This reporter has it on
very good grounds that, some students of the University of Buea, have been
strategizing and holding private meetings with the aim of bringing back the
outlawed University of Buea Students Union, UBSU.
The students’ governing
body described by authorities of the institution and some government officials
in the South West as terror-oriented, in 2012 saw all of its activities suspended
and the governing body outlawed.
After taking over
office in 2012, former vice chancellor, Dr Nalova Lyonga brandished the student
body as a group which had ascended to an uncontrollable degree and whose sole
aim was to create havoc and cause terror. After several attempts to ban the
union whose president is reported to have been capable of crippling the entire
institution with just a word offered, Nalova Lyonga did what many of her
predecessors failed to do.
She placed an
injunction on all activities of the University of Buea Students Union, created
departmental and faculty presidents, a tactic described by some students as
“divide and rule” and launched a crack-down on any dissenting voices which
tried to bring back the movement.
It should however be
noted that this is not the first time students of the institution are planning
to bring back UBSU, as this was equally the case after the November protest in
UB where dozens of students were arrested and detained for days.
Some students resolved
to bring back the movement arguing that in the good-old days of UBSU, the
administration would not dare to bring the armed force into campus, but will be
left with no choice than to dialogue with the students.
This time around, the
students went far beyond holding meetings but went on to their Facebook page to
denounce and bear their minds on the state of affairs in the institution. On
their Facebook memorandum, the students noted that “…what is going on in our
loving citadel of learning is not school but a political witchcraft by the new
UB administration. We also noticed that the new appointments from the Ministry
of Higher Education are a plan to harmonize the University of Buea and we say
over our dead bodies.”
The UBSU memorandum
which equally urged all students schooling at the institution to return home
until all lecturers arrested on the wake on the Anglophone crises (Barrister
Agbor Felix, lecturer at the department of law and Dr Fontem Neba, department
of linguistic) are released. The body which threatened to begin “actions” soon
equally announced a final communiqué to be made public soon.
Over five years after
the movement was banned in UB, students and opinion leaders hold that a lot
would have changed if the UBSU was around. Arguing that, the group stood for students’
rights which are to freely express their desires.
However, another school of
thought holds it that, UBSU which they describe as “dreaded” reputed for its
constant and sometimes deadly strike actions was gradually transforming into
something else. They point to the fact that its past leaders started
considering themselves as “demi gods”, untouchable and corrupt, emptying the
accounts of the union for their personal benefits.
Comments
Post a Comment