Strike action divides Buea University SYNES chapter

University of Buea, UB, members of the National Union of Teachers of Higher Education, SYNES, split over a strike action that commenced on Wednesday, May 21.

With some lecturers sticking to the strike action, others are, however, indifferent calling the striking action a “groundless."

Meanwhile, lecturers who adhered to the strike downed their tools in protest of what they termed “perilous working conditions.”

In a communique from the SYNES Secretariat, the lecturers have, over the past one year, been subjected to very inhuman and degrading treatment as most of them are forced to trek from the University gate to their offices and lecture halls.

This perilous trekking, the communique holds, started in the wake of the student unrest in 2013, when the Vice Chancellor, VC, Prof Nalova Lyonga, barred taxis from entering the campus on grounds that renegade students were using these taxis to enter the campus, commit crimes and get away unscathed.

Meanwhile, responding to the complaints of the lecturers, the Vice Chancellor, VC of UB, Prof Nalova Lyonga in her communique signed on May 14, stated ardently, that the banning of taxis from circulating on campus was purely for security reasons. According to her, it was a decision taken by UB administration to evade abduction of students, disruption of examinations, kidnappings of students based on their religious beliefs and the transportation of non-students, hired to promote riot on campus.

Prof. Nalova Lyonga further asserted that in its session of March 20, the Council came up with a proposal that a shuttle bus service will begin operating on and off the UB campus by May ending. According to her, the proprietor of the shuttle bus service has already been invited to discuss practical modalities.

The initial pick up and drop off points in and off campus, according to the VC release will include, Check Point, Molyko, Malingo Junction, Faculty of Health Sciences Bomaka, Mile 17 Roundabout, First Gate UB Corridor, Central Administration Roundabout, Car Park Library, Entrance to Classrooms Block, Students’ Restaurant and the Faculty of Health Sciences. The fares off campus will be FCFA 100 while those on campus will be FCFA 50.

In this respect, SYNES, therefore, concluded that “security has been used as a smoke screen to yoke team and that strike will be the ultimate message to an administration that has no respect for its staff and can no longer be trusted.”

Meanwhile, the VC also exhorted students to remain calm and follow their studies diligently