Today (28/11/18), the Second Anniversary of Agony for the University of Buea Students
3 min readThe period of Soreness, compunction, sufferings and psychological disaster in the minds of the youths, the students of the University of Buea in particular and the Anglophone regions of Cameroon in general, the date worth to marked by the victims of injustice and the perpetrators of injustice in Cameroon.
Today the 28th of November 2018 is the replica of the above statements as it can be traced back to 28/11/20116 when students of the University of Buea, the Southwest Region of Cameroon were molested by the security forces simply for asking rational questions?
A problem that was never a crisis is that one which is going on in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon today. The circumstances leading into a full grown arm conflict in the Northwest and Southwest region of Cameroon cannot easily be traced but negligent and greed can easily summaries the progress of the Anglophone palaver in Cameroon. On the 28th of November 2016, following the ongoing strike by the University of Lecturers of the year mention above, the students of Cameroon state university (University of Buea) in the Southwest region of Cameroon launched a strike, singing songs of freedom, weeping for the violation of their rights to education and demanding the competent authorities to give reasons why the classes were not going on in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon.
What is worth to describe as lack of competent administration management was how the administrators of the University of Buea handle the situation. One may wonder, what actually took place? On that faithful day, the 28/11/2016 an eye witness testified “we sang songs of freedom and nonviolence” as the entire city of Buea could be heard from far and near having one voice “No violence” to a summary of more than a trillion times.
The vice chancellor of the University of Buea, Prof. Nalova Lyonga whom the students considered to be their mother, instead of responding to her children’s cry, called for security forces whose ambitions were disastrous taking into consideration what transpired on that day
“The songs of freedom were not directed to any person than the person whom we considered our mother” a victim narrated. Who could have imagine asking for justice from the university authorities could turned into a bloody crisis which saw many students battered or molested to the lowest animals ever, the students were well beaten and draw in mud, what a shame, one is worth to exclaim!!! Properties were destroyed and the social and economic life of the City Legendary Hospitality was affected negatively as all shops, educational institutions were closed and people ran into hide outs for their safety.
Close to a hundred students were arrested by the security forces and ferried to Buea central prison for simply asking the administration why there was a gross violation of their rights to education. It was from this period that the Anglophone problem started growing into a crisis which has ravage the Anglo-Saxon educational system in Cameroon.
Thus, the Societal Issues and Legality urges the government and other institutions owing a fiduciary relationship to subordinate to always give a listening ear when there is a problem.
Berinyuy Cajetan is the founder and publisher of Human Rights and Legal Research Centre (HRLRC) since 2017. He has intensive experience in strategic communications for Civil Society Organizations, campaign and advocacy, and social issues. He has an intensive experiencing in human rights monitoring, documentation and reporting.
My greatest apologies to those students affect in this case. It is regrettable that the university did not act promptly to the needs of these students but I want to ask the editor of the post what steps should have been taken to ensure this never happens again. What was the required solutions to address this problem?