UB lecturers calls for Vice-Chancellor replacement, promises to shut down the University.

The National Union of Teachers of Higher Education (SYNES) University of Buea Chapter, met in General Assembly on 2 March 2016 to deliberate on the socio-educational atmosphere on campus, the injustice and pain lecturers have endured in the last four years and particularly the expiration of the tenure of the current Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Nalova Lyonga due to her retirement in February 2016. The General Assembly discussed objectively and frankly, the disastrous engravements of Dr. Nalova Lyonga on the academic and social life of the University, and much more, the shame and damage she has brought on the good name of the University and the collective psyche of staff respectively.

The General Assembly of SYNES University of Buea Chapter therefore:

-          Mindful of the directive of the Prime Minister and Head of Government that every retired officer should be replaced with immediate effect;

-          Considering that any delay in replacing the current Vice-Chancellor is a stay of the Prime Minister’s directive and the continuous asphyxiation of the academic and social aspirations of the University;

-          Considering that Dr. Nalova Lyonga has never embraced dialogue ever since she was appointed in 2012, but rather shunned it and carried out acts that stirred anger and caused unrest simply because she felt that she could use her position to call in police to maim her opponents;

-          Recalling that she took 10 innocent lecturers to the police on false charges which she herself orchestrated through a fake email circulated on the internet with the complicity of Dr. Molua Ernest and Dr. Kingsley Ngange. Her intention by this accusation was to charge the lecturers to court and eventually incarcerate them for terrorism and have them physically eliminated on the grounds of national security;

-          Recalling that she did not dissociate herself from an incendiary and extremely xenophobic letter supposedly signed by some Fako chiefs in June 2013, with the instrumentality of Dr. Molua Ernest and Ngange Kingsley, promising to deal with lecturers of non-Fako origin “using orthodox and non-orthodox means”;

-          Recalling that she framed two lecturers for corruption and scandalized them on CRTV Buea for extorting money from students, dragged the said lecturers before a Disciplinary Panel and failed to prove her allegations;

-          Recalling her onslaught on academic standards by trying to fraudulently and insistently award a PhD to a certain Mrs. Ali Joan Wacka who was not registered at the University of Buea and had not fulfilled the conditions required for the conferment of the doctorate degree;

-          Recalling that this same Ali Joan received a salary for more than six years during which she was not teaching. Throughout that period, she spent endless hours in the Vice-Chancellor’s office spreading gossip and eavesdropping on official conversations and was protected by Dr. Nalova Lyonga. She was also given more than 3 million to go to the USA for an excursion when colleagues applying genuine for academic visits were turned away;

-          Recalling that in furtherance of her rampage on academic standards, she drove to an examination hall to fire an invigilator from the hall after Mrs Biaka, a candidate in the MBA exam who was fidgeting, called her on the phone to report that the invigilator had changed her seat. She asked the candidate to return to her seat and continue fidgeting;

-          Recalling that she instructed that first semester exams in 2016 be written in the university  after only eight out of the statutory thirteen weeks of lectures in violation of UNESCO standards, even against the advice of Faculties and SYNES that students were not ready thereby causing many students to perform poorly;

-          Viewing that this onslaught on academic standards started when she caused her daughter to write undergraduate exams alone in the middle of the semester on the grounds that she was to travel abroad before the end of the semester. Then, resit exams were eventually instituted in  ASTI because this same daughter of hers failed several courses and would not graduate on time if she was not given a chance to resit them;

-          Recalling that she has swelled the support staff roll with about 300 new recruits mostly from the same ethnic background; a proof of her tribalistic disposition. In fact, recruitments are not advertised; rather, people are called on the phone to come and take up positions which yield fat salaries while lecturers type their documents and print off campus. This spurious recruitment is sucking up subventions to Faculties and inflating the academic debt;

-          Considering that as part of her diabolical ploy to an

Considering that as part of her diabolical ploy to antagonize lecturers with each other, she appoints junior colleagues newly recruited to head departments, just to spite much older staff in those Departments and calls to find out what the reaction is;

-          Recalling that this very Vice-Chancellor does not have a clean financial record; she does not pay the Faculties their fair share of the 35% of subventions received from the State because she uses it to pay salaries of support staff. As a result, some Faculties still owe bonuses of 2014 and 2015 much to lecturers’ chagrin;

-          Recalling that she banned taxis from entering the campus and rejected proposals for the University to adopt its own transportation scheme simply because she planned to set up her own transport company under the name Bajo Club, heavily subsidized by the University. To this day, the company has not been able to acquire enough buses to serve the population of UB. At times, there are two buses to serve about 20,000 students, teachers and support staff. University staff are compelled to trek in the sun, rain and often get to work late because the buses are never there;

-          Recalling that three Peugeot cars used by two Deputy Vice Chancellors and the Registrar disappeared shortly after she assumed office and much later the Vice-Chancellor’s black Prado also disappeared after 132 million Francs was given by the Prime Minister for the purchase of new service cars (being 55 million Francs for a new Prado for the Vice-chancellor and 82 million for Honda vehicles for her deputies and the Registrar) one would have expected a public auction of the old cars or that they be given to some Deans whose service cars are about 20 years old and out of use;

Hereby unanimously resolved as follows:

1.     Lecturers have waited patiently for her tenure to expire with all its sham and drudgery and borne every pain despite provocation knowing that her departure is eminent. The shame brought on the reputation of the University by Dr. Nalova Lyonga and pain inflicted on the individual and collective psyche of the members of the UB community should no longer continue after she has duly retired.

2.     Dr. Nalova Lyonga’s continuous stay at the helm of affairs is an academic and financial hazard to the University with a serious effect on our occupational health.

3.     The General Assembly shall reconvene within 14 days to consider an indefinite strike action if appropriate steps are not taken by the powers that be to match the Prime Minister’s directive with action, that is, relieve our retired colleagues of their administrative duties.

4.     If or when a strike is declared, there shall be no lectures, examinations/defences and practicals.

We urge students, parents and the public to understand and to recall their children home in the event of a trade dispute.

For SYNES-UB,

Sango Martin, PhD                                                                           Fokam Bertrand Eric, PhD

First Vice President                                                                            Second Vicec President                                                                               

Fontem A. Neba, PhD                                                                      Enoh Richard, PhD

Secretary                                                                                             Welfare Secretary

Chief Andrew Ngeh, PhD                                                                Chief Fombo Fah, PhD

Public Relations Officer                                                                     Financial Secretary

James A. Abangma, PhD

President

CC:

-          The Prime Minister and Head of Government

-          The Minister of Higher Education

-          The Vice-Chancellor, University of Buea

-          The SG/SYNES

-          The Press