UB lecturers go on strike again

...They say the one week warning strike is to protest the witch hunt against two of their colleagues by the school’s administration and non-payment of their research allowances (RMA)

Academic activity at the University of Buea, UB, may be put on hold for the whole of this week, if lecturers of the University respect a decision of their trade union – The National Union of Teachers of Higher Education, known by its French acronym SYNES, asking them to go on strike.

According to the resolutions of a meeting of SYNES-UB chapter, on Wednesday 15 October 2014, a copy of which got to our newsroom, SYNES is calling on lecturers of the University to suspend all academic activity for a full week that is, from 20 to 24 October, to press the school’s authorities to stop the witch-hunt against two of their colleagues, who are accused by the authorities of taking bribes from students to make them pass their exams.

The lecturers argue that the two colleagues were falsely accused by the school administration (in the media), of collecting bribes from students.

‘It was Dr. Sango (one of the accused lecturers) who first reported that two students tried to bribe him,” SYNES-UB argued in their statement, noting that “today the administration is accusing Dr. Sango of collecting bribe from students.”

The 53 lecturers who attended the SYNES meeting have urged the minister of Higher Education to set-up an independent/neutral committee to look into the matter.

Apart from the row with the administration over the “false accusation” of their colleagues, the lecturers are also calling on the government to urgently pay their research allowances.

It should be mentioned that the University of Buea has known no real peace, since the appointment of Prof. Nalova Lyonga as vice chancellor several years ago. Students and lectures have moved from one strike action to the other for various reasons.