Funeral

late Mike Yanou

Prof. Mike Yanou laid to rest
By Ajongakou Santos in Buea
It was a “Black Saturday” for members of the Cameroon Bar Association and lecturers and students of the Buea University as they gave Prof. Michael Akomaye Yanou last respects following his death on January 27, 2015.
    Barely six months after his appointment as Director of Dialogue at the Ministry of Higher Education, Dr..Yanou- Associate Professor of Law- died in a car accident at Edea on his way to Yaounde. .    The teacher and Barrister was given last respects first, at the Buea Court of Appeal where members of the Cameroon Bar Association paid him their last homage. Speaking at the occasion, Barrister Vincent Fossung of Shalom Legal Consultancy in Buea- the law firm that the late Yanou founded in 2008, painted a vivid picture of the void created in the legal profession with the passing of Prof. Yanou.
    Present at the appeals court were Justice Leslie Forbang- a judge and lecturer of procedural law in the University of Buea, Barrister Gnie Kamga, president of the Cameroon Bar Council, Barrister Ebah Ntoko Justice (member of the Cameroon Bar Council), Barrister Njualem Charles of the Bar Council and a host of lawyers and pupil lawyers, most of whom Prof. Yanou had thought in the department of Law at the University of Buea or had trained in the field.

    From the Buea Court of Appeal, the event shifted to the Herbert Nganjo Endeley Amphitheatre of the University of Buea where academic honors were given the late associate professor of law. Events on the UB campus were headed by its Vice Chancellor, Prof.  Nalova Lyonga and Higher Education Minister represented by the Secretary General, Dr. Horace Ngomo.
    The Vice Chancellor and Staff of the University paid tribute to the fallen colleague for his enormous contributions both as teacher and trade union leader at the University. Representatives from brother Universities notably Dschang and Yaounde I were present. Prof. Yves Ndamyie- Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Dschang and former Director of Dialogue at the Ministry of Higher Education came to say adieu.
    After the academic honors the mortal remains of Dr. Michael Akomaye Yanou was laid to rest at his residence at the Government Residential Area (GRA) in Buea.
    Dr. Michael Yanou was born to Christian parents Pa Matthew Yanou and Mama Paulina Njeupa in the early 1960s. After his primary and secondary education, he moved to the University of Calabar in Nigeria and bagged a degree in law from 1980-1984. Upon graduation he applied and was admitted into the Nigeria Law School, Victoria Island Lagos where he obtained a BL (Barrister at Law) in 1985.
    In 1988 he enrolled in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka where he obtained an LL.M in law in 1990. Dr. Yanou holds a Ph.D in law from Rhodes University Grahamstown; South Africa. Apart from being the first African to take a Ph.D in law from this prestigious university, Prof.Yanou had the additional distinction of being the first to do so in two years. He was a winner of the visiting research Fellowship of the Centre of African studies, Cambridge University, U.K in 2005.
    Besides being a professor at the department of law, university of Buea, Cameroon, Prof. Yanou was a practicing advocate who has been called to the Bars of Cameroon and Nigeria. He has published extensively in local and international journals and is the author of several books like “Labour law principles and practice in Cameroon”, “Practice and procedure in civil matters in the courts of records in Anglophone Cameroon”, “Criminal Law and Procedure in Cameroon” and dispossession and access to land in South Africa.
    He was in Buea from Thursday January 22nd to Tuesday January 27th to teach a post-graduate course on environmental law which he had been teaching before his appointment as Director of Dialogue in the Ministry of Higher Education. He was on his way back to Yaounde that he was involved in a motor accident that took away his life. As Director of Dialogue, Michael Yanou perused policies that sought to improve the lot of lecturers, students and workers of the Higher Education Ministry.
    Before this appointment as director Dr. Yanou was the president of the University Teachers Syndicate better known by its French abbreviation SYNES, Buea chapter. He was known for his determination to improve the lot of lecturers and students alike in Higher Education in Cameroon. Dr. Yanou will never disappear from the scene for many reasons; he was a fine advocate, a scholar par excellence, and a fervent Human Right Advocate.