NorthWest: Students protest against daily power cuts

Students resident in and around Bambui and Bambili took to the streets on the evening of Monday, January 25 to protest against what they described as “irresponsible treatment” by Cameroon’s lone electricity producer and distributor ENEO.

Uncoordinated as their activities were, the disgruntled students successfully sent across a message of discontent to the powers before the police stormed the protest ground to disperse the students.

According to Awasung John, a teacher in one of the schools in the area who watched the student’s protests, the students were asking for “the unusual in Cameroon…...”

“If electricity could be cut-off when the president of the Republic was addressing the nation and nothing happened, it means that it is usual to have power cuts in the country. To be protesting and asking that there should be no power cuts is really asking for the unusual.”

Hosting a couple of higher institutions including the University of Bamenda with thousands of students, electricity Cuts from Nkwen, through Bambui to Bambili and beyond is a daily occurrence. Nji, one of the protesters and a student, said he has been studying in Bambili for about three years and “to get constant electricity supply for 24hrs is an uncommon luxury.”

Before the protest that lasted for a few hours due to lack of coordination, the electricity company made public a load shading schedule, but the students said before the purported load shading announcement, they have never had constant power supply. This week’s incidence was catalysed by the fact that their exams were at hand.

Though grab vine holds that such protest could be very popular due to the situation of the power supply, which has been described as poor and has subjected many to untold suffering, the Monday incident was managed by riot police who said was disturbing the peace and security of a “peace region” like the Northwest.