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Thursday, May 29, 2014

Fwd: [africanworldforum] Re: 4. Systematic and Systemic de-struction of the Southern Cameroonian Culture - Edu-cationANGLOPHONES BADLY NEED TO SHIFT FROM GENERAL TO TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN ORDER TO FULLY CONTRIBUTE TO VISION 2035



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From: 'Okechukwu Okonjo' via ambasbay <ambasbay@googlegroups.com>
Date: Wed, May 28, 2014 at 6:10 PM
Subject: Re: [africanworldforum] Re: 4. Systematic and Systemic de-struction of the Southern Cameroonian Culture - Edu-cationANGLOPHONES BADLY NEED TO SHIFT FROM GENERAL TO TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN ORDER TO FULLY CONTRIBUTE TO VISION 2035
To: "africanworldforum@googlegroups.com" <africanworldforum@googlegroups.com>, cameroon_politics <cameroon_politics@yahoogroups.com>
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The peoples of Southern Cameroons-including Bakassi (later known as Ambazonia) should joined forces with the other oppressed peoples of the Niger Delta in Nigeria, otherwise known (in part) as Eastern Nigeria (later Biafra), or the Eboes of Nigeria (Igbo, Ijaw etc) who are also known as the "Jews of Africa". I have got you on my map, and I'm watching closely.

 For me, you are our brethren:

Former Prime Ministers PDF Print E-mail
EMMANUEL MBELA LIFAFA ENDELEY (1916 - 1988)
Endeley was born on 10 April 1916; his family was among the wealthy members of the Bakweri ethnic group. He was educated in Buea and Bonjongo in Southern British Cameroons and Umahia in Nigeria. Endeley eventually entered the  Nigerian School of Medicine in Yaba. In 1942, he took the post of assistant medical officer in Nigeria, and in 1945, he served as chief medical officer in Buea.
Endeley was concerned with providing a voice for workers in Southern British Cameroons and for citizens of British Cameroons in general. In 1939, he helped form the Cameroon Youth League (CYL). In 1944, he was a founding member of the Bakweri Improvement Union. In 1947, he joined union organizers of the Cameroons Development Corporation (CDC) in Southern British Cameroons. He became union secretary the following year. Endeley organized and participated in petitioning United Nations delegations and in organizing general strikes. He was a founder of the Cameroons National Federation (CNF) in 1949 and later served as its president.
Political career
In 1951, Endeley was elected to the Eastern Nigerian House of Assembly in Enugu. He worked to have Southern British Cameroons granted special regional status apart from Nigeria; when the Southern British Cameroons Regional Assembly was formed, he was one of its first members. In 1953, Endeley joined  John Ngu Foncha and Solomon Tandeng Muna in breaking from the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) to form the Kamerun National Congress (KNC), which advocated autonomy for Southern British Cameroons. However, Endeley's political views changed, and he advocated greater integration of the territory with Nigeria. In 1955, Foncha and Muna broke with the KNC to form the Kamerun National Democratic Party (KNDP). Endeley allied the KNC with the Kamerun's People Party (KPP), another pro-Nigeria group, but the coalition lost seats to the KNDP.
In 1957, Endeley squeaked out a victory to become the first Prime Minister of Southern British Cameroons; he was installed the following year. In January 1959, voters replaced Endeley with Foncha. In May 1960, his KNC merged with the KPP to form the Cameroons Peoples' National Convention (CPNC) to be the main opposition party to Foncha's KNDP. Political opinion was strongly in favour of unification with French Cameroun, and the United Nations held a plebiscite over the issue on 11 February 1961. Endeley and the CPNC opposed; Endeley released a lengthy pamphlet urging the people of Southern Cameroons to vote "no". Nevertheless, the vote came in favour of unification.
In the new federated state of West Cameroon, Endeley and the CPNC took the role of Foncha's main opposition, and also supported President Ahmadou Ahidjo's moves to create a one-party system in Federal Republic of Cameroon. He served in several more posts in Cameroon before his death. In 1965, Endeley became leader of government business for West Cameroon. He served as a member of the central committee of Cameroon National Union (CNU), and in 1966, he became president of the Fako section of CNU, a post he held until 1985. Endeley was also elected to the National Assembly of Cameroon. Endeley died on 29th June 1988 at the age of 72.


SOLOMON TANDENG MUNA (1912 – 2002)
1932-1947: Director of several primary schools, then Head Tutor with the College of Teachers of Batibo;
1947-1951: Teacher in Batibo, Ambazonia;
1951: Elected official with the regional Parliament of Eastern Nigeria;
1952-1954: Becomes public Minister for Labour of Eastern Nigeria;
1954-1957: Minister in charge with the Resources and Public works with West Cameroon (Ambazonia);
1959-1961: Public Minister for Labour, then Industry and Trade, Minister for Finance in Ambazonia;
1961-1968: Ambazonian Minister for Transport, Mines, Posts and Telecommunications;
1968-1972: Prime Minister of the federated state of West Cameroon (Ambazonia);
1972-1973: Minister of State in the United Republic of Cameroon.
  




On Tuesday, 27 May 2014, 16:14, Ofege Ntemfac <ntemfacnchwete@gmail.com> wrote:


Science and Technology
The bane of contention with the new system was, however, more serious. Fifty years and more into the so-called unification, the GOC has refused to invest in technical education in the Southern Cameroons. This is a deliberate plot to keep the Southern Cameroons and its citizens under-developed. President Ahidjo (and later Biya) knew very well that John Ngu Foncha, the so-called architect of unification, had a passion for technical education. Knowing fully well that the Cameroon College of Arts, Sciences and Technolgy, CCAST, Bambili was a college of science and technology only in name, Foncha tried and failed to get the GOC to transform CCAST into a full-fledge polytechnic. Instead, the GOC destroyed the Technical school in Ombe and the Ombe Trade Centre, a leading technical college established in 1954.
Subverting Ombe was easy. The government simply transferred approximate francophone teachers and mangers to Ombe. These imposters immediately controverted the curriculum of Ombe to suit their incompetence. At the same time, the government refused to recruit English-speaking lecturers into Ombe.
The few English-speaking lecturers recruited had to submit their degrees obtained from England, USA, Nigeria or other English-speaking country to the Ministry of Education for an equivalent rating by Camerounian bureaucrats, French educational system degrees being taken as the yardstick. The equivalent rating system applies only in respect of Anglo-Saxon degrees and more often than not those degrees are under-rated.
The result was that Ombe now churned out approximate trainees, ill-adapted to the local labour market and ill-equipped to further their education in technical and technological institutions all over the world. For the budding technicians, education practically ended after Ombe.
The GOC never though of higher technical institutions and even when it did places into these professional schools were bought and sold. Take the National Polytechnic in Yaounde, for example, it cursus was designed for the so-called “engineers de conception” or those who dream about engineering and conception whereas Ombe was for hardboiled practical technicians. 
While the government created schools to train a labour force in did not need, the same governmet made life impossible for existing Anglo-saxon technical schools like the Kamerun Technical College, Nkwen, the Kom-Baptist Technical School and the Anniversary Technical College, Nkwen. The government up-ed taxes and harassment over administrative documents and procedures on the proprietors of these institutions.
In 1995, John Ngu Foncha hit on a strategy to by-pass the intractable government bottleneck in the deliverance of licenses to private higher education institutions especially those in the technical field. Foncha, and a group of shareholders, created INDECO an Industrial and Educational Company, which company was to own BUST, the Bamenda University of Science and Technology. Pa Foncha died without seeing BUST effective because the GOC refused to recognize the institution.


On Tue, May 27, 2014 at 12:37 PM, Ofege Ntemfac <ntemfacnchwete@gmail.com> wrote:
The late Bernard Fonlon cold not have been more a propos when he pointed out that the francophone created education system in Cameroun would always  reject Southern Cameroonians.
Fonlon fine stroke in the academic journal Abbia was:
 
« In this federation, these two cultures must be placed on equal footing because, it is the cultural difference, let us not forget, which justifies the existence of these two separated states ( .. ). But, even after independence in the former French colonies, one always notices the very determination to maintain French hegemony. For that which concerns the bilingual University of Cameroon, one could be assured it shall simply be a French university if the Cameroon authorities do not get a good control over this institution. .. Consequently, I do not expect the French to be motivated with a cultural integration in Cameroon. They shall instead consider the English and the Southern Cameroonians  as intruders... »[1]

[1] "To construct or to destroy", of Abbia No 5, March 1964, p.p. 49


On Mon, May 26, 2014 at 5:22 PM, NDI MANJONG ngahndi@yahoo.com [cameroon_politics] <cameroon_politics@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
 
Dear Dr. Ngwanyam,

Reading through your analysis, one sees by how it is crowded with much of "blame the victim". One must get past the cherry-picking of statistics if one is really interested in understanding the problem and contributing to its solution. Going by your selective reference to MTN Cameroun and the US Embassy in Cameroun, one is tempted to think that MTN Nigeria and the US Embassy in Nigeria are majority staffed by Francophones for reasons of their better technical know-how. "Peugeot" and ELF are primarily French establishments. How much of the manpower in Peugeot Nigeria and ELF Nigeria came from Francophone Cameroun?

It may interest you to know that the students in Anglophone Cameroun used to begin learning Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Physics in the beginning class of general secondary education; while their Francophone counterpart in the beginning class of general secondary education were only taught Maths and Natural Science until the third class (things may now be different). The question has never been asked how the Anglophone students who in the course of their secondary education added Additional Maths and Further Maths never made it to the then "National Polytechnic" in Yaounde. It never was asked how the Anglophone students acknowledged by the University of London to have best performed in the sciences at the GCE found it hard to go to "CUSS" but held their own in medical schools in places like Nigeria and Britain. 

The Government Technical College, Ombe initially admitted the best performed students in the Government Common Entrance Exam (in the West Cameroon days). It initial products held their own even against their counterparts of the same educational level returning from France. You may want to ask what became of the Ombe vision. The "defunct ENS" (your reference) to which Anglophone students flock rather than come to St. Louis, is a Francophone institution. There must be something as to why its teachers produce caliber difference between Anglophone and Francophone students.

Sitting there in Bamenda, you have not said why the Sacred Heart College that produced a Dr. Ngwanyam cannot today produce Anglophone students for St. Louis. One wonders why you see the Francophones flocking to St. Louis but take no interest in those crowding out the Anglophones from your Alma Mater (Sacred Heart College). Could the Francophones now flocking to Sacred Heart, Lourds, St Bedes, etc be searching for an inferior Cameroun education? The English Primary School in Yaounde was initially intended to serve Anglophone needs but soon after, had Francophone needs crowd out Anglophone needs.

Is there something you know that others do not know; and which thing makes you consider Bamenda to be 'hostile' territory to the Bamilekes? You can not be a success businessman in Bamenda and not know the preponderance of successful Bamileke business in Bamenda. Those who know of this preponderance can not point same of Bamenda business in say Bafoussam. One needs more than mere conjecture to conclude that Bafoussam by this measure is 'hostile' to Bamenda people. 

The problem partly hitches on how St. Louis as an institution selectively sees it. As a great institution, 35 of its 36 students are success but its focused regret is that its only failed candidate is characteristically an Anglophone student from Ndop. St. Louis seems to bear no blame for admitting an unqualified student from Mamfe with only Chemistry and Religious Knowledge, and presented him for the HND knowing full well that he will be disqualified. If of the 36 students, one was unqualified to write, then one of 35 not 36 failed; however regrettable that the lone failure was an Anglophone and all 34 passes were Francophones. Are the two dental surgeons who studied in Nigeria and prepared the students Francophones? If not, were they the products of Francophone education before their dental studies in Nigeria? St. Louis as a higher education institution could invest in the the better understanding of the reasons for these discrepancies rather that employing what looks like a tactic of shaming Anglophones to come to it.

With which Anglophones have you shared without success, the knowledge of your repeat participation in the Bush-Obama opportunities forums you attended in the USA? One wonders the minority Anglophones are by their laziness the reason why Cameroun does not future high up with Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast in taking advantage of the Bush-Obama legislated opportunities. How did you come about the conclusion that textiles are better by those opportunities than are 'garri' and 'eru'? 

Look deeper and you will find why the Anglophone in Cameroun is more than the victim of his laziness. It must be more than laziness that the Francophone flock to take advantage of the Anglophone's education opportunities while the Anglophone living in those opportunities, cannot rise to St. Louis' expectations by those opportunities. It may interest you to know that Mr. Musonge, the one time Prime Minister of Cameroun was a product of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). What educational institution in the world could be a much better embodiment of technological studies? Educational policies are shaped by the Musonges as Prime Ministers and not the high school students St. Louis looks forward to admit. If nothing is greater than 'imagination', questions move imagination to answers. Instead of a hurried conclusion, a questioning of the depth of the Anglophone dilemma will produce better reasons than laziness for their seeming hopelessness. The laziness excuse is an in-house apology for their victimization.   
NDI MANJONG.        


On Monday, May 26, 2014 8:16 AM, "Henrymuluh henrymuluh@yahoo.co.uk [boba-list]" <boba-list@yahoogroups.com> wrote:


 
Great analysis big Ngwanyam. I think we need to take this very seriously and also train teachers of technical schools and high schools. The reason for bambili and now kumba.

Sent from my iPhone

On 26 May 2014, at 11:31, "Nick Ngwanyam stlouisclinicbamenda@yahoo.co.uk [boba-list]" <boba-list@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

ANGLOPHONES BADLY NEED TO SHIFT FROM GENERAL TO TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN ORDER TO FULLY CONTRIBUTE TO VISION 2035
 
MTN is an ‘Anglophone’ company. They come from South Africa and down there they communicate in English and not French. The US Embassy in Yaoundé is also ‘Anglophone’. The local staff that work in these places are more of FRANCOPHONES than ANGLOPHONES. Go and check the statistics for yourself. Would you say the US Embassy and the MTN Company hate Anglophones? No! When employing staff, they look for technical know-how, skills, and the capacity to solve specific problems, team work, good attitudes and experience.
 
Most jobs are computer based and also have more than 70 percent of technological input. Check out all the major companies in Cameroon that are into production and you will get this picture. Let me tell you what is happening under our roof here at St Louis University Institute of Health in Bamenda.

Last year, the department of Dental Therapy had 36 graduating students who sat the Higher Professional Diploma Examination (HPD) set by the Ministry of Higher Education in Yaoundé. Of the 36 students only TWO were Anglophones. One boy from Mamfe had only Chemistry and Religion and was disqualified. He should have repeated his GCE while studying at St Louis. He did not. Of the 35 students who sat for the examination, only one failed and he happens to be an Anglophone from Ndop.

To understand the background very well, let me say that the two dental surgeons who teach them were trained in Nigeria and have had some experience over the years elsewhere. They lecture in English. The exams are set and written in English. The advertisements for the Dentistry unit as well as the other six departments in our school, take place on radio, TV, news papers and brochures. The information is carried out in English and it is stated clearly that lectures are delivered in English. Here is the problem. 34 Bamilekes are able to see the ‘star’ just like the three wise men from the East. They leave their comfort zones and come to ‘hostile’ Bamenda to study in English. 34 can see and understand while only 2 Anglophones get it.
 
Go to the University of Bamenda and see for yourself. In a computer class, or is it Physics with 45 students, only 5 are Anglos. The trouble is not that they are not admitted. They do not just show up at all. When it is the season to write the entrance examination into the traditional teaching field of the defunct ‘ENS Bambili’, there are no taxis in town and there is a traffic jam in Bambili. When it comes to technology and related science fields, you can drive a car through the classes. The teachers can carry on lectures in French because all the students that apply and come in are Bamilekes who know the importance of science, technology, Mathematics and engineering.

If you think I am making up my own stories, please go to the Catholic University of Bamenda and it would be the same.  If we continue at that rate, the country shall emerge with Anglophones riding on the back seat as observers. A nation and wealth are built with science, Maths, engineering and technology. If we keep on shying away as we are carrying on right now, it shall not be well with us.
 
While Anglophones may not be particular about science and technology, Cameroonians as a whole have a serious problem with time management. We never know when something is serious and important. We spend time doing the routine things and letting real opportunities to go unattended to. Then of course down the road we become time barred from getting on with the real stuff. A good example is AGOA (Africa Growth and Opportunity Act). I might also want to mention the other opportunities we have from America like OPIC and EXIM Bank of America. I am aware of these opportunities because I traveled on the American Business trip , organized by the US Embassy in Yaoundé, to Washington in 2006 and a repeat trip to Chicago in 2008. These are mechanisms that the American Government has put in place to help Africa to grow. Other countries like Kenya, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria take advantage of them.
 
In Cameroon, we sleep. AGOA was put in place by President Bush and renewed by President Obama. With this facility that would last 15 years, African countries could produce goods to American standards and load them unto ships or planes and sell them in America without paying any custom duties. Paper work was set at a minimal. This has been going on for 14 years and the doors would close in one year. I understand some Cameroonians have been selling a few items under AGOA which include, Guinness, 33 export, garri and eru. This is not good enough. Start with textiles and grow from there. OPIC and EXIM Bank mechanisms are there to promote development, trade and growth in partnership with American companies. We can create thousands of jobs in Cameroon if and only if we wake up and take the bull by the horns.

God bless Cameroon.
 
 
DR NICK NGWANYAM, MD
CEO ST LOUIS GROUP
POB 661 BAMENDA
NORTH WEST REGION
REP OF CAMEROON
TEL( CELL) 237- 7776 46 74
 
What goes further than IMAGINATION?



.

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