UB Lecturers on strike over taxi ban

Lecturers of the university of Buea, UB, have begun a four-day strike, Wednesday, denouncing a long standing decision taken by the Vice chancellor banning taxis from entering the campus.

The Buea chapter of higher education teachers union, SYNES, which is organizing the strike, is demanding the VC to lift the ban.

After implementing the first resolution, a strike notice co-signed by James Abangma, SYNES Acting President and Fontem Neba, SYNES Secretary saying they are implementing Resolution 04/GA/SYNES-UB of 14 May 2014 to declare a warning strike action in UB.

Nalova Lyonga, UB’s Vice-Chancellor in a release, May 14, to staff and students cited kidnappings of students based on their religious beliefs,thefts and other terrorist acts as the reason for the ban of taxis on campus.

The situation

As the strike action began at 7 am Wednesday, SYNES-UB executives went round to ensure that no one was using the strike to serve a purpose other than the one intended by the lecturers.

The first report at 8:30 indicated that the adherence was total. The second report at 11:20 showed that only three lecturers had gone for lectures, identified as two members of the university administration and a lecturer in the Department of French.

The strike is expected to continue till Monday, May 26 .

The Vice-Chancellor posted a communique at the University gate characteristically describing the strike as ‘baseless’ and that classes are going on.

The genesis

In the wake of student unrest in 2013, the Vice-Chancellor banned taxis from entering the campus arguing that renegade students were using these taxis to enter the campus, commit crimes and to get away unscathed. Additional security was brought into the campus; the police, gendarmes and an additional security outfit –Esoka Security.

The Contention, SYNES

According to SYNES,the Vice-Chancellor has remained adamant to appeals for taxis to resume transportation. So, all taxis heading to UB continued to stop at the gate, while their cargo trekked the remaining distance.

In November 2013, SYNES wrote to the Vice-Chancellor, after complaints from lecturers, appealing for a redress of the situation. But according to SYNES members, the Vice Chancellor snubbed the union as the heat and the trek intensified.

The argument of the lecturers is based on the fact that for a population that is 80% pedestrian, female lecturers have to come to school with two pairs of shoes and plastic paper to cover their hair in case it rains. Those who make it to class in the scorching heat of the Molyko sun have to clean themselves and cool off outside before entering the lecture hall.

According to a release from SYNES-UB in April, they wrote to the Administration threatening to go on strike if the problem was not redressed. SYNES received a response with the administration promising to look into the problem. At a meeting with the Administration, academic and support staff made similar proposals, among other things, the return of taxis under defined conditions.

Enter The Administration

The Administration in fact, had already contacted a company to provide some buses which will go from Molyko Check Point through Malingo to UB Main Campus and from Campus B (Bomaka) to the main campus. But the company, Bajo Club, through its manager complained that they were in financial difficulties (even before starting the business) and could not deliver services before the end of May. The VC declared on national media Thursday May 22,that the new bus service will soon go operational.

It is reported a small committee which was set up to look into the matter proposed that Bajo Club be given enough time to prepare and effectively start in September so as to resolve all problems they might have by then. In the mean time, taxis could resume transportation to UB so that the rest of the semester can run on smoothly. The administration refused because the same Bajo Club which was two months behind schedule promised to do it.

SYNES Cries Foul Play

As negotiations dragged on, the following issues continued to bother lecturers: - The continuous comparison of UB with other State universities when it comes to suffering, not benefits. - Lecturers continue to trek and sweat their way to class in the scorching sun, a condition that is hazardous to health, while the Vice-Chancellor watches with amusement behind the curtains in her high tower. - When lecturers waddle in the stormy rains and get to class, they find that there are no students. - The administration has remained insensitive to this problem. The Vice-Chancellor has remained arrogant, spiteful, defiant and chillingly contemptuous of her colleagues. - To make a bad situation worse, the incessant lies the Administration has been telling have attained pathological proportions. The last in the series is the claim that taxis were banned because they were used to kidnap students based on their religious beliefs. This imagination of Boko Haram is a familiar modus operandi designed to justify a witch-hunt. - In the midst of the ban, thieves have continued to maraud the campus, breaking into laboratories and offices, while the battalions of security men look on.

It is clear, therefore, that security has been used as a smoke-screen to yoke staff.