CI-NEWS

Censorship on discussion of Anglophone Crisis: Fame Ndongo suspends lectures by Agbor Balla in UB!

2020-05-07

No: 494

Censorship on discussion of Anglophone Crisis: Fame Ndongo suspends lectures by Agbor Balla in UB!

Cameroon’s ranking on the World democratic Index is most likely to plunge to new lows after a Biya regime baron took the unpopular decision to consor discussion on the Anglophone crisis at the Anglo-Saxon University of Buea.

Jacques Fame Ndongo, minister of higher education who prides himself as Biya’s ‘creature’ probably sought to please his master when he ordered the suspension of the lectures of human rights activist, Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla, from UB. His crime was that he set an examination question on the Anglophone crisis being an offshoot of the lawyers’ and teachers’ strikes!

In a letter dated 20 April, addressed to the Vice Chancellor of UB, Fame Ndongo alleged that Agbor-Balla, breached “the university's code of ethics and conduct” and called on the head of the university to take measures. Agbor-Balla’s classes were then suspended.

The suspension of the university professor’s classes has raised fears that the government wants to silence those who dare raise the subject of the country’s Anglophone crisis.

Agbor-Balla told Human Rights Watch that he believes the suspension of his classes was because of an assignment in which he asked students to explore the reasons behind the Anglophone crisis. He added that it was only meant to get the law students to think critically and put the crisis into a legal context.

“I don’t discuss politics in the classroom,” he said.

The incriminating question’ destined for students of the Department of English Law, first semester examination 2019/2020 read thus:”The Anglophone Crisis since 2016 was caused by the lawyers’ and teachers’ strike. Assess the validity of this statement. (40 marks)

A Ministry of Higher Education representative told Radio France International that Agbor-Balla had “turned a classroom into a political space.”

It is not the first time teachers got into trouble for discussing current events in Cameroon. On September 13, 2019, a teacher at the high school in Avebe-Esse, a village in the South region, was arrested after mentioning in class that the government was considering allowing jailed opposition leader Maurice Kamto to participate in a national dialogue. The teacher was released five days later.

Agbor-Balla had been arrested in January 2017 for leading peaceful protests in Buea along with other Anglophone activists. Charged by a military court under the anti-terrorism law, he was eventually released in August 2017 and all charges were dropped.

Since then, he has advocated for upholding human rights during the crisis, denouncing abuses by both the military and the armed separatists.

University students should be encouraged to debate the most pressing issues of the day. The suspension of Agbor-Balla’s courses shows the government wants to stifle that debate.

Since late 2016, Anglophone regions of Cameroon have been gripped in violence between government forces and armed groups seeking a separate state. The crisis has claimed thousands of lives.

The government has repeatedly denied that its security forces have committed abuses during the crisis, but now it seems to be taking matters even further.

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Censorship on discussion of Anglophone Crisis: Fame Ndongo suspends lectures by Agbor Balla in UB!