The MoneyGram Foundation grant funded the transportation of three 40-foot ocean-going containers to Ghana, Cameroon and Ethiopia. Each container, carefully curated by Books For Africa, was filled with 22,000 books, as well as library enhancement supplies such as essential solar lights, e-readers loaded with digital content, computers, maps and projectors. The books and learning materials are intended to enhance the capacity of community libraries, with long-term outcomes of improving school retention and literacy crucial to each country’s ability to produce an educated workforce. The Catholic Universityof Buea in Douala (CIUB) was chosen as the recipient of the books and materials designated for Cameroon.

An event to celebrate the donation of the books was held at the Douala campus of the Catholic University Institute of Buea. CIUB is an entrepreneurial university, whose goal is not only to train professionals, but also to endow them with spiritual and moral values. Forty secondary and primary schools were invited to participate in the festivities, and more than 200 students received their own box of books.

“It is an honor to have the opportunity to support literacy efforts in Africa, and we are delighted to select Cameroon as a beneficiary for this program,” said John Gely, MoneyGram’s Head of Africa. “We are proud to join Books For Africa in their mission to improve the availability of books and learning materials, and fulfill the MoneyGram Foundation’s goal of empowering lives through education.”

Carole Patrikakos, Deputy Director of Books For Africa, explained, “Books For Africa is demand driven- we routinely receive orders from groups who have fundraised on behalf of African schools and libraries. However, there are children in locales that do not have sponsors abroad, and those children will not receive books without the intervention of funders such as MoneyGram Foundation, who recognize and support their right to an education.”

In addition to MoneyGram representatives, ceremony attendees included Mr. Job Théophile Kwapnang, Mayor of Douala, Professor Fr. George Nkeze, President of CIUB, and Dr. Fabrice Tonfack Djikeng from the CIUB Douala campus. Also in attendance were key MoneyGram partners, representatives from Afriland First Bank, Express Exchange Transfer, Banque of Atlantic (BACM) and Wafacash.

Similar events have been held this year to celebrate the distribution of books and library supplies in Ethiopia and Ghana. The MoneyGram Foundation grant is expected to provide 30,000 students per year with access to books. To date, the MoneyGram Foundation has awarded over $1,150,000 in grants to support education for children in Africa.

Source: Yahoo Finance

As students in Cameroon began their annual exams Monday, hundreds of their teachers in English-speaking regions were on the streets protesting. The teachers are demanding better security after three teachers and a student were abducted, adding to scores captured, killed, or whose property was torched during a two-year separatist conflict.

Teachers dressed in dark clothes and holding signs demanding better security walk down a street in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s northwest region.

While their students take end of year exams, the teachers are underscoring that the region’s schools are under attack.

A wave of school abductions and killings in the region’s separatist conflict has shaken the teachers, who have been protesting daily since Friday.

“We are tired. Lord, help the teachers of Cameroon, help the teachers of northwest. We do not know what to do, we do not know where to go,” says a teacher.

Thirty-one-year old teacher Wontai Vondou Olivier was beheaded here last week, and his head dumped on the street.

A video allegedly filmed by Wontai’s murderers has been making rounds on social media. In the video, Wontai begs for his life while his captors say they have caught a spy and will cut off his head.

In another post, suspected separatist fighters say Cameroon troops killed the teacher to frame the rebels.

General Robbinson Agha denies the military could be responsible and points at the rebels.

“They behead. They cut off the heads of the soldiers here and then send on social media. Not only do they do that, they attack the houses of the soldiers and then destroy their properties,” he said. “Despite all of that, the soldiers and the forces of law and order stay disciplined. The moral psychological and physical torture is not easy.”

Rights groups say both sides — the military and separatists — are guilty of atrocities in the conflict.

Schools, seen by rebels as organs of Francophone dominance, are among the worst hit in the uprising by English-speaking separatists. Hundreds of teachers have been killed, wounded, abducted for ransom, or had their houses torched.

“We need a minimum of security to be able to exercise our profession,” said Semma Valentine, who is with Cameroon Teachers Trade Union (CATTU). “Teachers are at the risk of their personal integrity. Why are we being victimized? Why are we unable to exercise the profession for which we were trained?”

Roland Ngwang, the highest secondary education official in the northwest region, says, despite the security risk, teachers should continue working.

“The situation is sufficiently painful and very serious, but my appeal has been that let us be calm. Let’s be calm,” he said.

And as the teachers protested Monday, hundreds of students at Government Bilingual High School Bamenda began taking their exams, under close watch by heavily armed troops.

Source: VOA

Fellow Sobans,

On 10th May 2019, the President of SOBA America published an interview conducted by Brian N. Njotsa in the 2019 SOBA America newsletter. President Mafany Itoe raised issues which misrepresent SOBA UK, the SOBA Constitution and the mediation efforts in the dispute in SOBA UK.

President Itoe was aware of the stage of the dispute now at the UK Company Names Tribunal adjudicator whilst giving his interview. His narrative was a dubious attempt to influence SOBA UK matters in favour of the splinter group which he supports. His account, albeit second hand, only goes to fuel animosity amongst members of our UK community and beyond.

Mindful of the good relationship between SOBA UK and SOBA America, and the need for continuous collaboration, we have found it necessary to respond to these unprecedented utterances by President Itoe regarding the UK association.

We denounce the following falsehoods perpetrated by President Itoe as follows;

1) That going by the Constitution (2018) the president of the splinter group is the recognised president of SOBA UK President Itoe should be well aware that there are two groups in the UK. President Akoh-Arrey is the elected president of 112 registered members of the original SOBA UK, which has been in existence for the last 48 years, a group that owns UK trademarks, “SASSE OLD BOYS ASSOCIATION UNITED KINGDOM”, and has built up and sustained significant goodwill both in its membership and the UK Cameroonian community.  The second SOBA group in the UK referred to as the splinter group was constituted on 7th Oct 2017 and has a separate membership and executive. This splinter group is much smaller and has yet to publish any official registration list of its members, assumed to be circa 20.

President Itoe’s comments show his arrogance and lack of respect for over 85% of Sobans in the UK who are registered and affiliated with the original group, and whose activities are a role model for Sobans around the world. Furthermore, he asserts his personal acceptance of the unratified 2018 SOBA Constitution and on those grounds declares that the president of the splinter group is the president of SOBA UK recognised by SOBA America. We note that President Itoe also calls himself the president of Sobans in the free world but he is yet to take the 2018 Constitution signed by Prof Ephraim Ndeh Ngwafor dated 10th March 2018 to the General Assembly (GA) of SOBA America. In a recent publication he underscored the importance of the GA but he has only personally ratified the 2018 Constitution which will be incongruent with the values of SOBA America if his own GA is bypassed.

2) That SOBA Chapters are like KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) franchises  It is most disconcerting to read such a weak comparison and notice misleading conclusions about the structure of SOBA by President Itoe. KFC’s franchises enter into a commercial agreement at inception to offer a well-defined product for which goodwill has already been created and royalties may be charged. SOBA on the other hand consists of members who are ex-students of Sasse College and who have a fundamental right to set up chapters, class groups or other parochial groups in the jurisdictions where they settle. The 1991 SOBA Constitution recognises this fundamental structure of SOBA and devolves powers to the members to run their affairs as they see fit, and through the operations of an assembly of members, both in spirit and in practice.

President Itoe shows a lack of insight on the practical realities when he compares SOBA chapters to KFC franchises;

• Beginning with his own chapter, SOBA America, as an example, Ernest N. Tate, Esq, a legal expert in the US wrote that – “from a legal vantage point, neither SOBA America Inc nor Sasse Alumni Association, Inc have any direct legal affiliation with SOBA General or Sasse Old Boys Association in Cameroon and therefore, no constitutional amendments, resolutions, or corporate actions taken by Sasse Old Boys Association in Cameroon can affect SOBA America Inc or Sasse Alumni Association Inc, regardless of who participated in the adoption of such amendments or resolutions”.
• Another example is SOBA Foundation, Germany. This chapter was set up as an NGO that receives funding from the German Government to undertake benevolent activities and operate under the terms of its set up. For many years SOBA Foundation has had no contact or affiliation to the national branch in Cameroon.
• Finally, SOBA UK and SOBA Ireland are set up as unincorporated associations, and have only ever had a loose collaborative connection with the national branch, and like all other diaspora chapters, do not pay any registration fee to SOBA in Cameroon.

To this end, we categorically reject President Itoe’s comparison of SOBA to KFC.

3) Apportioning blame of mediation failure attempts to the Akoh-Arrey team Conflict resolution often requires careful consideration of the feuding parties before prescribing the engagement method. It is regrettable that mediation attempts from both the Itoe-backed team and Prof Ngwafor lacked the capability, neutrality or good faith to deliver a successful outcome. Prof Ngwafor has a history of animosity with the Akoh-Arrey team since the 2015 Sickbay MOU debacle, and therefore his intervention was biased.

The Itoe-backed mediation lacked patience with the Akoh-Arrey team who asked to get the SOBA UK GA’s opinion. These supposed mediators then called off the process prematurely to give green light to the high-handed approach of their superiors in the national branch to ban UK Sobans for life, a decision which has since been dismissed by the SOBA UK General Assembly.

In conclusion, we denounce all misrepresentations made by President Itoe of SOBA America in his interview. His intervention, whilst also taking sides, has made matters worse, not better. Our fervent wish is that he can take some responsibility and help to sort out the perilous state of affairs that his final days as president of SOBA America are turning out to be, before his departure.

Mr. John Bawak

Executive SG,

On behalf of the 112 Registered Members of SOBA UK

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