UBSU – Cameroon’s Homegrown Boko Haram?
By Ernest L. Molua, PhD
If a terrorist is a radical who employs terror as a weapon, or an individual who uses violence, terror, and intimidation to achieve a result, then the University of Buea in the Southwest region of Cameroon is the bastion of terrorists, requiring the immediate intervention of the supreme counter-terrorism unit of the land to reign the excesses and orgy of violence and intimidation that disguises for student unionism.
Whilst student groups in different countries of the word have had a major role in broader political events, student activism have largely impacted environmental, economic, or social change, and student activism has often focused on making changes in schools, such as increasing student influence over curriculum or improving educational funding. Unfortunately, student activism at the University of Buea has been for self-aggrandizement, and the urge has been to intimidate, blackmail and terrorize campus life to achieve diabolic ends. The strategies and methods have been sheer terrorism.
By Ernest L. Molua, PhD
If a terrorist is a radical who employs terror as a weapon, or an individual who uses violence, terror, and intimidation to achieve a result, then the University of Buea in the Southwest region of Cameroon is the bastion of terrorists, requiring the immediate intervention of the supreme counter-terrorism unit of the land to reign the excesses and orgy of violence and intimidation that disguises for student unionism.
Whilst student groups in different countries of the word have had a major role in broader political events, student activism have largely impacted environmental, economic, or social change, and student activism has often focused on making changes in schools, such as increasing student influence over curriculum or improving educational funding. Unfortunately, student activism at the University of Buea has been for self-aggrandizement, and the urge has been to intimidate, blackmail and terrorize campus life to achieve diabolic ends. The strategies and methods have been sheer terrorism.
Holding of a Vice-Chancellor hostage for five hours, destroying public and private property, looting and ransacking university property, inflicting bodily harm on lecturers and students are hallmarks of terrorism perpetuated by identifiable members of the University of Buea Student Union (UBSU). The term "terrorism" comes from French terrorisme, from Latin: 'terror', "great fear", "dread", related to the Latin verb terrere, "to frighten". The terror cimbricus was a panic and state of emergency in Rome in response to the approach of warriors of the Cimbri tribe in 105BC. Maximilien Robespierre, a leader in the French revolution proclaimed in 1794 that "Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible." The Committee of Public Safety agents that enforced the policies of "The Terror" were referred to as "Terrorists". The word "terrorism" was first recorded in English-language dictionaries in 1798 as meaning "systematic use of terror as a policy". The history of terrorism goes back to Sicarii Zealots — Jewish extremist group active in Iudaea Province at the beginning of the 1st century AD.
Various academic definitions of terrorism conclude that terrorism is a fundamental motive to make societal changes; the use of violence or illegal force; and attacks on civilian targets by "nonstate"/"Subnational actors". Three components of terrorism could are identified: (a) acts or threats of violence; (b) the communication of fear to an audience, and; (c) political, economic, or religious aims by the perpetrator(s).” These are the traits of Boko Haram.
The aims of UBSU have largely been economic and self-aggrandizement of few men and women with genetic disposition for anarchy and orgy for violence, grafted on terrorist methods similar to the Sahelian Boko Haram.
Bruce Hoffman, the Director of the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service, USA and a specialist in the study of terrorism and counter-insurgency, distinguishes in his 2006 treatise (Inside terrorism, 2ed., Columbia University Press, p. 41.), terrorists from other types of criminals and terrorism from other forms of crime, by appreciating that terrorism is violent - or, equally important, threatens violence; designed to have far-reaching psychological repercussions beyond the immediate victim or target; and conducted by an organization with an identifiable chain of command or conspiratorial cell structure (whose members wear no uniform or identifying insignia).
UBSU, an unregistered non-licensed assemblage of students, ex-students and non-students, has over the last seven years received direct and indirect support from well-known members of the teaching and administrative staff of the university. In fact, terrorists usually receive funding and support from diverse sources, by persons of similar ideological intercourse. This band of pornographic supporters includes individuals or groups, small and secretive cells, highly motivated to serve a diabolic cause.
This cabal benefits from the free flow of information and efficient telecommunications given that they are integral part of the administration and teaching corps, but with pretentious disposition to feign innocence. A 2007 study by economist Alan B. Krueger found that terrorists are more likely to have at least a high-school education, and over 60% had gone beyond high school. And to avoid detection, a terrorist will look, dress, and behave normally until executing the assigned mission. Any one providing covert or overt support to terrorists is also a terrorist, and must be dealt with. The counter terrorism unit in Cameroon’s ministries of internal security, defense, presidency of the republic and legal department must pounce on these individuals and bring the full force of the state to bear on these anarchists.
UBSU and its bed-partners of influencers are an abuse to student unionism. Universally the purpose of students' union or student government is to represent fellow students both within the institution and externally, including on local and national issues. Students' unions are also responsible for providing a variety of services to students. Depending on the organization's makeup, students can get involved in the union by becoming active in a committee, by attending councils and general meetings, or by becoming an elected officer. Some students' unions often serve as a training ground for aspiring politicians. The combination of the youthful enthusiasm of the various members, has been the nursery of future leadership.
The founders of UB styled the institution on “anglo-saxon traditions.’’ The United Kingdom has a long history of student unionism at a local and national level. The oldest students' union in Britain is St Andrews University, founded in 1864. In the UK, in addition to lobbying, campaigning, debating and carrying out other representative activities, most students' unions facilitate "student activities" (societies, volunteering opportunities, and sport) peer led support (through advice centres, helplines, job shops and more), and social venues to bring their members together. Most unions receive some funding through an annual allocation, also called the block grant, from their educational institution. Many unions supplement this income from commercial sales from their venues, shops, and marketing revenue. But this must be regulated and must conform to the laws of the land, not some jungle assertions. In the UK, the Law relating to students' unions is enshrined in the Education Act of 1994 which requires that Unions have a written constitution and that elections to major union offices are held by a secret ballot of the membership. The Act states that if a petition signed by a minimum number of students (5%) is lodged then a referendum must be held by the entire student body on whether or not to pursue further actions such as a sit-down strike.
Radicalism or the abuse of student unionism in UB is not unrelated to the culture of poverty and fear of poverty. UB being a state institution and subsidized by the state of Cameroon, with enticing emoluments for senior office-holders to the envy of others, the battle for the soul of the university is perennially fierce as the jealous-competing interests have employed students as puns for proxy-wars and battles to gain access to the treasury and purse of the university. One would expect that life in the university milieu would be an intercourse of scholarship and competing intellectual dogmas. This is the not the case in UB and low productivity has been the harvest of a crooked scorched-earth policy of men of menopausal scholarship wishing to ascend to power and authority, even if the community is starved of their inability to be erudite and professorial.
Dr Dorothy L. Njeuma, the pioneer Vice-Chancellor of the University knew this too well, and incessantly bellowed on the machinations that were tearing the fabric of the university. The thoughtless doomsters relying on bogus claims sent their Jacobins to the streets, notwithstanding, had their way albeit with blood on their hands following the loss of lives of students. Since then, their modus operandi has been the deliberate creation and exploitation of fear through violence or the threat of violence, in the pursuit of their agenda. Their strategy is to unleash far-reaching psychological effects beyond the immediate victim(s) or object of their attack. The goal is to instill fear within the University, and thereby intimidate, a wider `target audience' in Buea subdivision that might include a rival ethnic group or region. And media outlets too are recruited. Through the publicity generated by their violence, these hell-hounds seek to obtain the leverage, influence and power they otherwise lack to effect any change.
However, as Sergey Zagraevsky notes in his ‘365 reflections on a human and humanity’, terrorism is "the dirtiest weapon of the weak against the strong". The current state of affairs is a turning point which must be exploited, and the sledge-harmer in the hands of the incumbent Vice-Chancellor Professor Nalova Lyonga is a tool to bury once-and-for-all this tetrahedron menace that strangulates scholarship and reputation of Cameroon’s most prestigious university.
Courtesy:
The Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, The Entrepreneur Newspaper
P.O. Box 58 Buea, SWP, Cameroon
www.entrepreneurnewsonline.com
Various academic definitions of terrorism conclude that terrorism is a fundamental motive to make societal changes; the use of violence or illegal force; and attacks on civilian targets by "nonstate"/"Subnational actors". Three components of terrorism could are identified: (a) acts or threats of violence; (b) the communication of fear to an audience, and; (c) political, economic, or religious aims by the perpetrator(s).” These are the traits of Boko Haram.
The aims of UBSU have largely been economic and self-aggrandizement of few men and women with genetic disposition for anarchy and orgy for violence, grafted on terrorist methods similar to the Sahelian Boko Haram.
Bruce Hoffman, the Director of the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service, USA and a specialist in the study of terrorism and counter-insurgency, distinguishes in his 2006 treatise (Inside terrorism, 2ed., Columbia University Press, p. 41.), terrorists from other types of criminals and terrorism from other forms of crime, by appreciating that terrorism is violent - or, equally important, threatens violence; designed to have far-reaching psychological repercussions beyond the immediate victim or target; and conducted by an organization with an identifiable chain of command or conspiratorial cell structure (whose members wear no uniform or identifying insignia).
UBSU, an unregistered non-licensed assemblage of students, ex-students and non-students, has over the last seven years received direct and indirect support from well-known members of the teaching and administrative staff of the university. In fact, terrorists usually receive funding and support from diverse sources, by persons of similar ideological intercourse. This band of pornographic supporters includes individuals or groups, small and secretive cells, highly motivated to serve a diabolic cause.
This cabal benefits from the free flow of information and efficient telecommunications given that they are integral part of the administration and teaching corps, but with pretentious disposition to feign innocence. A 2007 study by economist Alan B. Krueger found that terrorists are more likely to have at least a high-school education, and over 60% had gone beyond high school. And to avoid detection, a terrorist will look, dress, and behave normally until executing the assigned mission. Any one providing covert or overt support to terrorists is also a terrorist, and must be dealt with. The counter terrorism unit in Cameroon’s ministries of internal security, defense, presidency of the republic and legal department must pounce on these individuals and bring the full force of the state to bear on these anarchists.
UBSU and its bed-partners of influencers are an abuse to student unionism. Universally the purpose of students' union or student government is to represent fellow students both within the institution and externally, including on local and national issues. Students' unions are also responsible for providing a variety of services to students. Depending on the organization's makeup, students can get involved in the union by becoming active in a committee, by attending councils and general meetings, or by becoming an elected officer. Some students' unions often serve as a training ground for aspiring politicians. The combination of the youthful enthusiasm of the various members, has been the nursery of future leadership.
The founders of UB styled the institution on “anglo-saxon traditions.’’ The United Kingdom has a long history of student unionism at a local and national level. The oldest students' union in Britain is St Andrews University, founded in 1864. In the UK, in addition to lobbying, campaigning, debating and carrying out other representative activities, most students' unions facilitate "student activities" (societies, volunteering opportunities, and sport) peer led support (through advice centres, helplines, job shops and more), and social venues to bring their members together. Most unions receive some funding through an annual allocation, also called the block grant, from their educational institution. Many unions supplement this income from commercial sales from their venues, shops, and marketing revenue. But this must be regulated and must conform to the laws of the land, not some jungle assertions. In the UK, the Law relating to students' unions is enshrined in the Education Act of 1994 which requires that Unions have a written constitution and that elections to major union offices are held by a secret ballot of the membership. The Act states that if a petition signed by a minimum number of students (5%) is lodged then a referendum must be held by the entire student body on whether or not to pursue further actions such as a sit-down strike.
Radicalism or the abuse of student unionism in UB is not unrelated to the culture of poverty and fear of poverty. UB being a state institution and subsidized by the state of Cameroon, with enticing emoluments for senior office-holders to the envy of others, the battle for the soul of the university is perennially fierce as the jealous-competing interests have employed students as puns for proxy-wars and battles to gain access to the treasury and purse of the university. One would expect that life in the university milieu would be an intercourse of scholarship and competing intellectual dogmas. This is the not the case in UB and low productivity has been the harvest of a crooked scorched-earth policy of men of menopausal scholarship wishing to ascend to power and authority, even if the community is starved of their inability to be erudite and professorial.
Dr Dorothy L. Njeuma, the pioneer Vice-Chancellor of the University knew this too well, and incessantly bellowed on the machinations that were tearing the fabric of the university. The thoughtless doomsters relying on bogus claims sent their Jacobins to the streets, notwithstanding, had their way albeit with blood on their hands following the loss of lives of students. Since then, their modus operandi has been the deliberate creation and exploitation of fear through violence or the threat of violence, in the pursuit of their agenda. Their strategy is to unleash far-reaching psychological effects beyond the immediate victim(s) or object of their attack. The goal is to instill fear within the University, and thereby intimidate, a wider `target audience' in Buea subdivision that might include a rival ethnic group or region. And media outlets too are recruited. Through the publicity generated by their violence, these hell-hounds seek to obtain the leverage, influence and power they otherwise lack to effect any change.
However, as Sergey Zagraevsky notes in his ‘365 reflections on a human and humanity’, terrorism is "the dirtiest weapon of the weak against the strong". The current state of affairs is a turning point which must be exploited, and the sledge-harmer in the hands of the incumbent Vice-Chancellor Professor Nalova Lyonga is a tool to bury once-and-for-all this tetrahedron menace that strangulates scholarship and reputation of Cameroon’s most prestigious university.
Courtesy:
The Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, The Entrepreneur Newspaper
P.O. Box 58 Buea, SWP, Cameroon
www.entrepreneurnewsonline.com
Ernest L. Molua has, on many occasions, boasted of his academic credentials, but this essay of his doesn't add up to what is expected of an academician of his calibre. To write about the dismal conduct of UB students, something I fully condenm also, didn't require a history of terrorism as you've attempted to do.
Yes, Cameroonians should not be bullied into submission by a few students who want to take others hostage in an academic environment. But Molua, wouldn't it make sense if you spoke about the ills that such an act bestows on the reputation of the university, rather than the genesis of terrorism?
Posted by: Endeley Michael | Wednesday, 13 February 2013 at 09:50 AM
Dr Molua, it looks like you would like to see some people killed. Why do you not say what you mean. If you said, KILL THESE MOTHERFUCKERS THAT I HATE, BECAUSE I CANNOT DO IT MYSELF, it would be more honest instead of writing elaborate bull shit that conceals your real intentions.
At the same time, stupid and agitated UBSU needs to calm down. Nobody ever gets everything they want in this world. Not even the pope or president Obama. Sit down and negotiate. Be prepared to lose some things and to gain some things. There are no infinite resources in any institution. Be reasonable and stop all the violence.
FRANCOPHONE VC WILL BE APPOINTED FROM YAOUNDE IF U KEEP GOING DOWN THOS PATH, AND THAT WILL BE AFTER THEY KILL SOME OF YOU STUPID KIDS.
Posted by: [email protected] | Wednesday, 13 February 2013 at 11:31 AM
"UBSU, an unregistered non-licensed assemblage of students, ex-students and non-students, has over the last seven years received direct and indirect support from well-known members of the teaching and administrative staff of the university"
How much were you paid to write this shirt? Is it because you are lobbying for a post? Can you back up this statement of yours? For seven years that you knew all of this, what did you do? Rather than plagiarizing a dictionary and pasting on popular sites like this, get yourself something to do. I due respect you as a great academician when I was a student there, I just drop off all the respect I had for you after reading this article.
Posted by: Shusi FC | Thursday, 14 February 2013 at 09:09 AM
Holy!!! with all do respect, Mr. PhD, You may want to go back and take some courses in english language. I begin to wonder, if you got the nurve to bully people on an online forum, I don't doubt what you can do to your students. You sound like a professor who will fail a student who has contrary views in your class. Just a reminder, you do not bully people into sumission.This professor sounds like someone who can ask police to open fire on peaceful demonstrators.Thank God he is not the V C.
Posted by: Beri | Saturday, 16 February 2013 at 07:21 PM
molua is well known here as the entrepreneur online, his one sidedness, lack of objectivity and hand clapping have always stood out. so who is suprised about this
Posted by: wangasi | Tuesday, 19 February 2013 at 04:41 PM
Boko Haram Gia Aqmi Qaida des kamikazes de satan leurs attentat le 11 symbole de leurs patron satan tue les enfants et les femmes pour satisfaire satan aux gouvernements de monde entier d'appliquer la charia islamique aujourd'hui pour éviter la guerre d'ALLAH par les soldats d'ALLAH les météorites et les astéroïdes et ces punitions les catastrophes naturelles et les maladies les révoltes et ce terrorisme dans les pays arabes punition d'ALLAH ces pays arabes n'ont pas appliquer la charia islamique parce que ne sont pas des musulmans ?
Posted by: mehdi assem | Wednesday, 20 February 2013 at 07:31 AM
"Ernest L. Molua has, on many occasions, boasted of his academic credentials"
My dear he is not boasting. he merits it. should we kill him for being out spoken? These are the kind of minds we need for a meaningful development in our Cameroonian universities. for your information Molua remains one of the most prolific professors at UB.molua is the only university lecturer in Cameroon to win internationally recorgnise awards. this gentle man won an award recently on the much talkabout climate change.check it out my dear for your records.If you truely went through University and University went through you then you have to adhere to Moloa's hypothesis. Politics are not done in Amphi's, students should learn to leave politics for politicians and concerntrate on thier books.
Posted by: Akale | Wednesday, 20 March 2013 at 06:31 AM
No doubt, the young man has good credentials and writes well, but his tendency to make over the top biased claims undermines everything.
Posted by: babajew | Wednesday, 20 March 2013 at 07:43 AM
Molua writes well? God forbid. How many grammatical errors were you able to discipher from the nonsense that he wrote above? An international award? For what? Every African, I mean every Cameroonian who steps out of that jungle, gets an award with the least effort while overseas. I'm curious to know what type of award Molua received, given his very poor use of grammar. Of course, Americans, if Molua got the award from any U.S. institution,are often quick to give out awards on research, carried out about Africa or Cameroon, because they've not verified the realities of what is on the ground back in Cameroon or Africa. Maybe Molua wrote something about the Bakweri culture, and who is an American or a European to dispute Molua's thesis on that culture, when they've not been to Buea to know much about the Bakweri culture. But how exactly did Molua even convey his message, given his very poor grasp of English?
I want an answer. Any?
Posted by: Che Innocent | Wednesday, 20 March 2013 at 09:40 AM
@Che really!!!! you amaze me. this is typical of a cameroonian. i dont blame you anyway its not your fault. That reminds me were are your awards Sir!!!!!!? or we just complain and see faults in others when we our selves cant do nothing? that is why we are were we are today.I will like to read your publications if only you have any. Doom
Posted by: Akale | Thursday, 21 March 2013 at 03:49 AM
After wasting all you time in Europe doing odd jobs, you will have the gods to proof read the works of an aclaimed prof. For your information i will foward Molua's CV to you if only you can read and understand after working you self all day cleaning streets in Europe and washing corps.
Posted by: Akale | Thursday, 21 March 2013 at 04:00 AM
The illusions of a Cameroonian "scholar", that's all you are. Always bragging with nothing to show for. Publications on climate change about Buea mountain? How do you even convey your message? In Bakweri, or in what language? An acclaimed professor? Evidence of this " acclaimed professor" is right in this forum:poor writing skills. You can only sell that crap to Cameroonians who refuse to be critical in the face of those who carry this paper tigers call Ph.Ds. How do you know that I live in Europe? I'm right here in Buea.
Posted by: Che Innocent | Thursday, 21 March 2013 at 09:24 AM
(1) "That reminds me were are your"
(2) "that is why we are were we are today"
(3) "washing corps"
What's wrong with these three acclaimed prof?
Posted by: Che Innocent | Thursday, 21 March 2013 at 10:25 AM
Mr critic, i now understand were your are comming from and your frame of mind. needless wasting my valued time on you because it will get us anywhere for Cameroonians tipical of what we are we dont accept to learn and will never apreciate what so ever thing our conterparts do.
a Prof, once tool Prof Julius Ngoh when he Ngoh critised his work on the history of the southern cameroons That "scholars like one you are dont critise scholary facts in a newspaper tabloids but in confrences,and other accademic forums". Mr Che, this your attitute is typical of Bafut pple please show us your publications and we too will have thelight to critise you or aclaim you as i have just done for Molua because atleast i have seen his works and equally know what it means to put down just a page of knowledge. i really doubt if you have ever written even a newspaper article.
Posted by: Akale | Friday, 22 March 2013 at 04:31 AM
Did i read you say you come from Buea? waooh!! meaning you too see and feel the mountain you said Molua wrote about, scrab anything in you bafut language let the Whites give your own award as they easily give any body who writes our of the Box. Sorry my dear, Climate change is not and has nothing to do with the Bakweri Mountain. i really doubt you accedemic background beacase my 7yrs old son in St therese know much about climate change beyound the Buea mountain that you an aclaimed scholar seem to know. hope you did not get yours from Calabar or BUST in Ntarikon.
Posted by: Akale | Friday, 22 March 2013 at 04:43 AM
Dr. Molua:
Good afternoon. Mr. Che Innocent has asked you a simple question: How do you convey your message? In what langauage, given that in this very short rabid exchange bewteen him and you, Mr. Che has sorted out a number of grammatical errors that he wonders if you really obtained a Ph.D. Until you answer his question, there's no need for this conversation to continue.
I beleive, like many other Cameroonians, that you thought you could bully your way through this encounter with Mr. Che Innocent, but I think you got it wrong. Mr. Che Innocent, I think, lives in England. He was once your student. Surprisingly, the name "Che" leads him to beleive he is from Bafut? Nonsense. You know very little about the North West, let alone the awards that you pompously profess to have been awarded internationally.
Posted by: Besong Edward | Friday, 22 March 2013 at 09:18 AM
Educated/trained minds usually prefer to discuss issues, not persons or where they come from. They are also very self-effacing, admitting humbly any flaws they have made and genuine effort to point them out. Inventions, discoveries, etc are a long long journey, a relay race each generation passes on to the next. Often those who neither invent nor discover can still make a name simply by applying the dicoveries or inventions of others to solve contemporary problems. One does not need to be an Einstein to discover society's many problems clamoring for a solution.
True-blooded Cameroonians need support from each other in this long journey. Other nationals do it; why not Cameroonians?
Finally, scientific and academic publications are usually made in esoteric journals available to members. The Online affair is a new phenomenon which has not quite eclipsed those publications.
Love of country should be translated into demanding the very best.
Posted by: John Dinga | Friday, 22 March 2013 at 05:38 PM