Destiny or Instance of Marginalization?

Career Frustrations of Anglophone ENAM Graduates

Retired Civil Administrator, Azibo Joseph Tizie has observed that most, if not all his Francophone classmates at Enam have been Ministers, GMs, SGs, Governors, SDOs etc with some still occupying big positions in the present government. But Azibo notes that none of the few Anglophones in that batch has ever had the opportunity to also serve in these high offices. 

Mr. Azibo recalled some of his Enam mates including Louis Paul Motaze; Nganou Njoumessi; Beti Assomo Joseph; Jules Marcelin Njaga; Abakar Ahamat; Oumarou Denis; Sali Dairou; Ako’o Akouafane; Gambo Haman; Kouambo Adrien; etc. He asked: “Who among these big names is an Anglophone?”

By Ojong Steven Ayukogem in Yaounde

Retired senior administrator, Azibo Joseph. Will Biya recall him for a bigger job?

As the Anglophone crisis continues to rear its ugly head, occasioning sporadic violence that has consumed hundreds of innocent civilian and military lives and rendered thousands homeless, with thousands others dying of starvation and disease, The Median caught up with a retired senior administrator, Azibo Joseph Tizie, and sought to know from him the cause for the ‘deep frustration’ that has driven the Anglophones so unrepentantly angry and violent.

            Though Mr. Azibo accepted to respond to us, he however, said he would talk only about his personal experience as a former senior administrator in the public service but not about other Anglophone issues and sectors. He said his experience could just be a microcosm of the bigger problem faced by most Anglophones in Cameroon and which is the root cause of the present crisis in the NW and SW regions of the country. 

            Mr. Azibo recounted to us the frustrations that were his lot during his chequered career as a senior civil administrator in Cameroon and how his frustrations are even the more now that he is on retirement.

            He observed for example that most of his Francophone course mates at Enam are either ministers, GMs, Governors, SGs today or have once occupied one of these offices in the past. But the veteran civil administrator at once noted that neither he nor any of the few Anglophones that left Enam together with him was ever considered for such high offices by the powers that be.

            Azibo says he keeps asking, to this day, why his Francophone classmates at Enam were so lucky and/or brilliant in their careers as to be raised to the skies, while he and his Anglophone batch mates from the same school have never been given the opportunity to also serve in such exalted capacities.

            The retired Sub-divisional Officer (DO) recalls that in their day at ENAM, the president of the republic signed the diplomas of graduates from the very prestigious school, and that, their batch (1982/83) had the privilege of being the pioneers to have President Biya’s signature on their diplomas. That was in 1983, just after the president acceded to power in November 1982. But Mr. Azibo says the hopes that animated him upon leaving Enam in 1983, especially giving that his diploma carried the signature of the new president, have never come to fruition, until he has finally gone on retirement.

            Yet, Azibo says even though on retirement, he has not stopped hoping, especially considering that he is only retired but not tired. The veteran civil administrator says he still believes that president Biya will one day recall that upon taking power in 1982, one of the first official documents he signed were the diplomas of the 1982/83 batch of students of Enam; and that the president might just ask for the list of those pioneers to be brought back to him. 

            The very jovial and humorous Azibo says he does not want to think that his being an Anglophone played to his disfavor during his public service career because he recalls that in the beginning of their careers after leaving from Enam they all, Francophones and Anglophones alike, had almost the same rate of ascendancy in the public service. However, Azibo fears that perhaps something went wrong somewhere in the later part of their careers, and which caused only the Anglophones to stay on one spot, while the Francophones continued climbing to become ministers, GMs, Governors and IGs, SDOs, but never any Anglophone(s).

            Mr. Azibo Joseph used the opportunity of the chat with us to indicate that though on retirement he is not tired; he is still bustling with vile energy and ready to serve his beloved fatherland Cameroon, if only president Biya can remember his name and call him up.