UBa students accuse VC of exploitation among other allegations

Rumours of attempts to evict the vice chancellor of the University of Bamenda, UBa, Tafah Edokat Oki Edward is making rounds. This disturbing news has reportedly reached an alarming proportion even within Edokat’s camp that ongoing happenings; implicating the UBa vice chancellor in one way or the other leave him with no chances of escaping these rumours.

Amongst Edokat’s critics are UBa students who are accusing the vice chancellor of exploitation. Some of the students who spoke to The Guardian Post on conditions of anonymity claim Edokat had collected huge sums of money within the past year claiming that the money was for students’ union activities even though the students claim no money has been used for students’ affairs. They alleged that the vice chancellor, has ordered the election of a new student body without first of all giving an account of the funds that they believed to be in his keeping.

Edokat has also been accused of reducing the University of Bamenda to the University of Oshie. More than 70% of the non-academic staff, his critics say, are said to hail from his hometown Oshie village. In addition to thsi, the only financial institution permitted to function on campus is the National Financial Credit, NFC, which is owned by his tribesman and godfather, Senator Awanga Zacharias. Students of the University of Bamenda, The Guardian Post gathered, have been conditioned to pay their fees only through the National Financial Credit.

It is not only students of the University of Bamenda who are calling for Edokat’s departure for calm to reign in the institution. Members of the university senate are not only accusing the UBa vice chancellor of running the state institution like one who owns a village provision store but also of treating them with exceptional disregard.

The vice chancellor is said to often embarrass members of the university senate even in public whenever they try to raise a finger against his alleged high-handedness and obnoxious policies.

The latest gaffe of the UBa vice chancellor, according to his critics, is a very controversial professionalization policy he has put in place. In place of an Arts Faculty which would have absorbed many Anglophone students, Edokat, who they say rose to where he is thanks to Arts education, is accused of allocating a lot of space for a medical school with over 90% of the students being Francophones.

Even though Edokat’s decision to set up a business school has been widely saluted, his critics believe strongly that the transport department which is part of the business school is a disguised driving school. This fear, The Guardian Post gathered, has been given wings by what many say is the exorbitant fees that is being charged for the business school. The 300.000 FCFA each student is charged ,critics maintain is the amount charged for a similar business school by the National Polytechnic Bambui, a private institution.

Contacted by phone on above allegations, Edokat blurted out, “Let my detractors write or say what they like...I have developed a thick skin.” Pressed on to give at least one clarification, Edokat did not only deny all the above allegations which he qualified as coming from his detractors but again fired: “The figures are there for everyone to come and see...there is nothing we are doing here that is not documented.”

Edokat’s crime, many believe, is that he does not hail from Tubah subdivision, the seat of the University of Bamenda. The alleged tension in the institution, his supporters and admirers say, are being orchestrated by some Tubah elite who have vowed to go to every length to kick against an Oshie in Momo division out of the institution.