I
have served in six colleges and universities in the United States. On
occasion the Student Government Association (SGA ) is invited to
represent students in committees tasked with reviewing or crafting
policies that directly impinge on the welfare of students. In none of
these institutions are student government presidents elevated to
participate in the highest governing bodies. The English-speaking
tradition espoused by University of Buea (UB) is therefore unique and
the source of recurrent problems that can easily be averted by using
students as advisers and not decision-makers.
The Problem
Preachment of democracy as the harbinger of economic and social progress has been the message Western democracies have often sent to the nations of the Third World, where the current non-democratic governments fashioned by the very European colonizers have joined forces with traditional autocracies.
And though the former colonizing nations know this to be true, and have always selectively supported friendly autocracies and denounced, even overthrew unfriendly ones, they continue to sound the clarion call for democracy in these non-democratic political cultures that has caused more harm than good.
History bears testimony to the fact that Western democracies did not simply erupt from words. Everywhere in the West democracies were established after long and relentless struggles involving revolutions of mind, institutions, and social classes. Little wonder that this western message of planting democracy in autocratic soil has not borne any appreciable fruit worthy of consumption but sown confusion in the misguided process of planting democracy in soil whose pH level is not conducive to growing democracy.
The non-Western world must seek its own peaceful paths to democratic political participation and not blindly follow the treacherous bloody path trodden by the West.
The grave error of attempting to tread the path trodden by the West seems to have been played out recently at the University of Buea, where the student governing body, UBSU, was assigned a place in the University Senate, University Council and Faculty Board Meetings alongside the Administration and Faculty.
From this thrust to democratic equality on paper, which is lacking in political culture and practice, we observed the perils of misguided democracy enshrined in print unfold.
Lofty Democratic Aspiration Confronts Reality
Why is it that among the state universities of Cameroon, UB is the only institution that experiences recurrent crises? “The University of Buea was born in 1993 following wide-ranging university reforms in Cameroon. UB, as it is fondly referred to, is the only English-speaking University in Cameroon. Conceived in the English-speaking tradition, the University of Buea seeks to foster the essence of that system….” Pursuant to actualizing the English-speaking tradition, UB, as we are told by the UBSU, mandated in the Statutes by which the University of Buea was constituted, student representation in the governing body known as University Senate. This feature is perhaps unique to UB among the institutions of the University System of Cameroon.
One cannot doubt that at the time when the inclusion of student representation in the Statutes of UB was articulated, the authors felt strongly that it would serve as a mark of distinction for UB. Little could they envision the future at that time, since few among humankind are gifted with panoramic vision.
It should by now be abundantly clear to all that Cameroon still reckons a non-literate culture in the sense that, that which is written is not that which is practiced. The written word is often mediated through the spoken word and, thus, for good or ill, it is the spoken word that carries the day. Of such is themodus operandi of Cameroon’s traditional constitutions. See Emmanuel Konde’s “Gerontocracy: An Indigenous Constitution of Cameroon” at www.dibussi.com/2009/03/gerontocracy-an-indigenous...