Graduates from universities in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon are accusing the authorities of marginalisation and injustice in how students are selected to write special training examinations for pupil magistrates and court registry.

The graduates from the University of Buea and the University of Bamenda, the two Anglo-Saxon universities based in the English-speaking regions of the country, who applied to sit for the exams, said they were disillusioned by the discrimination and injustice that characterised the selection of eligible candidates.

The National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM), which selects students to write the special exams to train as English-speaking magistrates, said it has been inundated by applications from students from French-speaking regions, in defiance of the instructions of the head of state, Paul Biya, in 2019 to address the anglophone crisis with special exams exclusively for English-speaking candidates.

“These exams were meant for us from the English-speaking regions. But many of our names have been left out and the list is full of names of candidates from French-speaking regions,” Mbeng Felix, a graduate from the University of Buea, told University World News.

Francophone names on list

The exams that were written on 27-28 July 2024 in Yaounde, Bamenda, Buea and Douala had many names of applicants from the French-speaking regions on the list, he said.

For example, the list of the Yaounde Examination Centre with 155 selected candidates had more than 50% of names from French-speaking regions, he said. The exams are set for 3-4 August 2024.

The English-speaking candidates say the general ENAM exams (as opposed to the special recruitment) contain hardly any names of applicants from the English-speaking regions.

“This is a clear injustice because, since the creation of this special unit for training English-speaking candidates in ENAM in 2019, those from the English regions hardly feature in the final selection for the general ENAM exams,” Njong Sylvanus from the University of Bamenda told University World News.

According to Amnesty International’s 2023 report, Human Rights Violations in Cameroon’s Anglophone North-West Region, human rights violation and injustice in the two anglophone regions, as well as the systematic undermining of the English common law system by the predominantly francophone government in Cameroon, have been pronounced. At the level of the Supreme Court, the predominant application of civil law often left common law litigants without justice.

Conflict turned violent

French-speaking magistrates with little knowledge of English are sent to English zones because of the limited number of trained English-language magistrates, one of the reasons that triggered the anglophone crisis that has been running for over seven years, the report said.

It noted that, in 2017, the anglophone lawyers against injustice protest had become a violent separatist conflict. According to the report, deadly conflict has been exacerbated with many apparent attempts to silence human rights defenders, activists, academics, students, lawyers and journalists who speak out against atrocities committed in Cameroon’s two anglophone regions.

“Those denouncing or documenting atrocities committed by either side have often found themselves detained, harassed and targeted with death threats,” the report said.

The government says it tried to address some of the concerns like the discrimination against the common law system with an amendment to existing legislation in 2017, creating the Common Law Division within the Supreme Court. The division is meant to hear final appeals from courts in the anglophone regions in matters relating to common law.

The law states that judges in the Common Law Division should have an ‘Anglo-Saxon’ legal background. By implication, they should understand the common law principles and should speak English.

Special training meant to fill void

In 2019, Cameroon’s government acknowledged the anglophone regions’ distinct identity by giving them special status according to an article in The Conversation on 15 December 2022.

Experts say the special training of English-speaking magistrates was an added element to quell the crisis and bring justice to the training system.

“The government brought in the special training of English-speaking magistrates to fill a void and address the injustice in the way the common law was relegated to the background,” Barrister Ebah Ntoko Justice, member of the Cameroon Bar Association, told University World News.

In defence of the list, however, the government said the exams are for students of English expression, irrespective of the region of their origin.

According to the Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reform, Joseph Le, who doubles as board chairman of ENAM, “The special exams are for training of magistrates on English expression and these candidates can come from any region of the country.

“Cameroon is bilingual, and the government gives equal opportunities to all Cameroonians,” Le said over state radio in response to clarify the polemic over the list of selected candidates.

But human rights defender, barrister Felix Agbor Balla, debunked such claims, noting that the special training opportunity for anglophone magistrates is one of the solutions emanating from the major national dialogue the government organised in 2019 to address the anglophone crisis.

“The government needs to respect its laws. We have been advocating for the respect of anglophone minority rights,” Balla said.

Source: University World News