The Cameroon GCE Crisis: A Test of Anglophone Solidarity: A Test of Anglophone Solidarity

Chapter Three - The Church Played a Major Role

101 Chapter Three The Church Played a Major Role s part of the civil society, the Church did not stay on the sidelines in the struggle to rescue the GCE. From the pulpits and in conference rooms, strong statements were issued by both the Catholic and Presbyterian Church authorities. In a “humble and earnest appeal” to the Right Honourable Simon Achidi Achu, Prime Minister, the Bishops of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province requested his immediate intervention to rescue the GCE. Here is how Ntemfac Ofege of Cameroon Post (No. 0184 October 10, 1993 P.11) summarised it for his readers: In a powerful and compact 19 page document plus attendant annexure, the Bishops reminded the PM of similar attempts to tamper with the educational heritage which still obtains west of the Mungo; an educational heritage that goes back more than sixty years; “a heritage considered as priceless and inalienable by the people of the North West and South West Provinces”. According to the Bishops, their appeal “concerns the future of the GCE Examination, and, closely connected with it the very survival of the Anglophone Education system in Cameroon”. After commending the PM for the felicitous action taken on 11th September 1992 in setting up the Sondengam Committee whose “marvellous report” was completed and tabled to government on the 20th of November 1992, the Bishops continued that, “We are reliably informed that the Honourable Minister of National Education was impressed with the Report, and that he forwarded it to you, with his own favourable comments, on the 7th of January 1993”. The Bishops reminded the PM that on July 1 1993, the Head of state signed a decree creating a GCE Board and some weeks later an ad hoc Committee was set up to draw up the text which would spell out the modalities of the application of the Decree of July 1, 1993. That committee completed its work on the 14 of September 1993. After pointing out the above gave the impression that a satisfactory breakthrough “of the GCE saga was imminent”, the Bishops write that they “find it impossible to express in words A 102 the unfathomable depth of shock and of utter dismay” they felt as on the same day that the second Sondengam Commission completed its work, in the deep of the night, soldiers sneaked into Bamenda and Buea to carry away GCE Examination scripts. The Bishops pointed out clearly that the government-sponsored act is a clear ‘betrayal”, and a show of government doublestandards . They insisted that the act not only undermines government’s credibility but such behaviour showed clearly that the words of the rulers of the country cannot be taken seriously. The Bishops appealed to PM to restore order. To the Bishops, the Anglo-Saxon system of education in Cameroon was in jeopardy. The GCE Examinations Board was not an issue of partisan politics. It transcended partisan politics. This fact was clearly shown in the Report of the Sondengam Commission, pages 6-7, which briefly delineates the vicissitudes of the GCE Examination between 1983 and 1989, i.e., during the period of the single-party state, when hardly any Cameroonians were even remotely thinking of restoring the multi-party system in our country. At least thrice during that period of six years (1983-1989), Agents of the Ministry of National Education attempted to undermine and to subvert the GCE Examination. Each of these attempts was stoutly resisted and checkmated by the resolute and unanimous will of the people of the North West and South West Provinces. This is a clear sign that the GCE Examination cannot be considered, honestly, as an issue of partisan politics. It is an issue on which the people of the North West and South West Provinces feel absolutely united, irrespective of religious creed, political persuasion or ethnic origin. The question of the GCE examinations Board is one that immediately concerns the Cultural Identity of the Anglophones in this country. It concerns the survival, or otherwise, of the Anglo-Saxon System of Education in Cameroon. It concerns one of the Fundamental Human Rights according to which “Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children” (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 26. 3). It concerns one of the Rights of the Family according to which “The primary right of Parents to educate their children 103 must be upheld in all...