How Things Fell Apart for Prof. Edward Edukat Tafah at UBa (Writtam-pen)

Prof. Edward Edukat Tafah

I salute you all. Last week your Writam-pen got interested in the University of Bamenda when news headlines and commentaries described how the Vice Chancellor of the University of Bamenda was humiliated at the Bamenda Congress Hall. I was shocked by the fact that Bamenda has not changed. Chai Bamemda people wuna like shuipe, shuipe too much. Many of those who prophesized the sacking of Prof. Edukat Tafah Edward were seen smiling as the man who entered the Bamenda Congress with a lot of authority left snatching and chopping fingers. Barely one hour after his dismissal, news spread how Prof. Edukat was placed under house arrest. His detractors kept telling everyone that care to listen that Gendarmes have surrounded his residence; others say he is under house arrest yet nobody said he too deserves to be protected. But let me be kind to those who wished him bad by reminding them that they also earn the right to suggest that Prof. Edukat did some great work too.

The truth is that your Writtam-pen has observed that during the days of Edukat at the University of Bamenda, the right thing isn’t always been the popular thing, no matter how good the presentation is.  Have you ever asked yourself why the Minister of Higher has never attended any graduation ceremony at the University of Bamenda? Your Writtam-pen is aware that Prof. Jacque Fame Ndongo toured all state institutions to inaugurate university building, but failed to show up in Bamenda.If you can imagine that Prof. Jacque Fame Ndongo attended the graduation ceremony in Kumba, then surely you will know what your Writta-pen is talking about. Could it be Prof. Edukat forgot that when you pay your tides, Yaounde blesses you well, well. I am struck by the telling points, to the effect that what we just witnessed was not a “Plot”. After all, what sort of plot doesn’t have leaders (or rather those who were described as such weren’t leading anyone), a common purpose, a plan or anything that could be described as a policy agenda. This is so because the nature of what Prof. Edukat was trying to achieve was unplottable. The near impossibility of any purpose and the lack of tools to achieve them defined the uselessness of facts that he was a Japanese handbrake. Do you know what happens around university cycles? It is a huge wheel of fortunate that could sustain self without any external support. Just calculate this one, HND at FCFA 300.000 times 2000 students. Please don’t tell anyone I said it. Private students at ENS say they no more pay the required 50.000 but hundreds of thousands. Whatever, welcome and bye-bye the economist.

I want to believe that Prof. Edukat was a good university don but a real embarrassment to the system and the Yaounde cronies. I have often heard people say that every time he goes on air, (crtv) Yaounde panics and catches cold. The last time I got him on air, he said all the lists from Ministers were rejected. This was his reaction to a question on whether politicians and ministers always try to influence admissions. Implicitly, he was insinuating that he would reject instructions from Jacque Fame Ndongo. To confirm, he rejected instructions from his boss to absorb HiTL students on waiting list. These students we gathered are a hot potato in the hands of Prof. Akenji, the newly appointed VC.

But what have they not said about Prof. Edukat. Some say he was sacked because he backed an unpopular list in Mbengwi during the CPDM reorganization, others say an audit had stormed UBa, MIDENO at midnight to cross-check issues. Another school holds that it is because he wanted to decentralize the University of Bamenda, while expressionists say it is because he had transferred the Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicines to Mankon (precisely Bamenda General Hospital) when the Bamenda man needed a University Teaching Hospital like is the case with CHU/CUSS Yde...Chai Bamenda wuna go kill man etc etc.

The only plan that existed seems to have been an attempt to summon spirits from the vasty deep to get rid of the VC. But, though any man or woman can summon spirits, only an organised one can ensure they arrive. Now that Prof. has left university of the Future, where is UBa?
 

 (Up Next: Your Writtam-pen Visits the Hot Potato files Prof. Akenji will meet at UBa)

When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)