The First Step: A Way Forward

I found myself by the end of the day today in great spirits, after accomplishing what I’ll like to call the first step towards meaningful change in the status of Cameroon State Universities. Never in the history of violence plaguing especially the University of Buea, has a foreign institution, let alone a university out-rightly condemns the brutal murder and rape of students by the forces of operation sent by the imperial regime governing the country.

Of late, it dawned on me that after having been blessed with admission and a graduate assistantship position at BSU, that my next blessing was meeting Prof. Brian Donovan. As a master rhetorician and great teacher, he took me into the realms of truth and its place as the essence of being, and encouraged me to seek it beyond everything else. My passion for change in Cameroon found sustenance in him and with the recent crisis at UB he sought for me an audience at the BSU Senate meeting. God! That was incredible! I addressed the faculty senate on no other topic than the UB crisis. My brother back home must hear of this and Benneth's soul and those of others will now begin find rest now that something is being done about their murder.

At the meeting, the resolution on the Buea University Crisis was the last item on the agenda. When the time was ripe, Brian read the resolution and called on me to address the senators on the issue. This was the moment I had been preparing for, waiting for since the death of Benneth. I talked about the immediate cause of the strike, the strike, the verbal lashing of Prof. Lambi and his consequent dismissal, the rape, torture and incarceration of students etc. I related the 2005 crisis to last year’s as an ongoing military campaign by his Emperor Biya on hapless and armless students and then went on to talk about how the resolution was going to bring about change. With Biya’s attempts to reach the completion point of HIPC initiative, he’ll readily bring about reforms on human rights issues if the international press were to expose the situation at the universities and the fake campaign against corruption. This would cause the IMF and World Bank to suspend the current courtship with La Republique and push the emperor into a tight corner. He will not only institute freedom of expression in the university milieu but also admit the existence of an Anglophone problem. Ultimately, the SCNC will then be recognized and plans can be underway for a referendum on the independence of Southern Cameroons!

What a dream! Well, great things have been accomplished by big dreams. “Dream big dreams,” Fr Joe Awoh, former principal of Sasse College.

As would be expected, some of the senate members were troubled about my fate when I go back home and I told them that fear was out of the question now. If I had hopes of safety when I eventually go back, then I had to work towards changing the status and making it safer for everyone and myself when the time comes. This meant that I had to keep personal safety at bay for a moment. After all, where is my little brother and the others whose lives have already been wasted in the struggle. We must learn, I think, to live beyond personal apprehensions.

The draft resolution is as follows:
"The Bemidji State University Faculty Associating reprehends the use of deadly force by government forces against unarmed student protesters at the University of Buea in Cameroon on the first of December, the suppression of funeral observances for the slain, and the near-total silence of international media regarding these events."

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