No Trifling Matter: Contributions of an Uncompromising Critic to the Democratic Process in Cameroon

17 The New Universities

53 1 17 The New Universities (Published June 6-13, 1991) I am writing this piece on the 26th of May, 1991 - the first anniversary of the struggle for genuine democracy in Cameroon. It was on Saturday, May 26th , 1990, that the Social Democratic Front (SDF) was launched in Bamenda, the political Mecca of Cameroon, against a backdrop of serious Government repression, resulting in the murder of six innocent citizens. Cameroon has never been the same again. The “Ntarikon Formula” as I once described this daringly bold venture of the SDF and the mammoth populations of the Bamenda metropolis, seems to have roused all Cameroonians from nearly 30 years of political slumber. Looking back, it is hard to believe that so much progress could be achieved within the span of a single year. We are not through with repression, and so today, most Cameroonians will only toast in silence to the memory of the martyrs of May 26th , 1990, and the other martyrs who have since joined them, as statistical victims on our rugged path to democracy, social justice and responsible government. This column predicts that May 26th will eventually replace May 20th as our National Day. There are some people who continue to clap their hands for Paul Biya and the CPDM, for magnanimously giving democracy to Cameroonians. Well, there is a fallacy which jurists and logicians call “causa pro causa” which consists in taking the non-cause of an event for the real cause. The same fallacy has been exhibited by those who have been sending messages of congratulations to the Government for creating the Universities of Buea and Ngaoundere. In fact, some mediocre teachers at the University of Yaounde, probably already imagining themselves power brokers in one of the new universities, have exhibited unbelievable naivety in their noisy euphoria over the Government’s “omniscient magnanimity.” The true creators of the universities of Buea and Ngaoundere are the striking students of Yaounde University and the opposition parties who together put the 54 Government in such a tight spot that it had to announce the new universities as a way of diffusing tension. But everything is still at the rhetorical level and, if care is not taken, it may, like many other fantastic announcements we have heard before, remain right there. The simple truth is that you don’t create a university by word of mouth, and unless appropriate pressure is mounted and sustained, the new universities will remain only in the airwaves. The first thing in the process of creating a university is to design viable academic programmes in line with a certain blueprint that must be clearly stated in the law or edict establishing the university. A course system is chosen in which the relationship envisaged between the various disciplines or faculties is rendered easily viable. An administrative structure is then set up. Physical facilities are provided. Staff, both academic and non-academic are recruited. Rules governing admissions, studies, graduation, appointments, service, promotions, retirements etc, are laid down. Feasibility studies, which, among other things, determine exploitable facilities and expertise must, of course, precede all the above. Thus, creating a university is not at all a day’s job. It is not an easy task. Anglophones, who have a thousand and one complaints about the University of Yaounde, should thank the students for making it possible for their dream to have a university in the pure Anglophone tradition to come true. They should put all hands on deck and maintain pressure on the appropriate authorities, until the idea is translated into concrete reality. Some disturbing indications are that a dispute is reportedly already raging between South Westerners and North Westerners as to which faculties of the university would be established in Buea and which in Bambili. This is a silly dispute. Operational pragmatism should be the guiding principle. Let them remember, however, the story of the two hunters who once cornered a game and, while they were busy disputing over the formula for sharing it after killing it, the animal escaped into safety. The senate of the University of Yaounde has already offered its services in helping to get the new universities off the ground. This offer should be politely but firmly turned down. As people who for over thirty years have been running an embarrassment which we call 55 the University of Yaounde, they should not be given the chance to mess up another university...