WHAT IS AND NOT WHAT OUGHT TO BE KALE DANTE To stay silent today after being part and parcel of the recent events in the University of Buea (UB) for the past years will be a stab in the back of my fellow Cameroonians who must weigh the truth from both side of the coin and form their own opinion independent from bias ,tribal lines as well as age difference and status in life. These events that have occur over the years in UB have to a greater extent affected the reputation of UB of course we are very aware of that but come to look at it, what is a name when you can’t defend it. Before you judge us first let me try to define a student union to you. A students’ union is an association of students in a particular university or college concerned with the rights ,condition and welfare etc of students .They are guided by set rules and regulation present in their constitution and like other unions functioning in same sphere the student union is not autonomous from the university as is the case in UB but for it to objectively carry out its function it must take an independent position separate from manipulation and control from university authorities who over the years have seen the union as a tool to unseat their contemporaries in the same university and to settle scores. Unions all the world over the years have used protest to bring authorities to the drawing tables for dialogue ,University of Buea Student Union (UBSU) not being an exemption. Often these protest have always escalated to violence causing huge loss of lives and property and any where these protest have been non –violent ,kudos have been given to the organizers not intimidation as the recent case of student leaders In UBSU.The University of Buea Students’ Union as you should be well aware is made up of all students of the University as long as you are duly register in the university ,the rationale here is that all student do reap from the hard work of the UBSU and it is not every student that is active in performing her civic responsibility same as not every citizen votes in an election but all citizens enjoyed the performance of government in the distribution of values to their societies. It is a truism that most Cameroonians are apolitical and that our political culture is very underdeveloped thus we are bound to have mild participation by citizens be it in the macro or micro levels of politics in the society. Below I shall attempt an x-ray on the specific issues that brings strife between the university administration on one side and UBSU on the other hand. The UB academic community is quite undemocratic, hierarchical and rived by competition, jealousy and power plays. Their status and privileges of academics depend heavily on their appointed positions rather than as professionals. It is this system that finds fault with the structure of the students union as many administrators see a strong and unify students’ union as a barrier to their total control and thus preventing them from securing appointments or maintaining their position. The structure of UBSU as can be seen in the Ubsu constitution is of such that it reflects the presidential system of government being practice in our own nation where by the Student Representative Council (SRC) is the legislature like the national assembly with composition of two elected student from each level of a particular program in all the faculties and having at its helm an elected speaker or chairman who acts as a referee in the council. Here the student representatives bring their various problems from their level and programs and present them as bills to the house which debates it ,take a decision and then send to the executive of the students’ union which is compose of the president and his executive voted by a universal suffrage of students. It is the executive that takes the decision to the administration for constructive dialogue. The SRC acts also as a check and balance system for the executive with each branch demonstrating a high level of separation of power. This system has worked well for UBSU and she has been able to live her true exploit. Here I will like to dwell on the issue of discipline in UBSU. Over the years UBSU has had problems with her leadership, her leaders have easily been manipulated from above not by any other person but the same administrators who today are behind the demise of UBSU, it is they who time over time have advised, edited and even sponsored petition, defiance of rules etc against the last VC. Even challenge the former VC openly in a student meeting as to the fact that student election must be universal suffrage and that UBSU cannot be killed as it is a very important bodied for the defense of student right and condition. Why today they have taken different stand against UBSU can be seen in the fact that UBSU is recovering over her division which has been taken advantage of over the years and now that she has come of age with reason that divided we fall and united we stand as a people. Those administrators who used to profit from this division see no way through to penetrate and see their interest threaten, wants by all cost to kill UBSU. All these happenings have cause some student leaders of UBSU to act in recalcitrant and irresponsible manners not befitting leaders but because of a minority few will you term the UBSU as being recalcitrant and irresponsible if yes then you will have to point to us any association ,union, organization or state that does not have such problem, hardly, the recent events of abuse committed by high standing priests of some of our most sacred and reputable religions shows that no man is surefire be it in isolation or in a group we all make mistakes. So UBSU leaders should not be an exception but rather an example for correction. In UB are there not particular administrators who are noted for their promiscuity with girls and even prevent these girls from graduating? Are there not some who exploit and victimized students and even their colleague with impunity? Are this not recalcitrant and irresponsible acts and since only UBSU can bark and bite and say enough is enough you want her dead to have a free ride ,no that is not the way through do the right thing. Have you ever ponder on the reason why UBSU is always fighting with UB administrators ,particular ones, for that matter, simple these are the dons who think that a university is a feudal kingdom whereby as an administrator you are a lord and students and staff are your subjects so you just rule them as such with free reigns no one asking question, sorry gone are those days today leadership is interactive everyone is a stakeholder for the sustainability of development be it in a rural community or university community, everyone has a role to play you can’t ignore me or the cleaner we are all an integral part of a bigger purpose greater than you and I. A lot of people have always posited that as student our main focus in UB is our academics, in my opinion I deny vehemently. What is a certificate or intelligence, without character? I think our main focus in UB is education and as Dr Martin Luther King jr says “intelligence plus character is what makes a good education” and as an anonymous writer said” the true essence of a university education is to equip one with the knowledge to be able to come up with ideas and stand by this ideas despite stout opposition. And these ideas should be able to help create opportunities so as to advance livelihood of you and many more in your community and beyond” he further states that “a certificate is just words on a piece of paper, your education is in your thinking and thinking it must be critical and scientific “ if you agree with the above then you can rightly say that most of us are not having the necessary education we are supposed to have from a university and that lead partly to the high unemployment rate and large presence of graduate in the job market in our country. These does not only apply to us the students what about most lecturers and even the present top administrators of UB who pride themselves in having studied in the best universities abroad especially in Britain and the USA but still yet their teachings and actions are not reflective of these great places of enlightenment they have been too. The answer is easy they have academic but not education .Most are them are like the typical UB student who comes from a village and straight to the university without living elsewhere and while in the university his stay for three year or four is concentrated to and fro his hostel room and the campus. This same student stay in molyko for all these period of time without knowing any other street or town in Buea and when they graduate they leave and spread the news that I was in Buea for many years and it’s really a small place with nothing, his passiveness in campus activities makes the active few to be called a minority and are easy targets of defamation and slander from the public. This is the same case scenario with most of our administrators and lecturers who studied abroad just try to find out, they were really passive. Is this what you call education? Answer for you self. These are the same people who bring in tribal and ethnic explanation to simple issues affecting students so as to wipe sentiments from the public and to fan the flame of discord amongst individual and tribes. This devilish scheme should be seen as a an excuse for failed leadership in the part of certain administrators that have been in the limelight of sowing discord and disorder in UB for the past 8 years for their personal gains and thus they should resign. It should be known that since the creation of the union the leadership have never been based on tribal line but on popular democracy and those students from the North West and South West have led the union including Francophone students. Why can’t we be referred to as simply student or why can’t I be referred to as simply a Cameroonian. Our diversity in tribes and language should be used as an advantage rather than as a tool to blackmail especially by the older generation to us the youths. In this light as much as I strongly condemn the letter written by some Fako chiefs to the government I strongly see the same dubious administrators and their cohorts trying to politicized the whole issues. The Fako chiefs I know are too honorable to stoup so low as rant unreasonable accusations and threats to their own students whom in the past have defended with pride of justice. No there is foul play here. Lastly no longer is the young Cameroonian content to sit idly by and watch the passing scene from the grandstand. They too want to be down on the field. They have made it abundantly clear that they intend to participate in governance. No longer should older Cameroonians be content to leave this vigorous and exciting force on the sidelines. This force, this energy will continue to grow. The only question is whether it should be ignored and if ignored, it will be to leave this energy to dam up and burst and follow less-than-wholesome channels, or whether this force should be left to be utilized by society through the pressure valve of the franchise. We all realize that only a tiny minority of students in our campuses are engaged in unlawful acts and are most often not active members of the union. But these deplorable incidents make a point. There cannot be an excuse for such acts of civil disobedience at any time in a university that guarantees the right of orderly protest and the redress of grievances through the ballot box. I am convince that such acts of civil disobedience will find little or no support if students are given a more meaningful role in the governance of their community. While UB campus may be torn by dissent, the facts remains that the great, indeed, the overwhelming majority of our students are responsible, hard-working, dedicated citizens who want to participate, they want to vote and they want to make our university, country a better place to live in. many join demonstration simply because they feel it is the only way they can be heard. This is not to excuse the violence sometimes and the complete disrespect for authority that some demonstrators employ. But the fact remains that many of the participants are involved because of their inability to find meaningful political outlets elsewhere to express their concern as UBSU is constantly threaten. For them certainly the right to vote is an opportunity for rewarding involvement in public affairs. The situation in UB today alarming as it is raise this question: why not allow students the right to make a positive change as an alternative to a negative protest? Many people who reflect on the happenings in UB conclude that the student is an irresponsible iconoclast. That is not the case as the reflection has always been one sided and has been propagated by the UB administration with total control of the media and using the popular strategy of calling a dog a bad name to hang it. There is only one solution to UBSU and UB administration strife and that is the one man one vote. The vote will harness the energy of the young people and direct it into useful and constructive channels not simply for their benefit, but for the benefit of the entire nation. At this crucial point if the right to vote to those students is denied .It is entirely possible that they will join the more militant minority of their fellow students and engage in destructive activities of a dangerous nature, not even the state has monopoly of force for how will the state continue to suppress the voice of justice. One day this force which is always suppressed will escalate in full scale and the consequence will be abound. Don’t hide behind the smokescreen of the deception that no people can fight a government my history professor ,the master himself of all the discord in UB will side with me on this one. Now an uneasy calm seem to be in UB but what lies under this is the ever brewing of protest so long as the problem has not been solve. why we continue to see protest in UB is that never have there been a deliberate and lasting solution to the problem only temporal solutions have been given .you don’t create dissolution and call it peace like a Roman General who had to kill a whole province to quell down a rebellion including her own Roman citizens do you think he achieve peace? Hear Elie Wiesel “there must be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice but there must never be a time when we fail to protest” so therefore it is up to us to do the right thing ,now faculty executive are being used against the general union by being empower but for how long can we continue to place student against their counterpart ,”if a the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another ,then I say break the law” Henry David Thoreau ,this is for you student leaders used against your peers. For you should have it in mind that we take the mantle tomorrow as leaders we shall “point fingers” we shall tell the world what you did and we shall ostracized you for taking part in injustice against us today and then they who claim your friendship now shall either be old and ineffective or long gone. If you are neutral in situations of injustice you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. To ask a question is always to limit the range of possible answer. But to answer, especially to answer well, is often to foreclose examination of the assumptions upon which the question was initially based. So try to answer the questions raise above then you will see reason for the constant protest in UB not only from students but from all the tenets except administration who fight proxy wars with these unions and you will see that the solution lies only in a favorable environment set for dialogue which is not one-sided but very interactive. ALUTA CONTINUA
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 09:39:25 +0000