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

Chapter Five - The Board Is Here But...

177 Chapter Five The Board Is Here But... urs is such a government of fakes and intriguers that the public needs a heavy dose of vigilance to deal with it. The Anglophone community has since learnt that nothing good comes easy, especially when government seems more of an enemy than an ally, or appears to have as mission, the destruction of the positive and the virtuous. As Professor Asonganyi (“Cameroon Calling” 17 October 1993) remarks, if there is any lesson to be learnt in conflict resolution, it is mainly a lesson for the government, which does not have to wait for citizens to be maimed, to be soaked with water, to loose their eyes, to be knocked by policemen and gendarmes, before it can listen to what the citizens are saying. Government must learn to listen to the people and act at the right moment to prevent the citizens from suffering too much before they are satisfied. Within the framework of such an uncaring government, on October 12, 1993 when we learnt over CRTV of a text of application for the GCE board at last, it came as no surprise at all when soon afterwards it began to rumour that the text was a fake, and that an authentic one would soon be released. As Rotcod Gobata observes (Cameroon Post No. 0186 20-27 October 1993 p. 5), “the GCE saga has brought out the ruling junta into the open day light in its stark nudity. Who again is still in doubt that this country is under the grip of a handful of terrorists who run state affairs with careless arbitrariness; with regard neither for consistency nor credibility nor decency? Cameroon is the only country on earth where the signature of the Prime Minister and Head of Government could be fraudulently secured for a false document and the document widely diffused over the mass media and nothing happens. Anywhere else heads would have rolled immediately.” What follows are the two texts and the public’s reaction, once more, to the chronic tendency in this government to be crooked and deceitful in extreme. O 178 Texts of Application of the July 1 Decree, 1993 on the GCE Board 1.) The “Inoni Order” or version made public on October 12, 1993, but later withdrawn by the PM as being incorrect (Cameroon Post No. 0186 October 20-27, 1993 pp. 12-13): Order No. 112/PM of 12 October 1993 To Define and Determine the Administrative and Financial Organisation of the General Certificate of Education Board. The Prime Minster, Head of Government Mindful of the Constitution; Mindful of Decree No. 92/245 of November 27, 1992 to organize the government, as amended by Decree No.93/132 of May 10, 1993; Mindful of Decree No. 77/555 of 24 November 1976 instituting the General Certificate of Education examinations in Cameroon; Mindful of Decree No. 93/172 of July 1, 1993 to create the General Certificate of Education Board; Hereby Orders As Follows: Chapter I General Provisions Article 1: This order determines and defines the administrative and financial organization of the General Certificate of Education Board, hereinafter referred to as the “Board”, created by decree No. 93/172 of July 1, 1993. Article 2: The mission of the Board is that stipulated in decree No. 93/172 of July 1, 1993 referred to above. Article 3: For the purpose of carrying out its objectives as specified in article 2 of this decree, the Board shall: (a) organize examinations for the award of certificates and other distinctions to persons who qualify; (b) offer technical advice on the design of learning programmes for secondary educational institutions; (c) collaborate with other organizations and institutions responsible for similar examinations in Cameroon and elsewhere; (d) conduct and contract research and studies on examinations and other aspects of education; (e) demand and 179 receive from any candidates sitting examinations such fees as shall from time to time be determined by the Board and approved by the Minister in charge of National Education; (f) enter into contracts, borrow, establish trusts, act as trustees solely or jointly with any other persons and employ and act through agents; in accordance with regulations enforced; (g) accept gifts, legacies and donations but without obligation to accept same for a particular purpose unless it approves the terms and conditions attached thereto; (h) undertake publishing and bookselling as approved by the Minister of National Education...