Ashu Shamy, one-time President of the University of Buea Students’ Union (UBSU), broke his silence on UB crises and spoke candidly to the Journal. Ashu, who led the Students’ Union in 2012, spoke July 5, on the many problems that have swamped the University since his leadership and graduation from the institution. He spoke to Cameroon Journal’s Atia Azohnwi
Mr. Ashu, what is your take on the crises plaguing the University of Buea since the beginning of 2013?
Thank you very much for the opportunity. Well, let me say, first of all, that I had decided to keep silence on this issue over a long time now, and would not want to violate that personal decision. However, all I can say is I quit the politics of the University immediately after graduation. You see, the crises in the University of Buea did not start only in 2013. I make bold to tell you these problems are perennial. It is a generational curse that goes with every administration. If you can still remember vividly well, after Dr. Nalova Pauline Egbe Lyonga, was appointed, you and a host of other reporters, including the CRTV, came and asked me this same question; Is UBSU, happy today because the former VC, Prof Vincent PK Titanji, has been replaced? And I told all of you categorically that. “The problem UB is having is not the problem of VC, or UBSU or SYNES. The problem is with the system of governance and until there are adjustments from the top, UB shall always be like this.
When you say adjustments from the Top, what do you mean?
You see, according to the Pure Theory Of Law by Hans Kelson; every norm in the Legal system gets its force from the groundnum. The groundnorm commands all other norms in the system and not the other way around. This I mean, there is a hierarchy of authority in Cameroon and UB, is just a subset of that system. It gets its force and power from the higher authorities above it. So you understand where I’m driving from.
During your reign as UBSU President, UB recorded very little or no strike. How did you succeed to achieve that?
Well, as I have often taught my colleagues and close collaborators at the time of my reign in UBSU, I said always, Leadership is a call to serve, and at all times, we must come down to the level of servants. If you want to be served, you must serve others. Humility, the call to selfless service to our cause was our goal. Equally, I have often said that, what matters in a fight is not the size of the Man in the fight but the size of the fight in the Man. These two principles were the base of our success. I believe in the force of argument and not the argument of force.
One more thing that helped me to the realization of a dream many thought impossible, was the adoption of the policy of non-alliance. It has often been a tradition that once you’ve been elected into office, the next moment was to seek for allies, to stand as your force and push. We surreptitiously stayed away from all these angles and I told my colleagues, “guys, let’s try this system out; we don’t hate any and do not love any, and the ones we love and should die for are our students.” This system was rare in the system as no one from the various angles could ever predict or even understand our direction. This worked out very well, though it caused me a lot of enmity within the other two influential cores of the University.
What cores are you referring to? Is the University of Buea made up of cores?
Where many people are, with lots of vested interests, the tendency is to form groups to seek ways to achieve their common goals. That’s why we have Trade unions, Syndicates Unions and associations today. UBSU, SYNES, and I want to believe even journalists have one too, except you would tell me no. As I stated, my strategies could never be anticipated by any of them. We could hold a meeting today and decide on a particular subject but when the time came, I became very objective so as not to jeopardize the interest of the students. I can remember vividly well when, one high-ranking official of the administration felt so frustrated with my submission at the University Senate that provoked him to say in public “Madam, we should not trust Him; he will disappoint us.”
You at one time warned UB Lecturers and the administration to stay away from Students’ affairs and stop causing disorder on Campus else UB will be very uncomfortable for everybody when you leave. Were you aware of the strikes coming up?
You really followed events at that time. Let me tell you this, leadership is a call. It requires wisdom. At every point in time, you must aspire to grow through leadership and not go through it. You must live remarks everywhere you go, and as a leader, you must be able to study the environment, your jurisdiction of operations before your term runs over. If you do not understand that principle, then you only went through leadership. You did not grow through it.
During the last students' Senate of August 2012, I came out boldly and gave all Senators present a brief lecture on how the University managed to survive in spite of the huge and constant time bombs in 2012. I went further to tell them the causes of all the misunderstandings the university had been facing and the solutions I found out. In conclusion, I gave them a way-forward on how to maintain that calm environment else 2013 should be a calamity for the school. It appeared the message did not sound so well so on the last day before the graduation ceremony; I went to the VC again to remind her of my message to the University. Luckily enough, the VC did not listen to it alone; she gathered all her collaborators inside her office to listen to me. I spoke to them and gave them the way forward, but I warned them that if they fail to listen to me, they should start expecting the heat from the first week of school in 2013. Apparently, they did not, and just as I had predicted it happened.
UBSU has been banned from UB. Do you think the problems of UB are over?
You make me laugh. What has killed the world today is the idea of passing judgment. People at all times want to punish the effect; they do not punish the cause. Banning UBSU is just creating a huge unknown that may finally land UB to its calamitous end. What happened to the Student Union Gov’t of UNILAG-Nigeria? They were banned. Have the problems finished? The Bible says “Darkness and sorrow shall endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning” Let me tell you this; The students of UB, shall be liberated from the bondage of tyranny, elitism, handicapism, eliminationism, ethnic cleansing, forced conversions, supremacism, rankism, mentalism, ethno- classism and the like and be led into absolute freedom. Christianity has struggled for survival since Jesus Christ shared his blood for humanity, it has suffered, its leaders persecuted, killed as well, but has Christianity been wiped out?
Mr. Ashu, what is your take on the crises plaguing the University of Buea since the beginning of 2013?
Thank you very much for the opportunity. Well, let me say, first of all, that I had decided to keep silence on this issue over a long time now, and would not want to violate that personal decision. However, all I can say is I quit the politics of the University immediately after graduation. You see, the crises in the University of Buea did not start only in 2013. I make bold to tell you these problems are perennial. It is a generational curse that goes with every administration. If you can still remember vividly well, after Dr. Nalova Pauline Egbe Lyonga, was appointed, you and a host of other reporters, including the CRTV, came and asked me this same question; Is UBSU, happy today because the former VC, Prof Vincent PK Titanji, has been replaced? And I told all of you categorically that. “The problem UB is having is not the problem of VC, or UBSU or SYNES. The problem is with the system of governance and until there are adjustments from the top, UB shall always be like this.
When you say adjustments from the Top, what do you mean?
You see, according to the Pure Theory Of Law by Hans Kelson; every norm in the Legal system gets its force from the groundnum. The groundnorm commands all other norms in the system and not the other way around. This I mean, there is a hierarchy of authority in Cameroon and UB, is just a subset of that system. It gets its force and power from the higher authorities above it. So you understand where I’m driving from.
During your reign as UBSU President, UB recorded very little or no strike. How did you succeed to achieve that?
Well, as I have often taught my colleagues and close collaborators at the time of my reign in UBSU, I said always, Leadership is a call to serve, and at all times, we must come down to the level of servants. If you want to be served, you must serve others. Humility, the call to selfless service to our cause was our goal. Equally, I have often said that, what matters in a fight is not the size of the Man in the fight but the size of the fight in the Man. These two principles were the base of our success. I believe in the force of argument and not the argument of force.
One more thing that helped me to the realization of a dream many thought impossible, was the adoption of the policy of non-alliance. It has often been a tradition that once you’ve been elected into office, the next moment was to seek for allies, to stand as your force and push. We surreptitiously stayed away from all these angles and I told my colleagues, “guys, let’s try this system out; we don’t hate any and do not love any, and the ones we love and should die for are our students.” This system was rare in the system as no one from the various angles could ever predict or even understand our direction. This worked out very well, though it caused me a lot of enmity within the other two influential cores of the University.
What cores are you referring to? Is the University of Buea made up of cores?
Where many people are, with lots of vested interests, the tendency is to form groups to seek ways to achieve their common goals. That’s why we have Trade unions, Syndicates Unions and associations today. UBSU, SYNES, and I want to believe even journalists have one too, except you would tell me no. As I stated, my strategies could never be anticipated by any of them. We could hold a meeting today and decide on a particular subject but when the time came, I became very objective so as not to jeopardize the interest of the students. I can remember vividly well when, one high-ranking official of the administration felt so frustrated with my submission at the University Senate that provoked him to say in public “Madam, we should not trust Him; he will disappoint us.”
You at one time warned UB Lecturers and the administration to stay away from Students’ affairs and stop causing disorder on Campus else UB will be very uncomfortable for everybody when you leave. Were you aware of the strikes coming up?
You really followed events at that time. Let me tell you this, leadership is a call. It requires wisdom. At every point in time, you must aspire to grow through leadership and not go through it. You must live remarks everywhere you go, and as a leader, you must be able to study the environment, your jurisdiction of operations before your term runs over. If you do not understand that principle, then you only went through leadership. You did not grow through it.
During the last students' Senate of August 2012, I came out boldly and gave all Senators present a brief lecture on how the University managed to survive in spite of the huge and constant time bombs in 2012. I went further to tell them the causes of all the misunderstandings the university had been facing and the solutions I found out. In conclusion, I gave them a way-forward on how to maintain that calm environment else 2013 should be a calamity for the school. It appeared the message did not sound so well so on the last day before the graduation ceremony; I went to the VC again to remind her of my message to the University. Luckily enough, the VC did not listen to it alone; she Why? Because it is a just cause. UBSU, fights for a just cause, and the blood of the students who died for it shall strengthen and keep it alive forever. They can kill its leaders, but UBSU shall survive for ever. Its powerful name shall never perish.
Its leaders have been murdered in cold blood, become refugees and semi refugees in foreign lands, some tortured, molested, imprisoned, exiled, Killed, frustrated, threatened, victimized; others deprived from graduating and defending their thesis, murder attempts, meanwhile the cowards sit on top of plenty. Now let me ask this question to the Head of State and his Leaders; do you intend to hand over Cameroon to the Cowards when they continuously kill the brave?
