Professors, parents unite against joint university programs

In what can be seen as a joint and determined protest action by 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”.

They 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.

It was our own ‘Genuine Intellectual’, Dr. Bernard NsokikaFonlon (RIP) who in his Academic Testament: , 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,May 30,2016, 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