Admission Scandal Rocks The International Relations Institute (IRIC)

The International Relations Institute of Cameroon (IRIC) is making headline news for the wrong reason. The much respected establishment recently within 48 hours released two separate lists of admitted students in the department of International Relations and diplomacy. Cameroon Concord gathered that the list made public on Friday evening reportedly came from a panel of thirteen members including senior lecturers of the institution such as professors Alain Didier Olinga, Adolphe Minkoa She, Jean-Emmanuel Pondi and Pascal Messanga Nyamding.

The controversy was heralded by the fact that in the first list, the name of Estelle Nti appeared second and was confirmed by an official announcement of the list via CRTV radio. By some strange happenstance, Estelle Nti and other candidates whose names had appeared on the official list and read over national radio, disappeared the following day. Interestingly, the first list included 15 admitted students and a waiting list comprising 4 names. The new list that also had 15 students however did not have a waiting list attached to it. In addition, some candidates from the waiting list were surreptitiously declared admitted.

Local media reports say something CPDM in nature happened inexplicably on the list between the Ministry of Higher Education and the Presidency of the Republic. Some sources have observed that the Director of IRIC, Pierre-Emmanuel Tabi was stunned by the scandal.  This is not the first time that the entrance examination into the International Relations Institute is affected by a fraud. In 2013  nine candidates declared admitted were ordered to leave the faculty by  the Minister of Higher Education, Jacques Fame Ndongo and replaced with students from his constituency.