A timely hand from a university registrar

In universities built in the Anglo-Saxon tradition such as those of Buea and Bamenda in Cameroon, the registrar is one of the closest collaborators of the Vice Chancellor.

In fact, strictly speaking, he works more on a day-to-day basis with the Vice Chancellor than the three Deputy Vice Chancellors. The registrar oversees the daily administrative and financial tasks of the university on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor.

The registrar of the University of Buea

The current registrar is Prof. Ndip Roland Ndip, a full professor of medical bacteriology who also works in the area of molecular epidemiology and molecular biology. He was appointed registrar exactly a year ago, in February 2014. Prior to that, he had worked at the University of Buea for about twenty years, rising to the position of Head of Department and later Vice Dean in the Faculty of Science. He also worked at a university in South Africa where he was promoted to full professor in 2013 before he returned to Cameroon.

I have not met Prof. Ndip, either prior to his recent appointment or after it. If at all he knows me it would be during my working days at CRTV, either at the National Radio Station or on State Television. But within the university context he and I have not met.

This article will therefore be a surprise to him. Nonetheless, as a journalist, I feel obliged to document an experience worth taking note of. To be honest, despite his high profile, he has not been very much a man who seeks for notice. That is why his appointment as registrar came as a total surprise to many observers.

The out-gone registrar of the University of Buea

If anything, it was rather the previous registrar of the university I knew quite well. He is Chief/Prof. Samson Negbo Abangma who went on retirement as his successor was being appointed.

However, as the saying goes, he may be “retired”, but he is definitely not “tired”. We know how the private universities are in hot pursuit of retired professors to the point that these Very Important Personalities are simply spoilt for choice, not knowing which university to go to and which one to leave out.

Chief/ Prof. Abangma was my teacher in High School in CCAST Bambili, where he taught me one of Shakespeare`s plays, Coriolanus. He was a great teacher generally, and of literature specifically. At that time, I was classmates to his junior sister, Esther Abangma, who later on went abroad.

In the mid-1980s when I was a staff journalist at the London-based WEST AFRICA magazine, Chief/Prof. Abangma was appointed Cultural Counsellor at the Cameroon Embassy in London. He was one of the key collaborators of the Cameroon ambassador in Britain.

There once more, our paths crossed each other and our friendship intensified. Our two wives got to know each other and became best friends. The Chief`s last daughter, Morock became friends with my first child and daughter Abu Azi.

Often Abu either went down to London to spend some time with the Abangmas or Morock came up to Luton where my family and I lived to spend some time with her friend. So when I resigned from CRTV after being recruited by the University of Buea, the chief and I were no strangers to each other. Even so, the object of this write-up is not Chief/Prof Samson Negbo Abangma but Prof. Ndip Roland Ndip.

The tears of a broken family man

So, why am I returning to the new registrar? Well, because, he recently brought immense joy to a certain Cameroonian family – perhaps without realizing it. The point is that I have a friend who used to run a bar at Mile 16 here in Buea.

However, as part of the cleaning up that the authorities undertake to prepare for the arrival of President Paul Biya in the town for the recent Reunification celebrations, my friend`s bar was one of the street-side buildings demolished. That brought considerable hardship to him and his family.

Some months ago, he desperately informed me he had dropped an application at the University of Buea to be employed as a cleaner or “just anything”, and asked if there was any way in which I could help. When I asked him to who he had addressed it, he said it was to the Vice Chancellor.

I thought about the Vice Chancellor but remembered that Vice Chancellors are such busy persons that it would not be fair to bother her with a problem of that nature.

Consequently, I advised my friend to go and see the registrar. He did not feel he had a chance of being received by the registrar; let alone having his problem solved by him, without the intervention of someone who was connected to the university as I was, according to him.

I told him I could not go there with him because I was out of town. I also assured him that from what I had heard about the style of the registrar, he might look into his problem.

After that, I thought nothing of the conversation until a few days ago when I finished teaching a class at the university and as I walked away, I heard my friend calling me from behind. When I turned round, he was running towards me with a lot of excitement. “Thank you! That you! It worked! I saw the registrar; he received me, listened to me and helped me to get the job. Don`t you see? I am among those clearing the compound”, he gasped. I could see his work appliance, very well.

He told me he could not believe that , the registrar, “although a whole professor”, had treated him with respect; like a human being; listened to his problem and solved it without asking him for anything in return. “And that is someone who doesn`t even know me or where I come from!” he added.

I could understand his relief because I knew only too well what he had been through and how badly he needed that job. That is why I decided to recount this story. There is a saying that we are poor, not because of God.