of such a law, the apportionment of places and other goods between Anglophones and Francophones depended on the whims of the learned Professors, and for one of them to turn around and accuse the other for using his sounds like “the pot calling the kettle black.”
2) Cameroonians and the rest of the world only came to know about Fame Ndongo’s regional balance fantasy when the irate students went on strike to denounce the Hon. Minister’s regional balance list of 26 candidates, a list they interpreted as being the product of corruption in high places.
If any such thing as regional balance existed, Prof.Lambi would have had no excuse for failing to apply the rules or principles laid down in that regard.Unfortunately, it would appear that Prof.Lambi was not the magician type Prof. Fame Ndongo thought him to be to be able to know the secret agenda of the Hon. Minister of Higher Education.
3) Professor Fame Ndongo was enraged because the 127 were nearly all Anglophones .According to him this was a mockery of regional balance. Then on his extraneous list of 26 that set the University ablaze, he reinforced the Anglophone component, thereby leaving the message that his scathing criticism of Anglophone preponderance on Lambi’s list and the whole idea of regional balance was a farce! So, is the Professor up to some mischief?.
4) Two medical schools where opened, one in Buea, the other in Douala. Why would Fame Ndongo be showing such keen interest only in regional balance statistics of Anglophone and Francophone intake in Buea and not in Douala? Curiously the intake at the Douala Medical school is 83 of which only 6 names ”…resembled names from the Anglophone provinces.”{Eden No 138 Wednesday, 27 December, 2006,P.2}. Suppose that the 6 are Southern Cameroonians, people of Southwest and Northwest origin,would this be the reginal balance of Prof. Fame Ndongo when it should be 17 following the country’s population distribution?
5) And talking generally about Prof. Fame Ndongo’s myth of regional balance of tangible and intangible goods between Anglophones and Francophones, you have two official languages, French and English, where French is constitutionally declared authentic and English counterfeit.How can you reject a people’s language and accept the people?Can legal tender and counterfeit compete for anything or even circulate freely?And in this Jewish -Gentile- like situation or master-slave relationProf. Fame Ndongo dares talk of reginal balance?
In light of the preceding exposé the regional balance argument is an invention and therefore cannot possibly be the reason for his imposition of 26 students on the University of Buea. The rumour that is floating through the country that 52 (fifty two) million FCFA changed hands prior to the imposition of the 26 obscured candidates seems to carry some credence. Bosco TCHOUBET for instance,questions:” Sur un tout autre plan qu′est-ce qu′on a foutre avec 153 candidats admissibles pour 60 places seulement? Si ce n′est pour les besoins de tripatouillage, qu′est-ce qui justifie une telle disparité? N′est-ce pas un Moyen de créer du gombo pour les organisateurs des concours? ” (La Révélation, No 092 du jeudi 06 decembre 2006, P.3). The “Gombo” referred to in the quotation above seems to strongly suggest that the 52(fifty two) million FCFA story, can not out rightly be dismissed.
And concerning this game of “give a dog a bad name to hang it,” of which Prof. Fame Ndongo is a master player, the respected Directeur de Publication of the French weekly newspaper Révélation, Bosco TCHOUBET, indignantly questions, inter alia,”…pourquoi Fame Ndongo sacrifie-t-il toujours ses collaborateurs chaque fois qu′il est en difficulté? Quel est le tort de Cornelius Lambi dans ce qui se passe a Buea? Est-ce lui qui a introduit la liste additive? C′est de commun accord avec le president du jury que la liste de 127 candidats admissibles a été afficheé? Pourquoi veut-on a present le sacrifier? Aller jusqu′ a le qualifier de member SCNC.est-ce de cette manniére qu’il faut traiter un collaborateur? Pourquoi du coté du Ministère de l′enseingnement supèrieur est-on prêt a tuer pour se maintenir aux affaires? Meme lorsqu′on a commis de gaffes?”(Op.Cit., p.3) A suicidal gaffe it indeed was!
A cross section of the media carries a similar story, a story that amounts to a bill of indictment. But because “l′impossible n′est pas Camerounais,”as Cameroonians are often reminded from above, the Hon.learned Professor Fame Ndongo has been issued a clean bill of health as can be clearly seen in the humiliation and sacking of Vice-Chancellor Cornelius Lambi. That is the reginal balance,that a crime is commited by people of one region and those of another are punished!
Apart from the lesson on dishonesty, corruption and treachery in high places by those we rate as people of some virtue, the most interesting and perceptive lesson is the introduction (albeit timidly) of the debate on the illegality and illegitimacy of the union between part of the former British Cameroons(Southern Cameroons) and the former French Cameroun(La Rep. du Cameroun).The appeal to regional balance between Anglophones and Francophones which Prof.Fame Ndongo had invented and was pursuing at UB Medical School and in the process left at least two dead and scores wounded,is surely an introduction to that debate .If the Anglophones and Francophones who are distinctive in every respect, confined themselves to their separate geographical circumscription, there would have been no basis whatsoever for Fame Ndongo to be pursuing regional balance in Buea from Yaounde that led to the crazy shooting of our people to death. We are asking, and the world is asking, how did a once self-governing and powerful people find themselves underdog, and all they had as a people with a destiny, destroyed or carried away including guns that Fame Ndongo’s people are now bringing back to kill our kith and kin with impunity? What happened to our legislature, our government, judiciary, Police Force and the rest of our state paraphernalia?
Yes we need to review the contract that brought us where we are. Is there any contract at all?
Regional balance without basis is escapism and will never resolve the problem of sending troops from Yaounde or Douala and other parts of La Republique to kill people indiscriminately in Buea, Bamenda, Victoria, Ndu, Ndop, Mamfe, Nkambe, and other parts of Southern Cameroons in the mythical name of regional balance. It is unimaginable how a thing can have a beginning without having an end.
The carrying out of smear campaigns against Prof Lambi, calling him SCNC and making some other disparaging remarks about the SCNC as Prof.Fame Ndongo is doing ,is again escapism that does not and can never resolve the basic question of how a once self-governed and powerful people became powerless and completely dispossessed of all they ever had as a nation. .Prof.Fame Ndongo knows that the aim and purpose of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) and its sister organisations is to address that basic question, which is being addressed here at home, and at the international political arena. The continuous pretense that all is well because Prof.Fame Ndongo’s people and government, are armed to the teeth with weapons of intimidation and mass destruction which they are unceasingly and indiscriminately experimenting on our peace loving people and getting away with it, is a crime against humanity and a great cause for concern.
Since the Hon. Professor Fame Ndongo this time around has by his regional balance theory, willy-nilly, introduced the debate, we invite him and his government to remain open, and provide a climate of peace and congeniality for the ignorant masses to be educated on the sour relationship between Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun (Anglophones and Francophones).The SCNC should not be seen as a taboo. After all, on this basic question of illegality the SCNC and the government of La Republique have clashed at the United Nations High Council for Human Rights (UNHCHR) in Geneva and are clashing before the African Commission On Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) in Banjul, The Gambia. Is there anytimg to hide? Therefore pretending that all is well by using threats and death to suppress the SCNC in an attempt to forestall the debate is hypocrisy. This dog-eat-dog approach to the problem is unhealthy and dangerous
Denying the people the truth is not being accountable to the people who have put you where you are and to whom you have pledged to be accountable. It is a crime against those people, a crime against humanity.
We look forward to a change of heart in 2007, a year that as one of the elected Vice-Presidents of the General Assembly of the United Nations,La Republique du Cameroun is expected to uphold and promote the Charter of The United Nations and its Resolutions.

to be continued.

[wordweaver]

The main issue was the list of francophone students and not a new office for UBSU.

[rexon]

I have really taken time off to review the ideas of this postings. I think Titanji has a moral and psychological problem to be saying all this nonsense to rightminded people like us.

Hear Him:

"The new Vice-Chancellor, VC, of the University of Buea, UB, Prof. Vincent Pryde Kehdingha Titanji, has cautioned his students to avoid being used by third parties for undeclared aims"

Who are the third parties using students for undeclared aims and what in your opinion are the undeclared aims? As we read and understood from the students demands, they were fighting against the imposition of unqualified francophone students at the list of students for UB medical students. Was this not the demands that led to the strike actions?

Secondly, you said:

"Titanji assured the students of the "availability of his administration and readiness to teach them all the skills they need to be good citizens"

What skills have you taught the students that you exchange sex-for marks with or some of us who were witnesses to such and other crimes that you committed during your tenure as a lecturer at UB? what about the manipulation of scholarships in favour of your children and relatives for karolinska institute and stockholm university's department of biochemistry. What about the numerous inflated recommendations letters you have issued to your relatives and friends? Does that amounts to teaching anyone civility of good citizenship?

In summary, people like Titanji need to be taken off our campuses. Lambi and Njeuma was by far better. People like you are the type of people that can be promoted in that corrupt junta. Nobody hates anybody here. what we want is simple truth to be spoken. We are seemingly tired of all these lies and rhetorics by corrupt henchmen of the regime. Always preaching theories, theories, and stories with malicious intent.

[ADAMA KWIKEH]

Rexon,
Let's at least be modest in our comments. Prof. Titanji may have his vices, but saying that people like him should be taken off our campuses makes me wonder whether all you say here is in the interest of the masses (students) or your own interest.

I don't know what you have with Prof. Titanji, but I can assure you that UB needs many more people like Prof. Titanji

No offense!!

[Akoson]

Adama Kwinkeh,

I've never set foot on UB soil. I've been reading with keen interest what Rexon has about UB on this forum. I've made inquiries and many more people have told me what he's been posting here.

From what I gather, Titanji is a sexually transmissible marks distributor.

We understand that his academic qualification is need at UB but he lacks the moral uprightness to be there. For me we shouldn't take risks of exposing such HE-GOATS to our female children. Such people should be locked up in the lab for research.

Just hear you: "...but I can assure you that UB needs many more people like Prof. Titanji" Many more people like Titanji to rape students and issue them pass grades right???

I warned him not to take that office...just watch closely the events that'll unfold as we go on.

No offense, INDEED!

The Son

[rexon]

Adama Kwikeh,

In academic settings, sex between a teacher and a student is a "faux pas". Even consensual sex is a "faux pas".

Yes, Professor Titanji, like Ngoh, etc might have published in very respectable academic journal, but their sex for marks should be a significant call for concern.

In the UK for example, the late professor Olusegun Wallace was renowned for his contribution to social and environmental accounting research, but there was a point where he could'nt get tenure simply because he admitted having consensual sex with a student. At one point, the whole University system (University of Exeter) was grounded because the University tried to keep him, after admitting he had consensual sex. But in standard Cameroonian wisdom, that is not even supposed to be a problem. I think that is where you differ with me. I teach University students, but it has never crossed my mind that i can ever converse "love or sex" with any of them. Let alone exchanging such "sex for marks" with them.

Permit me remind you of the fact that the actions of people like Professor Titanji and Ngoh promotes negative synergies to the long term success of our academic and other systems. Because they are promoting a very corrupt system, other renowned Southern Cameroonians who can't work in such an unscrupulous systems are not being encouraged to come home and make their own contribution.

My view is, all those working for Mr Biya and his gang of bandits should either do the right thing or resign. Hope you understand me well.

[Kene]

well organising a strike alone was a success to UB students. I don't know if all they demanded was offered to them, but I am sure certain uncurrupt policies will never come up in UB. The minister will never send a list and police will think before the shot if at all they do.
My fear now is the divide and rule policy!. Are these students going to stay together and fight all currupt policies from yaounde? For this to happen all of us should educate our brothers, Friends and fellows in UB. UB student should know that they are amongst the strongest opposition force in cameroon. We need all of them to join and speek one language when it come to standing up for what is rights. Please, don't let yaounde split you with money.
To the new VC if we stand up agains you listen to us and your students. This is not anything personal. We are fighting for your children or grand children to have a better live.
Finally, to all UB students who took part in the strike. We are all very proud of you. We cannot praise you individually but history will award your efforts. Congrats and keep on.
Happy new year.

[Ma Mary]

Young ladies of UB, if a professor invites you to his office or other place to "review your paper" or some other pretext, NEVER EVER GO ALONE. Bring your father, your mother, your uncle or aunt or a bunch of peers. You must protect yourself from these old he goats.

[Kumbaboy]

The HOLLY DECREE

I pray that UBSU holds the administration with iron teeth to ENFORCE University of Buea Decree No. 93/034 banning "all forms of discrimination; race, ethnic origin, sex, place of birth, family origin".

By the said decree any future attempt by the intellectually corrupt Fame Ndongo or his replacement (products of a weak Francophone system of education) to cheat students who pass tough competitive exams into professional schools of UB must be resisted by all means, including an indefinite strike in defence of justice.

Regional balance is a glaring subterfuge for ethno-fascism and cronyism. This would have been the lasting legacy of Prof. Lambi but he naively traded away academic honesty for political expediency.

[Tekum Mbeng]

Prof Titanji is starting to sound very suspicious in his language.

He must not make the mistake of underestimating the moral clarity yearned by students.

The future belongs to the students.

[vito]

To equate several human lives and untold psychological trauma to a students' union office,didactic material and 1000f or so reimbursment is tantamount to stupidity and madness.So the strike "payed off"?
At any rate in a fracophone system its normal and like i said ,the UB stopped being an Anglosaxon institution the day those dunces Prof Ndongo sent there started classes;and that's if it ever was one in the first place.
Good luck to you Prof Titanji.

[M Nje]

Kene, That was very nice. The problem is that these guys are servants. There are placed on the frontline to defend their corrupt bosses in Yaoundé, an occupying enterprise and two times World Corrupt Champion. Now he is at least dancing the same music with the student. Very soon his boss will come up with another embracing Ministerial Decree. That is when the dance will stop. He, like a servant, will be left to either lie in public to maintain his job or resign. It is obvious that moment will come. That will be the test for him.

At that time you will know whether he is another wacky guy like Lambi who tried to have it all and ended up with shame and humiliation.

There is no doubt that like other servants and JUDAS in Southern Cameroon, he will be wacky. By accepting the position of VC, he has endorsed what his boss, Prince Fame Ndongo did. He sees nothing wrong when a minister imposes a list of unqualified candidate into the School of Medicine. What a shame. And he says he is a Professor. Shame to you “Mr. Professor.” Professors, among other things, are supposed to be people of high integrity with great ethics. “Mr. Professor”, have you heard about academic honesty? Where and how did you get your PhD?

My dear students of the University of Buea. Just like Kene said, you are my hero. History will have it that you stood up to this corrupt enterprise. Your actions have been recorded around the world. Thank you very much for the strike.

May God bless you are.

[Ma Mary]

A brazen attempt to compromise and pocket the student union. Some will remember the old "student union" at UniYao, the bunch of praise-singing ahidjocrats once led by Achidi Achu. Handsome allowances exchanged hands in exchange for dimabolla choir singing. Achidi had a lot of practice.

Young people, do not allow yourselves to become such a travesty. Do not become the njumba of these grey haired he-goats with disgusting crusty whiskers sticking out of their noses and ears.

If somebody tries to compromise you or sleep with you for marks, just remember that nasty image. Don't sleep with old men. They smell funny. They suck your blood. They use Viagra.

[ADAMA KWIKEH]

Rexon/Akoson,
I don't and will never condone academic dishonesty. So, don't get me wrong.

There is one thing I know and rexon knows that too. I one were to ask Rexon to prove his point that Prof Titanji gives sexually transmitted marks, he will bring out the allegation that came up sometime around 1996 when he (Prof Titanji) was the dean of the faculty of Science.

Remember it was just an allegation and it could be true or false. Thi was at the time I just got into UB and for my five years in UB and 9 years in Buea such a story has never come up again even as we speak.

As for Victor Julius Ngoh, he has been on the lips of everybody for all these years and that's enough to prove that he is of questionable character.

As for Njeuma, we all know what she has been from when I was in class 2 in primary school in 1982 (i.e. when she was if I do remember well, vice minister if education) and the pain she has inflicted on anglophone students all these years.

Prof. Titanji has a long line of PhD's and MSc's who are excelling worldwide. The only tint I know of against this man is the one I cited above and maybe favouritism (which ALL UB lecturers and administrators alike are guilty of).

These three individuals are not comparable to each other. Victor Ngoh and Njeuma deserve to be doing "bellytics" a la maniere Camerounaise; Prof. Titanji deserves to be in the academia and we need more people like him. At lease he has things he can show for his hardwork.
Anybody can write history books like Ngoh.
Anybody can do politics and bellytics like Njeuma.
Not anybody can train academics the way Prof. Titanji has been and is doing.

Everyone one has his/her vices so the people with less vices should be allowed to lead.

I hope we are together on this

[Akoson]

“We are thus faced with a situation in which Third World States, themselves the pre-beneficiaries of resolution 1514 (XV) guaranteeing the principle of self-determination of all peoples, become modern colonizers of less fortunate peoples within their area.” [Judge TO Elias, President of the International Court of Justice (as he then was), in ‘The Role of the ICJ in Africa’, 1 RADIC, 1989, p.8)]

Like I made mention of earlier we're going to continue our discussions from Southern Cameroons under international tutelage.

The Southern Cameroons was under international tutelage with the status of a class ‘B’ territory, first as a British-Mandated Territory of the League of Nations from 1922-1945, and then as a British-administered United Nations Trust Territory from 1946 to 1961.

Under Article 22 of the Treaties of Versailles the Mandatory Power accepted and undertook to apply “the principle that the well-being and development of [the inhabitants of the territories concerned] form a sacred trust of civilization.” At the end of World War II the international mandates system was transmuted to the international trusteeship system under chapters XII and XIII of the UN Charter.

By Article 73 of that Charter the Administering Power “recognize the principle that the interests of the inhabitants of [territories whose peoples have not yet attained a measure of self-government] are paramount, and accept as a sacred trust the obligation to promote to the utmost, within the system of international peace and security established by the present Charter, the well-being of the inhabitants of those territories.” One of the basic objectives of the international trusteeship system, as stated in Article 76 b of the Charter, is “to promote the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of the inhabitants of the trust territories, and their progressive development towards self-government or independence as may be appropriate to the particular circumstances of each territory and its peoples and the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned, and as may be provided by the terms of each trusteeship agreement.”

Up to 1960, the Southern Cameroons though under international tutelage was administered by Britain as part of her contiguous colonial territory of Nigeria. But its distinct identity and personality, separate from Nigeria, remained unassailable. UN Resolution 224 (III) of 18 November 1948 protected the Trust Territory from annexation by any colonial-minded neighbour. While acknowledging that the Trusteeship Agreement makes allowance for ‘administrative union’, the Resolution provides that “Such a union must remain strictly administrative in its nature and scope, and its operation must not have the effect of creating any conditions which will obstruct the separate development of the Trust Territory, in the fields of political, economic, social and educational advancement, as a distinct entity.”

Again keep all this in mind. We're going to continue from here with the Self-government status of the Southern Cameroons. And we're going to see that the Southern Cameroons was ripe enough to exist as an independent state even before La Republique du Cameroon. You'll see for yourself how this argument will dismiss lame points advanced by colonial agents that at the time the Southern Cameroons wasn't powerful enough to govern her territories.

...Coming up next we'll see how in 1954 the Southern Cameroons became a self-governing region within Nigeria and gradually asserted its distinct identity and its aspiration to statehood through increased political and institutional autonomy.

Don't go away!

The SON.

[Akoson]

Mr. ADAMA KWIKEH,

I gather from what you just wrote that you're a youth. The future of that country lies squarely on your shoulders. Before you went to UB and become Titanji's, excuse me prof Titaji's admirer, people had known him long long long time ago.

Hear you:"...Prof. Titanji has a long line of PhD's and MSc's who are excelling worldwide. The only tint I know of against this man is the one I cited above and maybe favouritism (which ALL UB lecturers and administrators alike are guilty of)..." Young man, no one denies that fact that he's got a long line of PhDs and MSCs bla bla bla. Those guys may still have had scholarships in the detriment of those who RIGHTLY needed them. You can be a mediocre at Bachelors but you tend to excel at masters level...is this new to you??? From what Rexon is trying to put across I understand that he(Titanji) may have "doctored" his tribesmen and girlfriends' trancripts to the DETRIMENT OF MORE qualified cases. Of course you know cases where students didn't have undergraduate degrees but went to the Scandenavian universities for masters programmes. They're excelling! Whether Titanji or students did fault that remains academic dishonesty.

What proofs do you want Rexon to brandish on this forum. If he presents an eyewitness account you'll be the first to raise a finger and call his utterances lies. So hold your peace about evidences. I can only refer you to a living victim of Titanji still at UB. Excuse me if I'm going too far! I'll leave Rexon to give you a few examples if he likes...then you can call them lies.

No offence!

The Son

[ADAMA KWIKEH]

Mr. Akoson,
"...Young man, no one denies that fact that he's got a long line of PhDs and MSCs bla bla bla. Those guys may still have had scholarships in the detriment of those who RIGHTLY needed them. You can be a mediocre at Bachelors but you tend to excel at masters level...is this new to you???"

Old man, from this statement of yours and what you said before you have know Prof. titanji through hearsay (gossip) and I guess you know the caliber of people who gossip. If you want to know more about Prof Titanji, I will like you to call someone in UB and get first hand information. don't rely on what Rexon has repeatedly posted here concerning him. Talking about the caliber of students Prof. Titanji picks to work with I will tell that he is particularly selective about the students he choses to suppervises and usually goes for the best students (the way scholarship agencies would normally select their students)- at least this what I have senn him do. I don't refuse the fact that mediocre students can still excel at Masters and doctoral levels, what I am saying is Prof's students are excelling because they were the best in their lot. By the way when I look at the various PhD's and MSc's trained by him from when he was at Nkolbisson in Yaounde to UB less than 20% are from his tribe.
I want you to check out the facts for yourself and stop relying on hearsay information to draw your conclusions (...and try to contact neutral persons, not people who would want to see him dead and you will get the kind of information you want)

"...What proofs do you want Rexon to brandish on this forum. If he presents an eyewitness account you'll be the first to raise a finger and call his utterances lies. So hold your peace about evidences. I can only refer you to a living victim of Titanji still at UB. Excuse me if I'm going too far! I'll leave Rexon to give you a few examples if he likes...then you can call them lies".

I would appear you are struggling even more than Rexon to justify your claim. I'm afraid if you were to truly ask Rexon for proofs, he will have nothing more than what I have already pointed above because I have followed his comments about Prof. Titanji for a very looooooooooonnnng time and this particular incident that I cited above is what he has been hammering on time without number (Rexon, prove me wrong)

Your may also want want to do a random posterity profiling of some of Prof. Titanji's students to get the truth that he always selects the best students (i.e. meritocracy in practice). Is that not what you guys have been complaining about all the time that it's lacking in Cameroon?

Let's for once learn to suppress our egos and appreciate hardwork.

BTW, are you insinuating that Prof. Titanji's students were mediocre students at bachelors and only tended to excel at masters and doctoral levels?

That would be so mean of you to think for one second like that (that if you knew just 10 of these briliant guys).

Let's for ones allow objectivity to prevail.

[rexon]

Adama Kwikeh,

It is fashionable in socio-political discourses in la republique francaise du cameroun for criminals to ask "ou sont les preuves". And when evidences are given, they tend to argue that they are not hard enough to merit any investigation. Dont behave like you are a CPDM spin-doctor pretending to be an independent mind.

I have customarily cited instances where he has sacrificed meritocracy for mediocrity. For example, How did Kemia (his daughter) and most of his relatives found themselves on a reasonable scholarship at one of the most prestigious medical schools and universities in the Scandinavia at the expense of rightminded Southern Cameroonians?

Titanji was implicated by rightminded UB academics who were seemingly against such unethical behaviour. I dont want to dwell on this topic as if i am witchunting him and his subjects. Lets leave the debate like that. You can fool some people some time but not everytime.

[ADAMA KWIKEH]

Rexon,
I am not and will never behave like a CPDM spin-doctor or whatever you call it. I have never militated in any political party in LRC and of course will never do so. I am for total liberation of Southern Cameroons and even as we speak I don't know which of the liberation movements to join because in all of these movements we find people who are using the course for the same greedy motives that we have been debating about.

Mark you that I didn't say that Prof Titanji has a completely clean record. He has his own evil doings (and there is no administrator in UB who hasn't favoured some student to the chagrin of another) but at least he has alos succeeded in training some students on a strictly merit basis and should be commended for that. If Fame Ndongo was like him, at least on hs list of 26 he would have even put some people who wrote the entrance exam and didn't get a good pass (say from #128 to 135). He didn't do that so Prof. Titanji is a better devil than Fame Ndongo so to speak.

Yes, I know about Kemia and I might not know about her academic strength but she MIGHT as well merit what she got (don't roll out that scenario). Should his cholden not attend goo schools just so people should not label him just? This is the same story line a certain Vally of England has been using against NJFN saying that he has sent his children abroad while other people's children are suffering in Cameroon. Which of these people who level such complains would not send their children abroad if they had the means to do so?

Titanji might be bad but at least he is better than Ngoh and Njeuma.
Cutting him off for instance means cutting research in the Department of Life sciences by more than half. Guess who suffers the effect - some innocent students who would have had the opportunity to be trained by him to better their lives

I rest my case. let's dwell on more important issues.

Happy New Year.

[DaDiceman]

Adam Kwikeh, thank you for your timely intervention. I am always bothered by unsubstantiated rumours on this forum which are then used by some contributors to completely shred the reputation of someone.

We are essentially putting any information here at the free disposal of a worldwide audience. If serious allegations about someone's personal or professional conduct is made here, and subsequently proven to be false, the damage done is incalculable.

Some contributors here revel in settling scores and shredding the reputations of people they don't like. The more prurient the allegation the better. They take to any allegation of improper personal conduct like a pig to mud, and start slinging all the mud they can find on the person's reputation.

During my time on this forum, some unfortunate SONARA engineer had his reputation torn apart here with allegations that he falsified stuff on his CV. After he was forced to come here and raise serious doubts about the truth of the allegations, did any of those who had attacked him say sorry? Absolutely not. The archives of this forum still contain those allegations. The damage is done. If a potential employer Googles that man's name, the poor man is finished.

Recently, it was the turn of a national politician. Allegations which should really be dealt with by the police, are being dealt with here, as gospel, with impunity. Again, the allegations against this politician is now written on the virtual stone that is the internet. Difficult to erase. Damage done.

Now is the turn of Prof. Titanji. The allegations against the Prof. may or may not be true. But just in case they are not true, are those unthinkingly joining the lynch mob prepared to publish a retraction of their allegations if they are proven to be false? Me think not.

Now one of these cyber vandals is going to come here and say I am a relative of Prof. Titanji!

[rexon]

Dadiceman,

Regrettably, you are getting the facts wrong here. If the young man you are trying to defend from Sonara was Yenwo, he has been guilty of the following malpractices:

1-Moneydoubling business with feymen from Mutengene.
2-Falsiying his date of birth and other academic records.

Secondly, i will like to remind you that, strictly speaking, Titanji (like Ngoh) is guilty of malpractices in UB during his tenure. Those who say he has changed know how and when. Arguing to defend him and calling some writers here cyber vandals is regrettable. Permit me remind u that even Barack Obama (like Bush, Clinton, Hilary Clinton, etc) has been forced to answer questions relating to their background and past conducts before taking positions of responsibility in their respective governments. I wonder why each and every time such an issue pops up, we are being accused of making derogatory and other inappropriate remarks.

[M Nje]

Rexon,
Thanks for that. We are advocating for an open society. A Southern Cameroons state where public service means public services. It comes will a high level of scrutiny. If you don’t like it, then stay away from public services.

It is that simple.

[DaDiceman]

Rexon, thanks for the clarification, but it still bothers me for the reasons I outlined. The consequences of damaging one innocent person's reputation is not something personally I like on my conscience.

I don't draw my morality from America, for those who do, good luck to them. I am sure there are people who disagree with my caution. That's fair enough and I can see where they are coming from.

I am not a legal person, but I thought one of the things of great pride in the Anglosaxon legal system, compared to the Francophone legal system, was innocent until proven guilty. As a proud Southern Cameroonian I take great pride in that concept, and will continue to fight for it when we have our own country.

Because something is done in America does not mean we should adopt it in Southern Cameroon without questioning it. You can still have an open society without trial by internet. Certainly, if the Southern Cameroon legal system will be based on trial by internet, there will be a lot of people staying away from public service, that's for sure.

[DaDiceman]

BTW rexon, if called upon by the police, are you prepared to be a witness for the prosecution in any case against the SONARA engineer and the UB lecturers you have mentioned? Is your knowledge of the allegations against these people able to stand up in a court of law?

[M Nje]

DaDiceman

I can see you are very careful to make conclusions especially about people. I totally share that view. I will personally go after anyone who makes untrue allegation about others.

But there is another point here that you cannot stop. When you take a public office, you are opening a door into your life. It is not a trial by internet in my view. That is a spontaneous reaction in any advanced civil society.

Some accusations may take you a lifetime to proof wrong. While I do not encourage fabulous accusation, I strongly believe in a society that has a constant eye on its leaders.
It keeps them awake.

[DaDiceman]

M Nje, I would hope in Southern Cameroon an open society will mean: parliamentary committees to investigate allegations against MPs, a medical council to investigate allegations against doctors, a legal council to investigate allegations against lawyers, public hearings, an independent judiciary, a well-paid incorruptible police force, a police complaints commission to investigate complaints by the public against police misconduct etc. etc. All this done with the defendant entitled to have his/her defence lawyer present, and in front of the press, and on TV. But some of the stuff which goes on sometimes on this forum amounts to malicious gossip and titillation, rather than any desire for real justice. It belittles us all. Furthermore, it is a form of Francophone justice, that is, guilty until proven innocent, and makes us no better than our current LRC oppressors.

[Neba Funiba]

DaDiceman

Your argument is very logical and makes sense, the only shortfall is that may be you forget that the geographic context here is Cameroon where zero mort is the order of the day. Have you forgotten that even the Minister of Justice came out recently and declared that the butcher of Balikumbat, Osama Doh Gah is not a criminal? Have you forgotten that when Biya was questioned several years ago about corruption and embezzlement in Cameroon he angrily asked where was the proof? Look at the published lists of those who have embezzled and about 80% of them are Betis of his gov't. After the 2004 presidential election, ONEL was congratulated and Dr. Acha Morfaw boasted on TV how they who worked at ONEL were not influenced by the regime so why do we now have ELECAM? Look at UB, names of students were published for submitting fake documents for admission--guess what, the Minister of higher education turned around and inserted the names of students who did not even write the entrance exams into the Medical School. Can one honestly stand out there and boast that UB administration is out to stamp out corruption? How many of those administrators in that school as well as in other state schools got their positions as a result of a search committee of experts? You see it is very hard to defend anything that has the dictates of La Republic. The last but one trip that Biya made to China a few years ago, he proclaimed that there are no political prisoners in Cameroon's jails--is that true? Can a taxi driver whose cab is hit by the pajero of a police commissioner successfully sue the police commissioner? The judiciary in an authoritarian system is farcical and legal proceedings are nothing but a charade--La Republic no exception.

[M Nje]

DaDiceman

I agree totally with what you just said. That is my strong hope also. Citizens should be innocent until proven guilty. That is basic Common sense.

I am personally willing to go after anyone who makes malicious and unfounded statements about others. I take that very seriously.

Peace to you my friend.

[M Nje]

"Have you forgotten that when Biya was questioned several years ago about corruption and embezzlement in Cameroon he angrily asked where was the proof?"

Neba thanks for bring this point up. I remember this very well.

[DaDiceman]

Neba Funiba, the million dollar question is, do you want to join a lynch mob as they set the thief on fire by the road side without due process? Because the pigs are enjoying playing in the mud, do you want to join them? Now, that's up to each individual to decide, based on their morality.

Note that I make no mention of seeing my dream of accountability being realised within the context of LRC. All the suggestions I made are within the context of an independent Southern Cameroon state.

[ADAMA KWIKEH]

Respectable gentlemen,
Painting someone's image black without justification is WRONG. We might be tempted to try to relate to what happens in America, but we should also take note that allegations in America arely turns out to be false.

Rexon/M Nje,
I am not saying that the past of public officials should not be looked into. I am saying that before you say X or Y has done this or that, you should have ample proof that your utterances are true.

Rexon,
What according to you determines when someone makes a change for the better?
How do you know someone has changed?
When do you know someone has changed?

Now back to the case in question Prof. Titanji (I didn't want to go this far but I have been force to do so because of Rexon's insatiable quest to destroy the image of a respectable academic like Prof. Titanji). According to you (Rexon) the allegation that Prof handed sexually transmitted marks to a certain lady when he was Dean of the Faculty of Science is true. Remember this lady was the winner of some scholarship from Guinness Cameroon SA. because she was the best student in UB during that year's convocation.
You would recall that back then Prof. Titanji used to teach just part of BCH301. Would you tell me here that this Prof. went to lecturers (of Chemistry, Physics, Zoology, Botany, Microbiology, othe biochemistry courses, ENG101, 102, FRE 101, 102 etc) asking them to award this lady in question high marks so that she becomes the best student at the University? Certainly not. This lady was an intelligent lady and got what she got by merit.

Asuming a lecturer teaches 5 courses at UB, You will agree with me that if such a lecturer were to transmit marks sexually to his girlfriend (or her boyfriend) and give the student A's in all the 5 courses. Asuming this student is a dull student, can this student make it to the top the way this lady did.

It could be true or false that Prof transmitted marks sexually to this lady but the fact that this allegation came about because this lady came out the best student in the University and won the scholarship casts a lot od doubt on the credibility of such and allegation.

Bottom line of the whole thing is that, if you cannot say with certainty that someone is bad, DON't SAY IT.

CHARACTER DEFAMATION IS NOT GOOOOOOOOD

[ADAMA KWIKEH]

CORRECTION TO THE FOURTH PARAGRAPH FROM THE BOTTOM
Asuming a lecturer teaches 5 courses at UB and decided to transmit marks sexually to his girlfriend (or her boyfriend) and give the student A's in all the 5 courses. Asuming this student is a dull student, can this student make it to the top the way this lady did?

[Agbor T]

CAPTION: UB Strike Pays off.

Why were the students striking?? Cos there was the addition of 26 names in a list of 127, "20 of the added names later got admission into the school of Medicine".
SO what did the strike Pay off??

The likes of Titanji, Ngoh and who ever is an appointment. Whether its merited or not is determined by Mr Biya and Fame Ndongo. Don't ask me.

WHAT DID THE STRKE PAY?
Neither the names were taten off nor was there any explanation for theadded names.