By Doh James Sonkey
The Minister of Secondary Education, Prof Nalova Lyonga has been honoured by the African Union with a Prize for her commitment to promoting girls’ education in Secondary Education.
The prize which aims at congratulating the Minister of Secondary Education for the successful launch of the #AfricaEducatesHer# Campaign in Cameroon, was handed over to Prof Nalova Lyonga by two envoys of the African Union International Centre for Girls’ and Women Education in Africa, last July 30, 2025 at the Distance Learning Centre in Yaounde.
While receiving her prize with thanks, Minister Nalova Lyonga reaffirmed her determined commitment to fostering girls’ education and expressed her profound gratitude to the First Lady of Cameroon, Chantal Biya for patronizing the launching of the #AfricaEducatesHer# Campaign as the Good Will Ambassador of UNESCO, during the 25th Edition of secondary school Games in Abong-Mbang/Dimako in the East Region.
Within the same context, Secondary Education Minister also recognised the Principal of Government Secondary School, Mikila in the Adamawa Region, Mbono Alain Elisé for the successful implementation of the ministerial instructions on the digitalisation of the teaching/learning process which enabled his school to achieve a 100% success rate in the BEPC exam for the 2025 session. He was handed a Letter of Congratulations, an Attestation of Excellence and cash prizes by the Minister.
She urged secondary school principals to emulate this good example, emphasising that outstanding performances in official exams will henceforth be one of the key determinants in promoting school officials.
Reacting to the recognition, Minister Nalova Lyonga told reporters that “I’m very privileged to accept your prize award. when I took up the interest in fostering the success of girls, I didn’t think that there could be a prize for doing that. And thank God I didn’t think of a prize. I just do it because it’s my kind of thing, as they say locally. I’ve always grown up professionally working in favour of girls and women. Actually, my PhD is on feminist studies. And so, it’s just been my way professionally of doing things. One of the things that we have to remember is that, African women, or women in general, are the first to suffer and suffer most when it comes to the strategies of people who are fighting the government. Or people who are doing tribalist wars. It’s always women that is the easiest target.’’
She further explained that ‘‘you know, it is the ineluctable, let me use this word, because it’s so sweet. And women are sweet. And I think that’s why all these people go towards them. Those who are fighting for some rights. You know, women are the ineluctable, victims of violence. That’s where you go. I’ve never seen anything as terrible as sexual violence with a gun. With the butt of a gun. I cannot describe it. If you can imagine it, then you can imagine if it were your mother, your sister, or whatever it is, going through sexual violence with the butt of a gun. I don’t know how they do it to men, but it’s the worst thing that humanity can ever think about”, the feminist lamented.