MINESUP Asks UB VC To Probe Into Barrister Agbor Felix Nkongho’s ‘Suspicious’ Activities In Lecture Halls
By E. Nadesh
“I asked you to definitively put an end, to all the actions of Barrister Felix Bala Nkongho, that could seriously damage the ethics and the university deontology and to report to me on your progress, which has not been done to date” This is part of a letter sent to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buea, Professor Horace Manga, by Higher Education Minister, Jacques Fame Ndongo, requesting the former to closely monitor, put an end and report back to the Ministry, any suspicious activities of Barrister Agbor Felix, a Lecturer in the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences.
Barrister Agbor Balla told CNA that he has not received any summons yet. The Minister’s worries could have emanated from some questions set by the Law Lecturer on the Anglophone crisis in a first semester Department of English Law Exams.
One of the questions of the 2019/2020 first semester examinations reads: “The Anglophone crisis since 2016 was caused by the lawyers’ and teachers’ strike. Assess the validity of this statement. (40mks).”
However, the question falls in line with what he teaches at the University of Buea-“Political and Constitutional History of Cameroon.”
Speaking to CNA, Barrister Agbor Balla said he also discovered the letter on social media.
The letter does not say he should be suspended but that his activities should be closely monitored and report filed back to Yaounde.
Reacting to the Minister’s letter, Hilary Asong Junior, former Political Desk Editor at Mediafrik radio in Buea says the Chancellor of Academic Orders is acting out of emotions. Hilary Asong explained during the midday news on a Buea based Frequency, Mediafrik FM on April 30, 2020, with Emmanuella Sih as host.
“If nothing has been said and done about the question by the hierarchy of the institution, it means the minister of Higher Education is judging the actions of the barrister based on emotions. Emotions because according to Minister Jacque Fame Ndongo, the Anglophone crisis should be a taboo topic,” Hilary Asong explained.
He also recalled incidents in 2014/2015 where discussing Boko Haram was a taboo and 2016/2017 where many were detained for discussing the Anglophone crisis.
“As far as constitutional law is part of the learning and teaching process of the University of Buea, I stand corrected, that if not barrister Agbor Balla, some other lecturer/tutor will come up with a similar question that will have something to do with the anglophone crisis.”
On January 17, 2017, the then President of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, CACSC, Barrister Agbor Balla was one of those arrested and detained at the Kondengue prison because of the Anglophone crisis.
