VC Debunks Fake Rumor of UBa Chancellery “Mov’t”

This was at a Press Briefing holding at the University of Bamenda’s Auditorium on the 20th Day of February 2013 where Prof Tafah Edward Edokat, declared that contrary to the fake rumor and allegations backed by the 8th of January Prefectoral order signed by the SDO Mezam Nguelle Ngelle Felix, and letter requesting the signing of the order of 11 December 2012, No 012\1614\UBa\VC\Cab\nyf, requesting the putting in place of a commission to carry out feasibility studies up at Bamendankwe where the Chancellery and the Residence of the V-Chancellor will be built, that I quote “according to a letter instructing me from my Minister, no Chancellery is moving to any where, the seat of the University remains Bambili and is in Bambili. The notion and the issue about the movement of Faculties, is a yes and no one. Faculties shall only move if the allocated land is inadequate, and will not move if the land is sufficient enough. All decision pertaining to decentralization can only be well handled by the Senate and Council of the University”. These are the phrases of Prof Tafah that reignited renewed joy and hope from the People of Tubah who rallied massively at the University of Bamenda for the blessed Press Briefing waiting to hear the contrary, to take the streets immediately after. “Now that the instructions were followed word verbatim from the Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon, through the Minister of Higher Education Prof Jacque Fame Ndongo, by the V-Chancellor, as a good number declared to this Reporter, he becomes our friend only to an extend, a thank you march shall accompany the Head of State’s final resolution resolving UBa crisis and wrangles about the seat and movement of the Chancellery 20 kms away from Tubah”. The sudden twixt our audience will wander, comes from a letter instructing the Vice Chancellor not to attempt moving the movement of the Chancellery further as countless complain has reached the Presidency from the people who suffer directly the predicament of harboring the University and should enjoy it to the fullest. The Press Briefing went does. “I wish to seize this opportunity to thank all of you for responding to our rather short notice for this Press briefing. Permit me also welcome you, especially those who are coming into this campus for the first time, to the precincts of The University of Bamenda—the University of the Future. This Press briefing comes against the backdrop of so many rumours and press information concerning The University of Bamenda in recent times. It is intended to inform the public of what we have been doing since 2011. Since our Installation on October 4th 2011, we have been doing our utmost best to put the University on the rail in strict compliance with the rules and regulations in force. From the then two existing schools, Higher Teachers Training College (HTTC) and Higher Technical Teacher Training College (HTTTC), we have opened four more Schools/Faculties to make a total of six out of eleven Schools/Faculties operational. The four new Schools/Faculties include: -Higher Institute of Commerce and Management –The College of Technology (still in its first year)- The Faculty of Health Sciences; and -The Faculty of Science -In its second year of functioning and with a student enrolment of about 8000 students, the infrastructure on the Bambili Campus has become grossly inadequate to accommodate all the classes. In consequence of the foregone, we decided to move the students of the Faculty of Health Sciences and the College of Technology (COLTECH) to a building in Mile 3 Nkwen which had graciously been offered to the University by Mr. YONG Francis, even before my appointment as Vice Chancellor, to use for a period of three years with possible extension. In these two years we have graduated two batches of students from HTTC and HTTTC. The first Convocation ceremony took place in Bambili but due to the reduction of the land space used for this first convocation as a result of construction works on a new administrative block currently going on, on part of that site, the second convocation took place in the Congress Hall in Bamenda. - The growth of the university requires more land than what is currently available. Given this -situation of insufficient land and in order to be proactive in our bid to secure more land for future structures of the university, and in total respect of government procedure in matters of public land acquisition, we wrote to the Senior Divisional Officer (SDO) of Mezam requesting for the attribution to us of any public land in BAMENDA. As a follow up to the request the SDO signed a Prefectoral Order creating one commission to attribute land in Bamenda I and other similar commissions were created for Bamenda II and III. -It is regrettable that all these actions taken in good faith for the development of The University of Bamenda have been misconstrued and misinterpreted by a few individuals. Fortunately, the SDO of Mezam convened a meeting in which these misinterpretations were clarified. -Since the beginning of this academic year there has been total calm and serenity on campus. Studies and examinations are going on and the final year students of HTTC and HTTTC are out on teaching practice. We wish to congratulate our students and staff for their maturity and sense of purpose despite some difficulties which we are facing. We continue to count on their high sense of responsibility in dealing with University matters. We wish to use this opportunity to once more thank the Regional Administration and through them tile Minister of Higher Education and Government for the continuous support given The university of Bamenda. Thank you for your kind attention”.