HTTTC Kumba:

New Director installed
- How and why Prof. Joyce Endeley got the sack
By Ajongakou Santos in Buea

Dr. Michael Agbor Ntui- New Director of HTTTC K'ba

Dr. Michael Agbor Ntui has replaced Prof. Joyce Bongo Bayende Endeley as Director of the Higher Technical Teachers’ Training College, (HTTTC) in Kumba. The new director was installed last Thursday 17 September 2015 at the University of Buea. He was appointed by a Presidential decree on 15 September 2015. The same decree also appointed Prof. Ntungwe Paul Ndue as Director of Financial Affairs at UB.
    Observers hold that Prof. Endeley’s sacking might be connected to the conflict of authority which ensued between she and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Buea, Prof. Egbe Nalova Lyonga. Many are already pointing accusing fingers at the Vice Chancellor whom they say might have submitted a damning report about the deposed HTTTC Director.
    Meanwhile, others are of the opinion that Joyce Bongo Bayande Endeley is largely responsible for her fate because of her gross insubordination vis-à-vis the VC.
    This Newspaper gathered that a cold war between the two assumed screaming proportions when Prof. Endeley rejected the VC’s instructions for the entrance examination questions into HTTTC Kumba last December 2014 to be translated into French so that Francophone candidates should also have their way. This perhaps did not augur well for Prof. Endeley, whom we are told, argued that the HTTTC was a purely Anglo-Saxon institution and candidates seeking entry into the school should be proficient in English.
    Sources say Joyce Endeley later refused to answer a query that was served her by the Vice Chancellor following her refusal to execute the former’s instructions. The consequence of this was the several postponements of the entrance examinations until December 4, 2014 when the exams finally took place.
    Before her appointment as Director of HTTTC Kumba on 4 June 2014, Joyce Bongo Bayande Endeley, Professor of Agricultural Extension Education, was formerly the Deputy Vice-Chancellor in-charge of Teaching, Professionalization and Development of Information and Communication Technologies, at the University of Buea. 

    The new HTTTC Director, Dr. Michael Agbor, was formerly the deputy director of HTTTC Kumba. He therefore replaces his former boss Prof. Joyce Bayende Endeley. 
    Meanwhile, Prof. Ntungwe Paul Ndue, formerly Head of Department for Political Sciences at UB, has replaced the retired Mbella Nganda Benson as director of finance at UB.
    Installing the two officials, the Vice Chancellor of UB exhorted them to be law-abiding, prudent and steadfast because Cameroon is in dire need of good ambassadors for Vision 2035.
    Dr. Micheal Agbor Ntui holds a PhD in Education Administration, Planning and Policy from the University of Clark Atlanta USA. He has promised to take the HTTTC to greater heights.
    HTTTC Kumba was created by a presidential decree in 2013. It is a department of UB with campus in Kumba. It went operational in December 2014 with 500 students in its pioneer batch. It has 14 departments with 48 teachers. 
Many South Westerners especially elites of the Bafaw tribe from where Joyce Endeley hails, are yet to come to terms with the sudden and unexpected sacking of the ‘tough lady’ from Kumba town.
    Bafaw sons and daughters say the Bafaws being a nucleated and somewhat endangered people they expected Prof. Joyce Bongo Endeley to encourage education among Bafaw youths by admitting many of them into HTTTC. But this has not come to be. 
    However, as the adage goes: “Pride goes before a fall.” It is hoped that Prof. Joyce Endeley has learnt her lesson and will be more prudent and diplomatic when the next appointment comes her way. And fortunately for her, she was only called to other duties and not summarily dismissed. May be her next appointment would be bigger and more exalting, who knows?
    The installation of the two new Directors saw the heavy presence of top-ranking UB officials including notably the Registrar, Prof. Ndip Roland. The brief ceremony was immortalized with pictures of the directors with the UB academic family, relatives and friends. Prof. Joyce Endeley was conspicuously absent.