University students boycott ‘Thank You’
march for Paul Biya
By TichaBizel-Bi Mafor, UB Journalism
student on internship
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| Each university student will own a laptop |
Less than 500 students from Universities
and other Institutions of Higher Learning took part in the march that was
organised in Yaounde on 3 August 2016, to express thanks and praises to the
Head of State President Paul Biya for offering laptop computers to university
students.
Intended
to be a popular and hugely attended event, the march turned out to be a flop,
as it failed to witness the expected popular participation of students.
The
about 500 students drawn from universities and other higher institutions in
Yaounde and towns as far as Bamenda in the North West region, marched from the
Yaounde Conference Centre to the 20th May Boulevard where they were urged to
cluster together so that pictures taken should give the impression of a
successful and well-attended event.
The
students carried placards bearing beautiful messages to the president of the
republic. They also read out a motion of thanks and support to the head of
state, hailing him for his “fatherly gesture” and for all other programs he has
initiated towards empowering the youths of Cameroon including notably the
recent FCFA 102 billion-worth ‘Special Program for the Emergence of the
Youths’.
The
document bearing the motion of support was handed to the SDO of Nfoundi for
onward transmission to the president.
Meanwhile,
the Minister of Higher Education, Prof. Jacques Fame Ndongo, who was the brain
behind the demonstration march, did not bother to come over to the May 20
Boulevard to address the students perhaps out of disappointment. He was
represented by Prof. AboyaEndongManase, the director of university solidarity
and dialogue in the ministry of higher education.
It
should be pointed out that though the Minister of Higher Education wants the
wider public to believe that the computers are a personal donation from the
President of the Republic, it is actually the implementation of the e-national
higher education program of the government that emphasizes on “one student, one
computer”.
Note
worthy is the fact that the computers will cost the Cameroonian taxpayer the
sum of FCFA 75 billion. The money will be obtained through a loan agreement
signed between the government of Cameroon and the China Export-Import Bank,
also known as EXIM Bank China for short.
It
is interesting to note that just before the government announced the ‘special
presidential donation’ (don speciale du president de la republique), president
Biya signed a decree authorizing the minister of economy and planning, Louis
Paul Motaze, to sign a loan agreement worth FCFA 75 billion with the EXIM Bank
of China to enable the government to to put paid to its e-national higher
education program. Then just about the same time, the minister of higher
education also signed a contract with authorities of a Chinese company to
supply laptop computers worth FCFA 75 billion.
Commentators
have wasted no time to note that the Yaounde regime only wants to make
political capital of the “one student, one laptop” project, especially now that
there is talk of an anticipated presidential election.
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