Jean Lambert Nang in a text entitled “Better a donkey than an agrégé” suggested that Cameroonian academics are useless for Cameroon. Referring to this text which I find confusing and hyperbolic, I present here some problems concerning academics and the university which is their working environment.
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Before discussing them, it is important to remind for all practical purposes that one must distinguish at the university between hard sciences commonly called exact sciences (Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology) and soft sciences also called humanities and social sciences (literature, history, sociology, economics, etc.). In either of these fields, one can be either a teacher (only transmitting knowledge to students) or a teacher-researcher (transmitting knowledge to students and conducting research on specific subjects in order to produce new knowledge).
The few identified problems concerning Cameroonian academics and their working environment:
1) The infiltration of the university by favoritism. This concerns doctors produced in Cameroonian universities with the complicity of those supposed to protect this sacred environment. Nepotism, clientelism, cooptation, cronyism and many other strange things are at the origin of the selection for doctoral theses of certain individuals without level who are then recruited as university teachers based on these same things.
2) The growth of administrative academics. Increasingly in Cameroon, academics are driven by the pursuit of appointments and administrative positions. Teaching and research (production of knowledge, discoveries and inventions) are only secondary for them. Some among them often shine by exploiting and plagiarizing the theses and dissertations of their students.
3) The precariousness of our universities: absence of research laboratories, almost non-existent journals, ancient lecture halls, lack of toilets, libraries empty of content, bogus teachings, etc.
4) The glaring insufficiency of financial means to support research work and research centers as is done in countries concerned with building an exemplary society.
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5) The lack of consideration for research work or knowledge produced by Cameroonian academics, especially those from critical intellectuals. Research work and doctoral theses are shelved in drawers of oblivion even those that deserve great attention from leaders because of their relevance in crisis resolution and their impact on human progress.
6) The brain drain. These are the brilliant Cameroonian minds who prefer to contribute elsewhere where academics are valued at their true worth. Among them are the “conscious pariahs” and academics who are in exile because of their criticism of the regime in power.
Of all these problems, the list of which is not exhaustive, I point an accusing finger at Cameroonian academics. They are complicit and even actors as much as our leaders. Complicit by their muteness and silence. They are afraid to speak, denounce and demand from leaders the establishment of serious and worthy universities. They are afraid of eating poorly or not eating at all to quote the brilliant scholar Fabien Eboussi Boulaga. They are afraid of being excluded from the table of meager monthly salaries that the State pays them. They therefore prefer to speak under the table.
They are sometimes forced to lie to their foreign colleagues about the treatment they receive (salaries and research bonuses) because the latter hold them in great respect and deep admiration due to the cultural capital they possess. It must be said that Cameroonian academics are relevant and brilliant, often distinguished by the quality of their work in major journals, renowned publishing houses and scientific meetings (colloquia, conferences, etc.) Their foreign colleagues cannot imagine how much they envy them because of the respect their State grants them.
In short, Cameroonian academics are driven by fear and selfishness which prevent them from seeing that the academic is a free spirit who works for human progress. That he is a streetlight that illuminates society. That he is a selfish person who only thinks of others. That he is the solution in a society and not the problem. For this, it is the prince who must kneel before him and not the other way around because it is the former who needs his advice, his knowledge and his know-how to solve the problems faced by the people he leads, to promote sustainable development.
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