Southern Cameroons Problem: Anglophone University Lecturers are for the deprived and marginalized ¹

THE POSITION OF THE NATIONAL UNION OF TEACHERS OF HIGHER EDUCATION (SYNES) UNIVERSITY OF BUEA

Dear Anglophone University Teachers,

It is typically Anglophone for intellectuals to stand up or speak for the deprived or marginalized. Their role as torch bearer is even more urgent when we witness the scale of injustice that has pervaded our society and pushed Anglophones to the fringes of our society. How can we sit quiet when the students who go through our educational system have no place in a country they rightly think is theirs too. They are not fit to enter even the professional schools they think were created to serve their interest because everything requires that they know someone or have money. The fact that students who go through our system with 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 or even 25 points in the GCE A/L cannot enter Medical School in UB or UBa is inexcusable. This, and a long list of other grievances pushed ALL Anglophone teachers to go on strike after they had been ignored for 10 months.

I will like to thank ALL Anglophone teachers and parents for saying “ENOUGH” to a system which insults us and our children and makes us to feel like strangers in our own home. We would also like to thank our Francophone counterparts who have stood by us and believed in the need for justice for children who go through our system of education. May I also thank our students for understanding that our goal is no less than to give them equal chances in a bi-cultural, bilingual and bi-jural Cameroon. They have well behaved so far; they stayed at home and have not yielded to any provocation.

It is, however, shameful that some intellectuals, at this critical moment in history, some of them retired professors, can still afford the shameful option of thinking that they can continue to protect their “garri” at the expense of the people’s aspirations. The press is not surprising, but it is a needless distraction and shameless expression of their appetite for impunity.

May I reiterate that the strike continues until we are given a definite solution to this beggarly life that has been imposed on us and our children. We are working in synergy with other Anglophone teacher unions and will stop at nothing to obtain fair treatment for Anglophones in Cameroon. The teachers are still on strike and we will inform students when the issues have been resolved satisfactorily.

Once again, we salute your massive support and determination to make a date with history.

PROF. JAMES ARREY ABANGMA

PRESIDENT, SYNES-UB