Fraud and Scanda l– Who will save Cameroon’s Poor?

The scandal in IRIC, happening for a second time since the institution’s current Director, Pierre Emmanuel Tabi was appointed in 2012, emanated from the release of two admission lists instead of one. About 1000 students sat for the competitive exam into IRIC’s diplomacy program. Only 15 places were advertised for the exam.

Last Friday, February 27, results were said to be published. The Minister of Higher Education had his signature on the first of the two lists that came out on Friday. The Cameroon Journal gathered that the results as published on Friday were made public after deliberations by a thirteen-man jury. They were made up of university professors, Jean Emmanuel Pondi, Alain Didier Olinga, Adolphe Minkoa She and Pascal Messanga Nyamding. It was chaired by the Secretary General at the External Relations Ministry, Felix Mbayu. The list as published by this panel carried the names of successful candidates in their order of merit.

Friday’s list had 15 successful candidates, plus 4 others on a waiting list. But to the shock of many, the next day, Saturday Feb. 28, another list with another 15 names surfaced. This time, some candidates in the waiting list of the first list were on the new list.

Government Officials’ maneuvers

Accusing fingers are pointing to senior gov’t officials influencing, manipulating and inserting either names of their children or those of their close relations in the disputed lists of successful candidates.

The son of Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o, for example, Minister Delegate at the Presidency in Charge of Defense, was first name on the first list published on Friday. His name was also maintained on the second list that showed up Saturday morning. Mebe Nkoulou Lionel Michel, the minister’s son is 25 and jointly owns a company in France called Sky Immobilier, with his father (Mebe Ngo’o) and his sister, Mebe Adjoa Elise – she runs the company, reports say.

The fraud continues – the Governor of the Littoral region, Joseph Beti Assomo, also had his child, Beti Mfoumou Armelle included in the list. Another official who had his kinsfolk, Oyouah Belinga Martin admitted into the college through the disputed list, is the Director of Civil Cabinet at the Presidency, Martin Belinga Eboutou.

Yet, an influential CPDM member of parliament from the Far North, Hadjidjatou Haman Tchiouto, is said to have equally succeeded in getting his daughter, Hamman Tchiouto included in the list of the admitted candidates i.e the first list.

The Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, who it should be recalled, ordered the dismissal of 9 students in 2012 on grounds that the list signed by Higher Education Minister was corrupted, is said to have equally maneuvered to get the names of his relations included in the second controversial list.

Still, a former mayor of Ayos equally used the influence of two of his closed ones who were members of the jury that came up with the lists to have his son’s name added to it. A certain, Bouhari Alim whose name was second on the waiting list that was published on Friday, emerged at the 11th position on the disputed second list published on Saturday morning. He was equally among students whose names were rejected in a controversial list of successful candidates published in 2012.

In Cameroon, competitive exams into higher education institutions, especially those that have to do with direct recruitment into the civil service, have become an exclusive club for the rich and powerful. Just imagine the positions of the above mentioned officials – with their money and position, they doctored the lists to meet their whims and caprices.

The 2013 graduation batch of same institution was made up of high ranking government officials’ children. This included among others, Emmanuel Roger Motaze, nephew of the Secretary General at the Prime Minister’s Office, Louis Paul Motaze and Namcha Gargoum, daughter of Adoum Gargoum, Minister Delegate to the Minister of External Relations.

In 2011, the children of Jean Tabi Manga, former Minister of Higher Education, erstwhile Rector of the Yaoundé University II, and Henri Ayissi Eyebe, Minister Delegate at the Presidency in Charge of the Supreme State Audit Office were on the list. A daughter of the Defense Minister is also said to have been admitted into the school in 2011.

The national chairman of the Social Democratic Front, SDF and officials of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, CRM of Maurice Kamto, have in two separate press releases requested that students who were initially declared successful, but whose names were clandestinely taken off the list of candidates admitted for the 2015 Diplomacy program into IRIC, be reinstituted.

The SDF’s John Fru Ndi stated in a release that administrative authorities must make sure that the students are given back their rightful places. He added that a parliamentary inquiry should be opened during the up-coming March session, to determine the root of the mafia and bring culprits to book.

The SDF communiqué accuses government officials of using public examinations to build dynasties and family hegemonies. Fru Ndi said that public officials have shifted from the past practice of selecting the best citizens that would build a better Cameroon and have resorted to nepotism and discrimination.

As for CRM, the party holds that the admissions process into the diplomacy option in IRIC is flooded with political battles among government officials. CRM warns that students who are already suffering from acute unemployment should not be victims of these political battles and influence peddling.