FRANCOPHONISING THE UNIVERSITY OF BUEA.

By Bara Mark.
1st published 14th August 2009 by Eden Newspaper.( With the recent letter from SYNES, this rang a bell to me again)...Read on

Cameroon admission into the Common Wealth was based solely on the English part of the country and more importantly, her English institutions like the University of Buea. Statistics show that,Francophones benefits more than Anglophones from Common wealth scholarships etc.The Bilingual nature of Cameroon in the sub-Saharan region should greatly benefit Cameroon and extensively her citizens. The Constitution of the country places English and French as the two official languages of the country, thus all state institutions must promote bilingualism to its fullest. Such bilingualism should be on an equal phase and should not in any way weight on either cultures. Anglophone institutions must learn to respect their heritage and try as, much as possible to avoid cultural and linguistic assimilation.

The case at the University of Buea is different. While the University should open her arms to receive our francophone brothers, it should be done on the field of fairness and justice to the Cameroon populace and it should not be at the detriment of our thousand English speaking brothers who could not gain admission into the University even though most have the required points. When the University of Maroua was created, the indigenous people bullied the regime and requested the greatest share of students into the institution in which Mr. Biya willfully gave in. In Buea, Bakweri/ South westerners indigenous people had never requested for more positions into UB and, Anglophones understands fully what is called Cameroon Unity and Integration.

The University of Buea is and has been or will soon be francophonized. I shall enumerate just two good points.

Firstly, the most insulting thing to ever imagine is the mighty billboard on HIV/AIDS recently placed at the second gate of the University with words boldly in script in French on both sides of the board. This is done in bad faith to look low on the Anglophone community because I didn’t see any reason why English and French were not in-script on either side of the Billboard. How then is the government promoting bilingualism? The University administration should not assist in this mess of linguistic and cultural assimilation.

Secondly, one of the most aching issues that have been disturbing me for decades now is this issue of English intensive classes and placement test wherein Francophones take before admission into UB while our very own Anglophones who did not have ordinary level English is refused a place in UB even if they have the required cut-off points. I believe the essence of English in the University is for communication and understanding since English is the language of instruction. Anglophones who have studied for 14 years in English can read, write and understand English perfectly in their areas of studies, yet they are refused a place in the University of Buea even after having cutoff points in the studies they wanted to pursue. Francophones who must have undergone French education all through their life, because they write one stupid English placement test after six weeks of studies, some of which even bribe huge amount of money to pass are admitted into the University. This is not fair. The policies of the government and the University should change towards this.

In foreign Universities where students are admitted from other countries, they are requested to show proof that they studied in English and could undergo their studies in English. The same could happen with UB. A fair chance should be given to Anglophones who didn't have O/L English to undertake the placement test as Francophones or provide an English proficiency to show that they could undertake their studies in English.

Let the government give Anglophones a chance then justice would have been seen to be done.

I rest my case