Laying of HTTTC Kumba foundation stone may trigger Bafaw-Mukonje tribal rivalry

Uncertainty looms in Kumba, Meme Division of the South West Region, following the laying of the foundation stone of the Higher Technical Teachers' Training College (HTTTC) Kumba by the Minister of Higher Education, Prof. Jacques Fame Ndongo.

The foundation stone for the construction of the baby institution, which has been placed under the University of Buea, was laid on Friday, June 2, amid protest from some locals in the area who claimed to be owners of the land on which the institution is going to be constructed on.

In the course of the ceremony, over a dozen protesters resurfaced at the ceremonial ground, wielding placards and accusing the administration of forcefully evicting them from their land and houses.

The placards carried  varied inscriptions such as: '' Civil servants are not civil masters", "Cameroon is a State of law and not disorder", ''We are not against the construction of HTTTC Kumba, we love development and not destruction" and  ''No to injustice!"

It only took the quick intervention of Commissioner Wilson Elong, to forestall the protesters from disrupting the ceremony.

Commenting on the protesters, Meme SDO, Chamberlin Ntou'ou Ndong, frowned at the demonstrators.

According to him, “I received these same people in my office a few days ago and I assured them that the issue of their indemnities has been tabled to the appropriate quarters and that talks in this regard are progressing. There was thus no need for any of such demonstration,” he said.

However, tongues are already wagging that the demonstration was just a microcosm of the problem, given that, early this year; some 80 villagers stormed the palace of Nfon V.E Mukete, decrying indiscriminate arrest.

The Paramount ruler of the Bafaws Nfon Mukete has also been on legal war path with Chief Ebanja of Mukonje over the ownership of the land on which the citadel of learning is to be constructed.  

While the area in which the school is to be built is officially part of Mukonje, the Bafaw leader is still objecting the administrative decision. To make matters worse, the traditional ruler boycotted the event.

Many think that the absent of Senator Nfon Mukete during the laying of the foundation stone may just be the beginning of the Mukonje- Bafaw tribal conflict.

Speaking at the event, Chief Ebanja of Mokunje asserted that “While the University has come to stay, we are praying that this should be the last time an occasion like this is being held on a temporary site. Everything else concerning this University, would, in the nearest future, be done on a permanent site,”