Posts
Cameroon Finance Minister, Essimi-Menye:boasted oil producing Ndian division of Cameroon does not need roads. Bad roads have affected educational performance, totally impoverished Ndian and almost irreversibly set back other social advancement in the oil and fish-rich division.
Louis Egbe Mbua
The recent outstanding performance of students in the Cameroon GCE as analysed in the Fako UK website is commendable. Standards have definitely improved. However, the writer firmly believes, amongst other factors, that one of the important aspects of education is that a student receives the qualification; and that the total number who pass should be reasonably large, thus reflecting the total population of a particular region where those institutions are located. On this line of thought therefore, one is surprised to note that the Manyu division of Cameroon, and one of the regions that is famed for producing some of the brightest minds in that country could only present 703 students to sit the A Levels in 2010 of which only 486 of them passed as portrayed in Table 4 in Fako UK News Centre . From population estimates of the NW and SW Regions of Cameroon (Southern Cameroons) obtained from Scribbles From the Den, one had the impression – possibly a disputable assumption -- that the Manyu division may be one of the most populated in the Anglophone region of Cameroon and so rendering the small number of A Level entry very disturbing. One is of the opinion that this social retrogression—if one were to consider the academic and personal achievement records of indigenes of this area --has a strong correlation with the area’s 50 year neglect by the present Cameroon government and the system of things.
A Potential New Bakassi Crisis – Deja Vue
The region is totally cut off from Cameroon since there are no communicable roads to the division for the almost 50 years of independence; and that the lone airstrip that used to be the main civilian hub into the enclave has been converted into an army base for oppressive political reasons. Hon Ayah Abine, an MP from Manyu in the Akwaya sub-division, an area that directly shares Cameroon’s western borders with Nigeria, recently sent an open letter to the present Prime Minister of The Republic of Cameroon, bitterly complaining about blatant discrimination and the starving of well deserved funds to improve schools and roads in his constituency. This is a criminal act by the government of The Republic of Cameroon. The people of the Akwaya region should challenge this shameless tyranny by questioning the continued paying of their taxes to Yaoundé; and to resist the rapacious instincts of a colonising huntress and her scrambling agents.
It is now common knowledge that the contemporary Cameroon government neglect schools in this area. Pupils attend schools without any discernible infrastructure in place; with the regime believing, misguidedly, that this responsibility would be shouldered by the indigenes themselves. Teachers shun the area due to its inaccessibility -- non-existent roads and poor working conditions; and that to reach Akwaya, one must first go through Nigeria, make an incomprehensibly circuitous U-Turn through thick, dark and dangerous equatorial forest through Nigeria and then into Cameroon. This is extremely disgraceful. Most poignant is that the elite of the Manyu division are busy fighting for positions in the present regime in Yaoundé while neglecting their own people. Those who are high up in the system continue to deceive the people while the decay takes hold. One would not be surprised, therefore, that a vast majority of children in the Akwaya region attend schools but in Nigeria. This may partially explain the small number of entrants in the GCE Exams in the Manyu division of Cameroon. And unless concrete steps are taken to revitalise these roads, we may face another Bakassi-styled problem in that part of Cameroon.
The Ndian Social Predicament and Exclusion
A detailed observation of the results also brought the regions of Ndian and the Kupe-Muanenguba – where only 177 and 423 students respectively sat the A Levels -- into close examination. Again, a similar social and infrastructural problem exists in these areas. Ndian division is where the disputed Bakassi is located, and where a majority of petroleum is extracted by the Cameroon government. Yet no decent roads exist in this region. A recent nakedly insulting, inflammatory and provocative proclamation -- an open secret opinion of the regime—was uttered by design or gaffe by the Cameroon Minister of Finance, Mr Essimi-Menye, boasting on Cameroon National Television that Ndian division of Cameroon does not deserve roads, and that whether it is oil producing or not is a matter of profound irrelevance in this case. Discrimination and folly by the present system in Cameroon have deprived and continues to deprive young people from fulfilling their full potential. Professional teachers shun these areas since amenities for education and other facilities for general entertainment are virtually non-existent. Health care is almost certainly zero. Children suffer from diseases such as blindness and other infant ailments that had been eradicated in the last century in other parts of the world – majority of countries no longer suffer child blindness. Unsurprisingly, the elite of these regions are busy with empty individual political pursuits, boot-licking their political masters in Yaoundé so that they may fight over sour crumbs that fall from the table of greed-- refusing to stand up for their people; and to empower the children of the next generation with decent education. It is an anomaly to note that a region with so much to offer a nation would be going cap in hand to the world to appeal for charity so as to obviate an evidently precipitous and calamitous decline of their people. For it is not possible to attain a good education without proper roads, health care, teachers and social amenities as these drawbacks kill intellectual incentive and the motivation to move forward and reach higher heights as one may won; with a potentially lethal psychological defeatism creeping in when they compare their dire circumstances and unbearable conditions with their counterparts in other parts of the country with far less economic leverage.
The Educational Winners Against all Odds
The Bui, Ngoketunjia, and Boyo Division of the North West Region, and Lebialem of South West Region of English-Speaking Cameroon should be highly commended. Their excellent performance is a clear indicator that depravation alone cannot stop humans from striving to higher stations; and stay there and that one must wrestle with problem and achieve even in a state of institutionalised Apartheid and exclusion by a system so designed. Since the Southern Cameroons independence, on 1st October 1961 and the forming of the now destroyed Federation with the Republic of Cameroon, these regions have almost been cut off from Cameroon complete with impassable roads and other social exclusion – No manufacturing industry exists in the North West region of Cameroon despite its huge human and natural resources potential. However, it would seem that the presence of strong catholic missionary activities in health and education has more than offset the debilitating assault by the Yaoundé regime to starve them of developmental funds; a typical case being the Lake Nyos Disaster Aid fund that allegedly melted into thin air without the slightest trace. In addition, parents in these regions who are mostly small-holder farmers, invest heavily on their children’s education as a priority. Their kinsmen in the Diaspora, have been displaying, flexing considerable charitable, financial and material muscle to stem the and plug the holes in neglect of educational and health resources and facilities by the government. Congratulations, also, to Mezam of the NW region for putting up such a stunning performance.
An Eldorado in Stagnation and at Risk of Steep Decline with Mixed Results
The writer now makes a call on the GCE results of the Fako division of Anglophone Cameroon; and one of the most strategic hot points of Cameroon, abundant natural and human resources and where the Chariot of the Gods marry the Atlantic Ocean; and the seat of at least two Anglophone Universities. Although the performance at the A Levels is respectable, it does not reflect the social and infrastructural resources– even if minimal -- put at their disposal. Consequently, one can only attribute this below the par performance to poverty of the native population in particular and the entire inhabitants in general. While other areas of this discussion have their ancestral land to till and obtain income, vast tracts of the most fertile parts of this region are occupied by the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), a key company in Cameroon. Thus, the native population, who are traditional farmers from the beginning, have no viable places to till the soil as they have been pushed to the edges of these plantations and the slopes of the rocky mountain – a difficult area to farm with its stony soil and mountain farms. The government again does similar games playing: building schools without full infrastructure; and depending on the elite to do the rest. Well, this does not always work out if the population is impoverished due to occupation of their land. It is now left to those in the Diaspora to step up their humanitarian contribution so as to obviate this potential downward slide or intellectual stagflation. On the other hand, the elite in the Diaspora should take up the responsibility, and start real hard and serious charitable contribution to this area – organising more worthy material and financial packages to, at least hold back the academic decline.
The Cameroon Development Corporation( CDC) controlled by the Cameroon government has refused to pay land rents or any form of royalties to the indigenes while instigating a corrupt scheme to distribute land to be bought by government officials in a bare-faced violation of all known traditional, national and international laws; thus compounding the poverty in the area further. If the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) were subsidising local schools and population – providing scholarships to the deprived and underprivileged children with talent, this would be a positive point. But all they do is exploitation of the land without putting anything back to benefit the actual owners of the land -- the natives -- and resident inhabitants. In the days gone by, the 1960s, this corporation used to run schools, provide free medical care and other social facilities to the general public. This has all but disappeared .Consequently, one expects an examination performance that falls short of the full potential of the region; and unless these ills are addressed we will continue to see a fall in educational success rates in this region of Cameroon.
The Return and Successes of Francophone Cameroon
It is interesting to note that French-speaking Cameroonians are now sitting the Cameroon GCE Exams and performing excellently. Although one does not have actual figures to fully substantiate this assertion, it is true to note that the situation was not exactly the same twenty years ago. This should be commended; and was the original plan of the Cameroon Union. It is unfortunate that short-sighted French-speaking politicians attempted to destroy this qualification and thereby potentially depriving the future generation of young people to benefit from a decent education. If any politician attempts to destroy the GCE, I believe young people and their parents should resist them. Rather, they should lobby for government subsidies to schools that perform well on these qualifications and other internationally accepted certificates. They should also argue for more English-speaking schools and Universities to be established if this is what a sizeable portion of the population of the nation clamour for. This action, if put in place would deflate the pressure on scarce places in these institutions – mostly located in Southern Cameroons. In terms of education, it is only a blind nation that begins to inject poisonous politics into the system with the pretext of improving and empowering his people. The more choices young people –and even adults – have at their disposal, the more chances for self-improvement and hence advancement of that nation. Conversely, an inward-looking nation where people believe in prejudices and discriminatory policies in terms of learning only concretises the foundation for poverty and social retrogression in both the near and farthest futures. It is no use training top level lawyers, doctors, priests, engineers while there are no elite technicians, fashion designers, social workers, musicians and nurses; and that those who fall by the way side are left there for eternity. There has to be a mechanism within the system that lifts them up from the unproductive abyss to national pride and contribution as the reverse psychological effect is to spur their determination to succeed, to marshal their pride to participation in social, political and economic development.
To conclude, it is important to differentiate between Examination led success and an all-round educational triumph. The latter attainment manifests and is reflected in real life and after the process – a constant – while the former is observed and confined to a small location at the same time it occurs – an instance. While the stars of the GCE should be congratulated, it should be noted and we have to be reminded here that Exam results do not fully reflect educational attainment. Whether one is able to maintain that level after school is the true test of a sound education. Overall, this writer believes that there have been reasonable strides in the advancement of education in Cameroon and the UK. There is considerable room for advanced research in this area of education in Cameroon if we challenge the problem in an open debate and take resulting solutions on board.
Congratulations to parents, staff, students, administrators and leaders of the education sector in Cameroon and the UK; as well as all who have encouraged and inspired the writing of this three-part article.
Thanks to FECA-UK for allowing me access the Cameroon GCE data and statistics of June 2008-2010; and theirown monumental and pioneering work on this important subject
