IRIC entrance exam: A tale of two lists

Jacques Fame Ndongo

A controversial list of successful candidates was made public after a first one had been published a day before
By Tanyi Kenneth Musa in Yaounde
A huge controversy surrounds the results of the entrance examination into the diplomacy section of the International Relations Institute of Cameroon (IRIC) for the 2014/2015 academic year. A first list of successful candidates was published on Friday, 27 February 2015, and a second, with modification, the following day. The latter replaces the former, yet both lists were signed by the minister of Higher Education, Jacques Fame Ndongo.

    On the first list which is no longer valid, there are 15 names of regular candidates, 4 names of those on the waiting list and 4 names of foreign candidates. For its part, the second list has 15 names of regular candidates too, no waiting list and the four names of the foreign students found on the rejected list.
    Curiously, 6 of the 15 names of regular candidates on the first list are not found on the second. The names are Nti Estelle Nadia (which was 2nd on the first list), Mebenga Lucien Thierry (formerly 5th), Oyono Ottou Didier Hervé (formerly 7th), Ayuk Margaret Josiane (formerly 11th), Minka Minyem Joseph Stéphane (formerly 13th) and Simeu Djoko Brice Cardeau (formerly 14th).
    Rather, 3 of the 4 names on the first waiting list now feature among the regular candidates on the second list. These are Bouhari Alim (formerly 1st on the waiting list, but which is now 11th), Iddi Ahmed (formerly 3rd on the waiting list, now in the 13th position) and Mofoi Samson (formerly 4th on the waiting list, now 15th).
    The name of Nkwati Hans Pekwanga, formerly 2nd on the waiting list, has disappeared like those of the 6 regular candidates mentioned above.
    When approached by the press, the director of the institution made it clear that only the list published on Saturday is valid. All of which calls to mind a number of questions: why does the Saturday list not have a waiting list? On what basis were the six names of successful candidates withdrawn from the first list? Who ordered the publication of the second results?
    These are questions that both the Higher Education minister and the director of IRIC should answer without delay.