ENS Maroua: Mediocrity versus meritocracy in Cameroon

ENS Maroua: Mediocrity versus meritocracy in Cameroon

While in Cameroon, I was overwhelmed when I heard about the creation of the Advanced Teacher Training College in Maroua. I knew it would create jobs and also happy that it would spur the people of the grand north to be more interested in education.

I was again happy to read the result on the website of the French daily Le Jour. But, I was taken aback, when recently, I checked daily news online, and read that Members of Parliament, for the Grand Nord provinces, were not satisfied with the quota ; 33 percent according to Jacque Fame Ndongo, Higher Education Minister, and 14 percent according to them, accorded to the grand north.

These MPs, according to online reports, then threatened with a strike and called on the Head of State, Paul Biya to cancel the results or admit a considerable number of candidates for the grand north under what is usually called sociological composition of admitted candidates into professional schools in Cameroon.

To my astonishment, President Paul Biya, whom one of his minister recently said that he does not work under pressure, bowed to the pressure from the MPs and not only granted their wish, but, far beyond that, accorded more than the number of places they wanted, thereby giving them a percentage of 60 among the those enrolled this year in various fields.

This leaves many of us really worried. When will mediocrity give room for meritocracy in Cameroon? Is our president a coward? When did the head of state start appointing those who will get into professional schools? Was Biya doing that for the interest of Cameroon or the interest of the Grand North or even his political interest? Has he ever asked himself about the sociological composition in the appointment of says General Managers, Governors, Ministers, and other top level government posts he makes?

Has he, who is preaching rigour and moralisation, forgotten that the said school is expected to train teachers who will thereafter train youths, Cameroon’s future? Has he forgotten that the admission of mediocre students will have a multiplier effect on the number of mediocre Cameroonians in multiple sectors?

In 2006, Anglo-Saxon students in the University of Buea protested against the admission of students to the medical school in that institution who did not even sit in for the written part of the examination. Yaoundé authorities asked soldiers to opened fire on unarmed students, killing two and wounding several others in 2006. Did Biya ask himself thereafter about the sociological composition of those admitted in the school as well as similar school created in the University of Douala? What future is Mr Biya and his accomplices building for Cameroon?

It really puzzles me that in virtually all professional schools in Cameroon, mediocrity and ignominy are now the benchmarks. Half baked nurses in the name of doctors are trained in CUSS and these guys end up taking a lot of souls consciously or unconsciously. The problem may not be even with the training as such, but, with the calibre of students admitted there.Most of those admitted are not qualified. Just as in other professional schools in Cameroon, ENAM, EMIA, POLICE, and ASMA/ESSTIC etc.

I have always said that if Biya were to rigorously fight corruption, let him give room for meritocracy. This is because, if people were to get into the public service by merit, the degree at which they take or give bribe in the course of their duties may be minimised to the highest level. The public service will then be filled with hard working and the right people who will be able to transform our country. Everything being equal, Cameroon will be “an eldorado” in the next 20 years if such measures are implemented.

Mr Biya and co, please could you guys give room for meritocracy? Where are you driving our country to? There is the urgent need to stop this thing of appointing people as students in professional colleges who do not merit it.

Unfortunately too, this is merely another manifestation of the evils of our country; appointed MPs who do not even represent the will of the people but that of the political masters, appointed governors who ruled the people with colonial fists and who are there to rig elections with all impunity, and an appointed president who is there to serve neo-colonial interest and that of a few protégés in the country.

Agendia Aloysius

France, La Francophonie, French and African dictators

France, La Francophonie, French and African dictators

From the 17 to 19 of October 2008, leaders of countries with French as a common language met in Quebec, Canada as part was what was known as the 12 summit of La Francophonie. Its Secretary General and long-time ex president of Senegal, Abdou Diouf, chaired the deliberations which ended in the absence of the protagonist France, as its Head of State, Nicholas Sarkozy had left for the USA. Far beyond promoting the French language, which according to the website of La Francophonie, is spoken by 200 million people in 54 member states, La Francophonie also has the responsibility of improving human rights, democracy and economic cooperation.

But within most of Francophone Africa, many people have a very negative impression of French, France and La Francophonie. “It would appear all trouble and suffering in Africa is mostly in Francophone Africa” says Matia K, a Ugandan student in Orebro, Sweden. Territories where French is spoken are ridden with endless conflict allegedly being fuelled by its colonial masters be it in countries like Rwanda, Congo, Chad, DRC, Central Africa Republic, Senegal, Cote D' Ivoire etc.

French is the second language spoken world wide after English but this has not deterred some countries and people from relegating the language to the background. On October 28, The Washington Post wrote “In another blow to the language of love, the Rwandan government has decided to change instruction in schools from French to English”. This was just a confirmation of what some people had been suspecting.

Rwanda's Minister for Education, Theoneste Mutsindashyaka said “When you look at the French-speaking countries -- it's really just France, and a small part of Belgium and a small part of Switzerland… Most countries worldwide, speak English. Even in China, they speak English. Even Belgium, if you go to the Flemish areas, they speak English, not French." According to him, the decision of his country, was purely economic and had nothing to do with the country's souring relationship with France.

Rwanda recently accused the French government of taking part in the 1994 genocide through the arming of the former Rwandan army and ethnic Hutu militias. An estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in just a hundred days. France also accused Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, of involvement in the massacre.

Though the rough diplomatic relations between France and Rwanda have been dismissed as reason for the “reclassification of French as the third Language, after English and the native language of Rwanda, the unsmooth political relationship cannot be totally denied.

In most of French colonies or Trust Territories like Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, Congo etc the economic exploitation, human right abuses, political victimisation by its neo-colonial regimes and the domination by the aristocratic class, etc, is said to be under the indirect influence of France. Dieudonne Kibungi, a Burundian refugee in Sweden believes France, just as most colonisers, is responsible for the ills in most ex colonies.

France is accused to have maintained and supported dictators. It has been accused of supporting rebels to destabilise sovereign governments like the case of Les Forces Nouvelle in Cote d ‘ Ivoire, the assassination of Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso, Um Nyobe of Cameroon, etc. In an interview with a Cameroonian monthly journal Les Cahiers de Mutations, Vol 048, Dec 2007, page 8-9 , Dr Abel Eyinga, accused France of forcing former Cameroonian president Ahidjo to step down in favour of another neo colonial agent Paul Biya and the scenario may likely repeat with Biya soon.

The longest serving dictators are all products of French system of governance.

France was implicated in the genocide in Rwanda, French companies have been involved in several scandals among which was that of Elf in Congo etc.

The adopting of English by Rwanda can therefore be interpreted as a clear indication of the rejection of French intrigues in Africa, opines Pascal Lumi.

So many African seems to have supported this move by Rwanda which according to some, was already going in some areas.

Barrister Leonard Bekong, a Legal expert in USA says, it is not only a Rwandan issue. “Recently in Cameroon, most French speaking parents have begun to undertake such decisions without bringing the state into it.Most have simply decided to send their children to English speaking schools in Yaounde, Douala etc. If you visit some of those high profile schools from the base, you will notice that French speaking Cameroonians out number the English speakers in number.”

Ben Bezejou, a University professor in the USA also notes that the decision is not only interesting but well planned. “The leaders of this country are very courageous to embark on this project.”

However, as of now, only 5 percent of Rwandans speak English and it will therefore be an uphill task, to effectively change the official language.

In several francophone countries, the degree of human abuses is just unimaginable. The case of Cameroon, Chad, Central Africa, Congo Brazzaville, Gabon, Congo Kinshasa etc are glaring.

The reclassification of French as secondary language may also fall under the framework of the RUPTURE with African countries, announced by French President, Nicholas Sakorzy, when he took office in 2006.

If this rupture could then leave from language to lessen the implication of France in the economic and political life of its former colonies, this could be very advantageous for Africans. This is the view of Rayong Ngantcha, a Cameroon resident in London and strongly supported by political parties in Cameroon such as the Movement for African New Independence, MANIDEM, headed by Anicet Ekane and Union des Populations du Cameroon UPC S-Mackit faction.

La Francophonie has on several occasions validated brutality and fraud. During the 2004 elections in Cameroon, while the Commonwealth Observer Mission led by former Canadian Prime Minister, Hon Joe Clarke, expressed worries on the conduct of election, La Francophonie delegation validated fraud, together with a group of ex American congressmen paid to monitor the elections.

In Mutengene La Francophonie monitors drove passed disenfranchised voters who were protesting as “unqualified” people voted several times. They drove passed, but were quick enough to conclude that the elections were totally free.

The abandonment of French as an official language could be extended to the neo-colonial economic, political and human right policies of France in its related colonies.

The adoption of national indigenous languages by African countries will also be a sign of more emancipation.

Agendia Aloysius