OPEN LETTER TO UB EX-STUDENT LEADERS: LET US GRAP THE MOMENTS

MESSAGE OF GOOD WILL TO ALL EX-UB STUDENTS LEADERS
“LET US GRAP THE MOMENTS”

May the peace of the Lord bless us wherever we find ourselves on this planet earth. I am very proud to announce to the community of UB Ex-Students from the Department, Faculty and Central Union levels that, due to our combined efforts together with the Chairman Emeritus Eyongetta Stanley, Nkongho Ndip, Kelly Kah Isidore, Nemkul Samuel, etc UBSU is very much strong alive. Various leaders within their epoch in UB had contributed enourmously to see into it that, students welfare and rights are protected.May God continue to bless them wherever they are on this planet earth.

Information reaching me is that, on Monday 15th April 2013, over 250 Students’ Representative met in Amphi Theatre 150 C to elect the new Executives of UBSU Parliament/Council. It should be recalled that, UBSU Council is the legislative arm of the Union which has Student Delegates from all Departments and Faculties voted by their respective levels, it also includes Departmental Associations Presidents and Secretary Generals together with Faculty Presidents Associations. This body is the law making house of the Union which acts as a check and balance for the Student Leaders in UB. I am proud to have been a member of the said house. I am proud to have learned that the election went on successfully and gradually the Union is getting out of the crisis she finds herself. It is a good thing to also know that, the trip we collectively  sponsored by sending the Country Representative of UBSU Ex-Officials Mr.Amabo Marcel Mutanga to Buea is baring fruits.

As Ex-officials from UB, we can only support these current leaders to fight injustice and tyranny within the University Community and the larger Cameroon. I call on us all to help sustain these fruits we are beginning to build.We must do this because we are children from the same womb-UB Leaders.

On May 2nd 2013, 11 UB student leaders shall be appearing in court for the 5th time.This time, we expect the Vice-Chancellor Dr.Nalova Lyonga to be officially present as she is testifying against her own motherly children because they disagreed with her on February 6th 2013. We must rise up and stop this evil in UB and Cameroon.We must support the current leaders in their move to mobilise over 5.000 students to court on that day.This initiative shall go a long way to shake the very fabric of our judicial system. The Biya regime must see the power of the students.This move must prove to the world that, these students are not alone. We must not allow Mr.Biya’s Government to take advantage of Students’ Leaders.

As senior brothers and sisters from the UB community, as men and women of honour and intergrity, as men and women of valour, I challenge us all, sons and daughters of UBSU, home and abroad to make a move.We should stand up for UB Students’ leaders, let us rise above our differences, let us rise with our consciences, let us prove to the devil and his masters that the good of the society is greater that the gifts he can offer us, let us stand for justice and mark our names on the sand of history.

Our modest contributions towards the court trials of Students’ leaders which comes up on May 2nd 2013 in Buea shall go a long way to preserve our legacy.Contributions can be send to Marcel Amabo Mutanga, +237 77510352, Cameroon.

Thanks
God Bless UB
God Bless UBSU
God Bless US

Bara Mark B
Provisional President General-UBSU Ex-Officials
East Flanders, Belgium
ubsuexofficials@gmail.com

HISTORIANS AND CONSTITUTIONALISTS PANEL SAY REUNIFICATION WAS ILLEGAL

Yaounde, April 5, 2013. Historians and constitutionalists gathering in Yaounde, have said that no legal documents were established at the time of reunification between the two Cameroons to bind them in a union.

They made the declaration during a conference-debate on the theme “The case of Cameroon at the UNO” organized by the commission in charge of studies, conferences and debates for the celebration of fifty years of independence of Cameroon.

The conference that rallied several cabinet ministers and other senior state officials was officially opened by the director of civil cabinet at the presidency of the republic, Martin Belinga Eboutou.

In a chronological presentation of what appeared to be the decolonization process of British Southern Cameroons from 1945 to 1961, imminent professor of history, Julius Victor Ngoh admonished; “special note should be taken that the terms of reunification reached during the Foumban conference attended by both parties from British Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun were merely proposals for constitutional amendment and not a binding document”.

Ngoh’s ten minutes argument, maintained that the elements of union between Southern Cameroons and East Cameroon were merely temporal proposals for future application and could not be considered as binding to the parties.

Ngoh told the 800-man audience that “It should be noted that Majority of the voters did not understand the meaning of reunification. Most of them were made to understand that reunification meant being with their Francophone brothers for a while and to later pull out and gain their independence.”

The issue of the constitutional status of reunification was one of the topics that caught the attention of most attendants. Seasoned professor of public law and constitutional specialist, Ondoua Magloire, held audience spellbound with brilliant legal concerns involved before and after the reunification of the two Cameroons. Ondoua who however, had to go through thick and thin to admit that there was and there is actually no legal document binding the two Cameroons together claimed that the present state of Cameroon was born in 1961 and not reunification.

He stated that the union between two states is an international issue and for such union to be recognized, an international treaty must be signed to keep the two parties clutched. “There was neither treaty nor accord that can hold anyone bound today”. He stated succinctly. He however, in the second part of his thesis disclosed that international treaties can only be signed between two sovereign states. 

According to him, Southern Cameroons was not yet a sovereign state and so was not qualified for an international treaty that could enable her sign a treaty with La Republique du Cameroun which was already a sovereign state. “It was merely an issue of an elder brother opening his hands to admit a younger brother.

Ondoua concluded that there was no reunification, rather there was the birth of a state, “we should not celebrate 50 years of reunification; rather we should celebrate 50 years of the birth of a state.” He said.

Meantime a statement made in the course of Ondoua’s exposition triggered some mixed feelings amongst some Anglophone attendants. They felt a dirty slap in their face. Hear him “the Foumban conference that determined the nature of reunification saw the presence of all the Anglophones who mattered at the time and who all voted for the terms that were reached. It would be unreasonable today for anyone to claim that they are not well treated in the union since everyone adhered to the terms.”

To add salt to the wound, he added that “all legal texts in Cameroon today including the constitution are clear that the most protected party is the Anglophones.”

It should be noted that Ondoua Magloire is one of the most seasoned constitutionalists in Cameroon whose presence in the hall was considered by many as a careful selection to dampen hopes by a majority of Anglophones who feel cheated in what they have often described as an unfruitful union and think that secession was still a possibility. 

Anglophone journalists in the hall argued later that by selecting the best francophone constitutionalist to talk on reunification, a more brilliant Anglophone with good legal knowledge would have been selected to withstand him.

The choice of Victor Ngoh to recount the events leading to reunification of the two countries was also criticized by Anglophones who described Ngoh as a native of Ewondo, settled in the South West region. They questioned why the traditional historical pundits like Fansoh who is noted for his unrelenting lectures on reunification was not invited.

Other panelists at the conference included Nforbin Eric, constitutional law researcher; Louis Paul Ngongo, Professor of political science; Michael Ndobegang, Professor of history; Abel Eyinga, eye witness at the UN during reunification debates and Dr. of military history, Virgini Wanyaka and Emmanuel Pondi, Specialist in international relations.

By  Ezieh Sylvanus ,(CJ)

Re-Posted here by Mark Bara for wider audience