Memorandum to the PM:

Francophone teachers at UBa fear for their lives and jobs

-In a 6-page memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister, the lecturers are accusing their NW colleagues of sympathizing with the extremists and of instigating students to rise up against thema

By N. Nestor N

Francophone lecturers of the University of Bamenda, UBa have in a memorandum to Prime Minister, Head of government, Philemon Yang said the ongoing strike that has paralyzed educational activities in the North West and South West regions has a “secret agenda and that administrators of UBa from the North West region are sympathizing with Extremists who are against the policy of national unity and integration”.

                In the six page memorandum signed by seven of the lecturers titled “our precarious security situation following the strike order by syndicates of the North West and South West regions,” the French lecturers reveal that their “colleagues have been physically threatened” and that “they are morally depressed when students of English expression ridicule them.

                “With the threats and violence, we simply wish to let you know that our lives and our jobs are in jeopardy” the lecturers revealed.

                They observe that the campus of UBa has been politicized regretting that the “authority of UBa is not doing anything to reverse this stigmatization, intimidation and threats levied on teachers of the eight regions”.

                “…the nature of the strike proves that they [the strikers] have ulterior motives that the government cannot readily satisfy them. Which reasonable government can accept such extremist demands?” the memorandum questions.

Worries on how UB and UBa got involved in the strike

                In the memorandum, the French lecturers ‘wonder’ why the strike involved teachers of higher education whom they claim were initially not signatories to the strike order.

                “We wonder why the SYNES-UB created since 1993 could wait for 2016 for agitations of secondary school teachers before calling for a massive strike against marginalization. The case of the University of Bamenda that directly affects us is equally ridiculous. We wonder why SYNES-UBa could adhere to a strike that they were not an initial signatory to,” the memorandum maintains.

                They claim that the coordinator of SYNES-UBa chapter, Prof Tata Simon Ngenge, whom they say has been taking decisions unilaterally, has been using the union to search for personal gains.

                “The attitude of Prof Tata Simon Ngenge is revealing of the double game that some teachers of North West origin are playing in the ongoing strike”, they insinuate.

Lessons on who is an Anglophone?

                “We vehemently object to the phenomenon that Anglophone is synonymous to the citizens of North West and South West regions and that francophone means citizens of other eight regions. This is a colonial anachronism,” they observe, intimating that “as teachers of higher education, we have the authority to affirm the fact Anglo-Saxon does not signify English speaking as we can cite a plethora of Anglo-Saxon institutions that teaching is done in other languages, than English”.

                The French lecturers argue that the concept of Anglophone has evolved in the fifty years of Cameroon’s national integration and “englobes all speakers formed in English” and excludes the North Westerners and South Westerners who have “undergone training in the French sub section of francophone education”.

Advice to secondary school teachers

                To secondary school teachers, they say they are not the ones to test their competence and aptitude in English but the students they have been teaching over the years claiming that coming from the NW and SW regions is not a guarantee of knowledge of English.

                “…one does enter Higher Education through road demonstrations but through qualified diplomas and professional published publications” they say

“Students of French expression are more apt, fast…than those of English expression”

                The lecturers in their memorandum argue that students of French expression are more apt, fast and interested in acquiring knowledge and good in written English more than those of English expression revealing that francophone students are only weak in spoken English because of psychomotor and circumstantial situations.

“If a son of or daughter of the NW and SW regions speak English, it is often jargon punctuated with broken English, a form of Creole, which they fill their dissertations and examination scripts with. Francophone students are more organized and follow the norms of the English language” they claim.

Proposals to government

                While expressing their trust on the government, the French lecturers proposed amongst others that the state should “maintain the constitution by creating only bilingual universities throughout the national territory and that drastic and security measures should be taken so that classes can begin and for their colleagues who have escaped for security reasons to return.

                They are also demanding for an inclusive, sincere dialogue with their colleagues of the NW and SW regions in order to establish “a conducive atmosphere and communal life in the University campus,” while soliciting an official apology from their colleagues of higher education for “sympathizing and participating with secondary school teachers to stain our career”.