FORMER STUDENT LEADER, Ashu Shamy, BREAKS SILENCE ON UB CRISIS

The one time President of the University of Buea Students’ Union (UBSU), Ashu Hail shamy, speaks out at last after a long period of silence. Ashu, who led the Students’ Union in 2012, came out frankly on Wednesday July 1, 2014 to address many issues Cameroonians have been anxious to hear for a long time now. He spoke to The SUN’s Atia Azohnwi in an exclusive online interview.

Journalist: Good day Sir, and Welcome to this Platform. What is your take on the crisis that has plagued the University of Buea since the beginning of 2013?

Ashu: Thank you very much Mr. Journalist. Well, let me say prestissimo, that I had decided to keep silent on this issue over a long time now, and would not want to violate that personal decision. However all I can say is I did quit the politics of the University immediately after graduation. You see Mr. Journalist, the crises in the University of Buea did not commence only in 2013. I make bold to tell you that these problems are perennial. They have a generational cause that goes with every administration. If you can still remember vividly well, after Dr. Nalova Pauline Egbe Lyonga, was appointed, you and a host of Journalist including the CRTV, came and asked me this same question; Is UBSU, happy today because the former VC, Prof Vincent PK Titanji, has been replaced? And I told all of you categorically that “The problem UB is having is not the problem of VC, or UBSU or SYNES. It is a system of governance and until there are adjustments from the top, UB shall always be like this.

Journalist: When you say adjustments from the Top, what do you mean?

Ashu: You see, according to the pure theory of Law by Hans Kelson, every norm in the Legal system gets its force from the grundnorm. The grundnorm commands all other norms in the system and not the other way round .This I mean, there is a hierarchy of authority in Cameroon and UB, is just a subset of that system. It gets its force and power from the higher authorities above it. So you understand where I’m driving from.

Journalist: It was only during your reign as UBSU President, when UB recorded very few or no Strikes. How did you succeed to achieve that?

Ashu: Well, as I have often taught my colleagues and close collaborators at the time of my reign in UBSU, I said at all times, Leadership is a call to serve, and at all time, we must come down to the level of servants. If you want to be served, you must serve others. Humility, the call to selfless service to our course was our goal.
Equally, I have often said that, what matters in a fight is not the size of the Man in the fight but the size of the fight in the Man. These 2 principles founded the base of our mass success. I believe in the force of argument and not the argument of force. One more thing that helped me a lot to the realization of a dream which to many seemed impossible was the adoption of the policy of non alliance. It has often been a tradition that once you’ve been elected into office, the next moment was to seek for allies, to stand as your force and push. We surreptitiously stayed away from all these angles and I told my boys, Guys, let’s try this system out, we don’t hate any and do not love any, and the ones we love and should die for are our Students. This system was rare in the system as no one from the various angles could ever predict or even understand our direction. This worked seriously yet caused me a lot of enmity within the other 2 influential cores of the University even up till today.

Journalist: You talk of Cores in the University, Is the University of Buea made up of cores?

Ashu: Let me start here by saying that, where many people are, with lots of vested interest, the tendency is that, they come together in groups, to easily seek ways to achieve their common goals. These are the reasons why we have Trade unions, Syndicates Unions and associations today, UBSU, SYNES, I want to believe the journalists have one too, except you would tell me no. As I said, my strategies could never be anticipated by any. We could hold a meeting today and decide on a particular subject but when the time comes, I become very objective so as not to jeopardize the interest of the students at one point. I can remember vividly well when, one high ranking official of the administration felt so frustrated with my submissions at the University Senate and caused him to say in Public “Madam, we should not trust Him, he will disappoint us”. At some point, I promised some of them of a shift in their positions if they do not keep their hands off students’ Affairs and continuously cause chaos in the University. Some stopped while others persisted and it occurred as I had promised them. I just felt sorry for some who became victims of circumstance. Some vowed and even told me I shall have time to pay for it.

Journalist: You at one time warned the entire University Lecturers and the administration to stay away from Students’ affairs and stop causing disorder on Campus, else the UB will be very uncomfortable for everybody when you leave. Were you aware of the Strike programs coming up?

Ashu: You see Mr. Journalist; it shows you really followed events at that time. Let me tell you this, Leadership is a call. It requires wisdom. At every point in time, you must aspire to grow through leadership and not go in it. You must live remarks everywhere you go, and as a Leader you must be able to study the environment, your jurisdiction of operations before your term runs over. If you do not understand that principle, then you only went through leadership. You did not grow through it. During the last Senate of the year that was in August 2012, I came out boldly and gave all Senators present a brief lecture on how the University managed to survive, in spite of the huge and constant time bombs in 2012. I Went further to tell them the causes of all the misunderstandings the university has been facing and the solutions I found out. In conclusion, I gave them a way-forward to maintain that calm environment else 2013 shall be a calamity for the school. It appeared the message did not sound so well, so on the last day before the graduation ceremony; I went to the VC again to remind her of my message to the University. Luckily enough the VC could not listen to it alone, so she gathered all her collaborators inside her office to listen to me talk. I spoke to them and gave them the same way-forward, and if they failed to listen to me, they should start expecting the heat from the first week of school in 2013, which came as I had anticipated.

Journalist: UBSU today has been banned. Do you think the Problems of UB are over?

Ashu: You make me laugh Mr. Journalist. What has killed the world today is the mode of passing judgment. The world at all times punishes the effect; they do not punish the cause. Banning UBSU is just creating a huge unknown war that may finally land UB to its calamitous end. What happened to the SUG of UNILAG-Nigeria? Is it not the same? Have the problems finished? The Bible says “Darkness and sorrow shall endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning” Let me tell you this; The students of UB, shall be liberated from the bondage of tyranny, elitism, handicapism, eliminationism, ethnic cleansing, forced conversion, supremacism, rankism, mentalism, ethno- classism and the like and be led into absolute freedom. Christianity has struggled for survival since after Jesus Christ shed His blood for humanity, it has suffered, its leaders persecuted, killed as well, but has Christianity been wiped out? Why? Because it is a just cause. UBSU, fights for a just cause, and the blood of the students who died for it shall strengthen and keep it alive forever. They can kill its leaders but UBSU shall survive for ever, its powerful name shall never perish. It’s a pity that Leaders of such a powerful youth sector of the nation can only survive from the economy of foreign Lands; Its leaders have been murdered in cold blood, become refugees and semi refugees in foreign lands, some tortured, molested, imprisoned, Exiled, Killed, frustrated, threatened, victimized, others deprived from graduating and defending their thesis, murder attempts, meanwhile the cowards sit on top of plenty.