Anglophone professors, lawyers, parents
unite in protest
 |
Teachers of UB are totally against harmonization
of academic programs in state universities
|
In what can be seen as a joint and
determined protest action the Union of Teachers of Higher Education (SYNES) UB
Chapter, the Cameroon Teachers Trade Union CATTU, the Union of Parent-Teacher
Associations (UPTA) and the All Anglophone Common Law Lawyers Conference AACLLC
met in Bamenda on 27 May, under what they called “The Quartet”, and issued a
strongly-worded statement against on-going moves by the MINESUP to harmonize
academic programs in all State Universities in Cameroon. The Quartet is
protesting against any such harmonization and/or francophonization. They argue
that the Universities of Buea and Bamenda are Anglo-Saxon Universities and
should remain as such. See full text of the Joint Press Statement issued by
‘The Quartet’ on page 3.
By Ojong Steven Ayukogem in Yaounde with
reporting
It was our own ‘Genuine Intellectual’, Dr.
Bernard NsokikaFonlon (RIP) who in his Academic Testament: <To Every African
Freshman or The Nature, End and Purpose of University Studies>, posited
that: “Any university worthy of the name shall guard its freedom with jealous
tenaciousness, for it is the permanent guardian of immutable truth- while the
dynasties come and go.”
Fonlon
espoused further that: “If this independence of the university is not
sanctioned by a charter; if the university is left at the mercy of people in
power, if politicians usurp the right to dictate what should be taught, if the
Ministry of (Higher) Education has the right to confer state doctorates and
aggregations, as is the case in France, then the temptation to impose what
pleases them and those who please them, on the academy, to serve their own
ends, will be too strong for human frailty, too strong for human ambition, and
too strong for mortal fear.”
It
was in utter frustration and bitterness, and perhaps in acknowledgement of
these sterling thoughts of the venerable and venerated Dr. Bernard
NsokikaFonlon that Anglophone teachers, lawyers and parents converged on the
history-making city of Bamenda to wage a war against what they described as
“plans by the government to assimilate Anglophones as a cultural entity by
tampering with their educational system, and by gradually but consistently
francophonizing the Anglophone higher education system, under the guise of
harmonizing academic programs.”
‘The
Quartet’ noted that after reviewing earlier and persistent attempts made by
government to assimilate Anglophones, by trying to dismantle the Common Law
sub-system, adulterating teaching standards in Anglophone secondary and
tertiary institutions of learning, and by deliberately mismanaging the concept
of regional balance to satisfy essentially the francophones, they have come to
the unshakable conclusion that the government is hell bent and ever poised to
humiliate, marginalize, disenfranchise and annihilate Anglophones in Cameroon.
In
their press statement ‘The Quartet’ noted further that any attempt at
harmonizing university studies in Cameroon not only undermines but also
subverts the decrees creating the Universities of Buea and Bamenda as
English-Speaking Universities.
They
lamented that the violation of recruitment procedure and the disrespect for
laid down texts regulating recruitment of teachers in the two English-speaking
Universities of Buea and Bamenda, and the premeditated exclusion and sidelining
of Anglophone students in admissions into professional schools attached to
these universities only betray the intentions of the government.
Fearing
that the meeting of Heads of Schools and Colleges of all State Universities
convened for Monday, 30 May in Yaounde, by the MINESUP, Prof. Jacques Fame
Ndongo, is aimed to foster this on-going trend to harmonize and therefore blot
out the specificity of Anglophone Universities and University systems in
Cameroon, The Quartet is calling on all Anglophones irrespective of their
status in society, to rise up like one man and resist “the constant attempts to
assimilate, ridicule, marginalize, insult and discriminate against them.”
They
warned that “any Anglophone who consents, cooperates, concedes, yields or abets
this Anglophone loss of identity or subjugation, will be considered an enemy of
the people.”
Yet,
no matter how strongly-worded and well-intentioned the alarm by ‘the quartet’
might seem, The Median fears that the clarion call for Anglophones to rise-up
and resist the ‘assimilation agenda’ of La Republique may not be heeded. This
is because firstly, most teachers, especially university teachers, have been
compromised by the establishment. Latter day university dons in Cameroon have
lost their intellectual integrity, they have sold their disinterestedness for
ten pieces of silver; and their quest for non-intellectual power now
overshadows their humility and firmness as genuine intellectuals.
Secondly,
even our men in wig and gown, who in other countries are veritable drum majors
for genuine change, have also sold out to the government.
Joint Press Statement
The National Union of Teachers of Higher
Education (SYNES), University of Buea Chapter, The Cameroon Teachers Trade
Union (CATTU), The Union of Parent-Teacher Associations (UPTA) and The All
Anglophone Common Law Lawyers’ Conference met today 27 May, 2016 to discuss
on-going plans by the Ministry of Higher Education to harmonize academic
programmes in State Universities and the consequences on the English subsystem
of education.
The
quartet reviewed earlier and persistent attempts made by Government to
assimilate Anglophones as a cultural entity by tampering with their educational
system, francophonizing Anglophone higher educational institutions, dismantling
the common law structure, adulterating teaching standards in secondary and
tertiary education and deliberately mismanaging the concept of regional balance
to humiliate, marginalize, disenfranchise and annihilate Anglophones within
Cameroon.
THE QUARTET,
Considering
the disregard for the decrees creating the Universities of Buea and Bamenda as
English-speaking institutions;
Considering
the failure of the Ministry of Higher Education to respect this decree by
persistently recruiting staff who cannot speak English in violation of
University recruitment procedure, thereby altering the language of instruction;
Mindful
of the exclusion of Anglophone students from admission into most of the
professional schools in those institutions and their exclusion as well from
similar institutions in other State Universities,
Viewing
that the call for Heads of Departments to meet on Monday 30 May 2016 in Yaounde
seeks to foster that on-going trend to harmonize programmes thereby blotting
out the specificity of Anglophone universities and university systems in
general,
HEREBY
CONDEMNS
the plot by the MINESUP to destroy Anglophones as a cultural entity;
URGES Anglophones of all walks of life to
resist any continuous attempts to assimilate, ridicule, marginalize and
discriminate against them;
DECLARES
any Anglophones consenting, cooperating, conceding, yielding to or abetting
such requests for Anglophone loss of identity or subjection to constant
humiliation, as an enemy of the people;
URGES
the ministries of education, each in their domain, to show restraint in the
seemingly established malignant design to suppress and eventually wipe out
Anglophone identity.
DONE
IN BAMENDA, THIS 27 DAY OF MAY, 2016
Prof.
James ArreyAbangma Tassang
Wilfred
For
SYNES-UB For CATTU
Amuntung
Joseph Tumasang Barr.Bobga
Harmony
For
UPTA For the ACCLLC
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