Harmonization of Education Programmes Fame Ndongo Considers Biya Functionally “Mad”

In 1993, when the President of the Republic decided to create new State universities, thereby decentralizing the then University of Yaounde, he transformed the Buea University Centre that came into existence in 1985 into a full-fletched University. In the organic text of the said University, the President specified loud and clear for everyone to understand that the Buea University was going to be Anglo Saxon in nature and run according to the same Anglo Saxon tradition.
That is why any visitor to the website of the University of Buea will be welcomed by this piece of information in the first paragraph at “About Us”; “The University of Buea was born in 1993 following wide-ranging university reforms in Cameroon. Conceived in the English-speaking tradition, the University of Buea seeks to foster the essence of that system, while situating itself within the larger bilingual and multicultural context of Cameroon. It is located in the historic town of Buea, former capital of German Kamerun, former capital of the federated State of West Cameroon and now the provincial capital of the South West Region of Cameroon. Although the University draws its students mainly from the English-speaking part of Cameroon, it also serves the other provinces of the country”.
In 2010, the Head of State again signed decree N0. 2010/371 of 14th December, 2010 creating the University of Bamenda and that decree was followed by another one in 2011. That was decree N0. 2011/045 of the 8th of March, 2011 to organize the University of Bamenda, outlining every structure and mode of operation.
The decree of 2011 in Part One on general provisions, article 1 states that; “This decree determines and defines the administrative and academic organization of the University of Bamenda”. In the same article 1 (a), it stipulates unambiguously as follows; “There shall be established a body corporate conceived in the Anglo Saxon tradition by the name of THE UNIVERSITY OF BAMENDA (herein after referred to as the University); it shall be constituted in accordance with the provisions of this decree”.These decrees taken by the Head of State in person demonstrate amply that there are two cultures in operation in Cameroon and which deserve to be protected by law. The decrees merely follow a pattern that already exists elsewhere. In Canada for example, the French speaking community is based in Quebec and no one has tried to harmonize anything there, the people are happy to enjoy their unity in diversity and that is what everyone expects to happen in Cameroon.

By attempting each time to absorb the Anglo Saxon system into the French sub system of education in the name of harmonization, the Minister of Higher Education and his close aides are in a way trying to tell the world that the President of the Republic who signed those decrees emphasizing that the universities of Bamenda and Buea are “conceived in the Anglo Saxon tradition”, is functionally “insane”, reason they have been doing all within their powers to correct his errors.

At this juncture, it is important to quote the late venerated Prof. Bernard Fonlon when he said; “It shall be wisdom and even a duty” for the authorities to consider leaving things the way they are in the interest of peace and unity of the country. This is so because attempts to destroy the Common Law tradition already have led to a serious threat to the unity of the Cameroon Bar Association, a not too negligible indication that worse things could happen if people like Fame Ndongo continue to take the laws into their hands

• John Mbah Akuroh

  ASMAC/IRIC Yaounde

  Msc in International Relations, Specialised in Communication and International Public Policy.