BY ATIA TILARIOUS AZOHNWI
The Sasse Old Boys Association (SOBA), a world gathering of alumni of St. Joseph’s College Sasse is in a deepening crisis. The result is that SOBA now has a twin leadership – Prof. Ephraim Ngwafor on the one hand and Dr. Amos Namanga Ngongi on the other.
Professor Ephraim Ngwafor was elected President General of SOBA on August 10, 2013 for a three-year mandate, which mandate was due to expire in August 2016. An elective SOBA General Assembly tarried for close to two years with the Anglophone crisis to blame.
Apparently because members of the various chapters of the association were not well informed as to why the elective general assembly was taking too long to be convened called for a revival general assembly.
While an elective General Assembly was called for March 10, 2018 in Douala, a Revival General Assembly was planned for March 4, 2018 at the Anthony of Padua Parish Hall Buea Town. Prof. Ngwafor backed the Douala meeting but his vice, Prof. Ernest Molua sided with the revivalists.
The March 4 revival GA
The venue was the St, Anthony of Padua Hall Buea Town and the event was the Revival General Assembly of SOBA. 73 duly registered members are said to have attended the March 4, 2018 meeting. They came from Buea, Victoria, Muyuka, Tiko, and Bangem chapters. It was chaired by the eldest member, Apppolinaire Nvenge of the 1947 class with Yana Zumafor of the 1952 class as co-chair. Kebei Eugene Kai of the 1982 moderated the proceedings while Walter Wilson Nana of the 1986 class served as rapporteur.
The members at this revival assembly observed that their meeting came on the heels of the failure of the National Executive to call for a statutory general assembly within three years.
Convened by at least three chapter presidents, Kumfor Barrister John Kameni told The SUN that the revival assembly was in line with Article 23(2) of the SOBA constitution.
The revivalists say they want the Prof. Ngwafor led National Executive to present a financial and administrative report of their four-year leadership and a report of the 75th anniversary of Sasse College.
After observing the failures of the National Executive Committee, the revivalists resolved that a Caretaker Committee be put in place to replace the Prof. Ngwafor-led National Executive.
Dr. Amos Namanga Ngongi of the 1959 class was chosen to chair the Caretaker Committee that has a one-year mandate with a mission to organise a SOBA reunion and organise elections into the executive committee of the association.
Dr. Ewang Anselm Akume will serve the Caretaker Committee as Secretary General, while Fidelis Ntangsi and Epoh Ebenezer are treasurer and financial secretary respectively. Ndobe Joseph was acclaimed as adviser and ‘Kumfor’ Barrister John Kameni as Public Relations Officer.
The March 10 drama
Prof. Ngwafor convened a SOBA General Assembly for Douala on March 10, 2018, which meeting was banned by the Divisional Officer for Douala V.
The SOBA Caretaker Committee made an application before the High Court of Fako in Buea and obtained judgement in their favour in which case all SOBA meetings called by Prof. Ngwafor were seen as illegal.
The meeting venue was thus moved to Bishop Rogan College Buea on March 10. A new SOBA constitution was reportedly adopted and a new National Executive Committee elected. Prof. Ephraim Ngwafor succeeded himself as President General of SOBA.
Just before the meeting rose, the Divisional Officer for Buea, Paul Kouam Wokam led a security squad to chase away delegates at the said SOBA meeting.
John Kameni in describing the events of March 10 said: “In a very shameless manner, they ran to Bishop Rogan College. In the heart of the college, they sat, pretended to deliberate and unfortunately for them again, the law chased them out of Bishop Rogan; the Divisional Officer for Buea who did not grant them any authorisation intervened and sent them running. They were sent out of Bishop Rogan in shame, ridicule and public disgrace. To our greatest surprise, as they usually behave, they came out that there was a general assembly in Bishop Rogan and that they re-elected or put in place an executive.”
John Kameni, a spokesman for the revivalists insists that: “the meeting at Bishop Rogan was dispersed by the forces of law and order which makes it an illegal come together. You cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand. What Prof. Ngwafor and his clique did was some action in futility because the Caretaker Committee is now in control and SOBA is definitely moving ahead.”
Strangely, Kebei Eugene Kai who co-chaired the March 4 Revival General Assembly appeared in the March 10 Executive as Assistant Secretary General. It remains unclear if he attended the March 10 meeting. He however preferred not to answer our questions when we placed a telephone call through to him late Sunday evening.
Contacted to comment on the SOBA dossier, Ayuk Iyok and Edwin Eselem promised but failed to get back to us with their own side of the story. Attempts at reaching the President General by telephone were futile.
Buea DO writes to Prof. Ephraim Ngwafor
In a two-page letter dated March 13, 2018 addressed to Prof. Ephraim Ngwafor, SOBA President, the Divisional Officer for Buea, Kouam Wokam Paul registered his regrets towards the attitude of some SOBA members who violated administrative and legal injunctions to hold a meeting at Bishop Rogan College last March 10.
“The administration of Buea subdivision is very vexed and disillusioned in the fact that very responsible persons from this prestigious institution engaged in disrespecting legal jurisdictions as well as violating court judgements,” Kouam’s letter read in part.
The DO went on: “the administration of Buea subdivision was made to understand that your meeting was moved to Douala on the guise that Buea is insecure; enough reason for you to have notified the administration for acknowledgement of declaration of public manifestation and security when sent out of Douala by the administrative authorities.
“This misguided and ill-advised act of coming to carry out a clandestine meeting in Buea void of all administrative procedures renders such a meeting suspicious, its outcome a nullity and a security threat.
“May you be informed that hierarchy has been notified of this embarrassing behaviour and any furtherance of the outcome of the illegal congregation will be treated as obstruction of public peace, contempt of court and administrative instructions as well as an insult to efforts carried out by the state to make Buea a peaceful subdivision.
“The administration reminds itself of the fact that all efforts made by the state, Roman Catholic Mission and other educational partners to make sure that there is effective back to school in Buea has been publicly undermined by your declaration that Buea is insecure and even failing to meet up with the expectations to encourage students to go to school goes a long way to express such motives.
“While expecting the entire SOBA to be part of those promoting peace and harmony in our living together, I enjoin you as alumni of the great SOBA family to look for pacific ways and means to get out of this crisis, if any, in total respect of the laws and institutions of the state so as to avoid further embarrassments from the administration.”
SOBA Caretaker Committee, Education Secretary, Sasse Principal and Ebot Mfoataw in court
As we went to press, we got information that the SOBA Caretaker Committee plans to drag the Buea Diocesan Catholic Education Secretary, Rev. Fr. Valentine Suum; the Principal of St. Joseph’s Collegae Sasse, Rev. Fr. Edwin Msing Seh; and the Ebot Mfoataw, SOBA Secretary General to court.
The above cited personalities signed a letter dated March 10, 2018 addressed to all SOBANs purportedly in violation of a Fako High Court order prohibiting anyone from acting in the name of SOBA, except the Caretaker Committee.
The said letter they signed read:
Dear SOBANS,
In spite of all the odds against us, in spite of all the contravening circumstances, more than one hundred SOBANS (from Bamenda, Douala, Muyuka, Tiko, Victoria and Yaounde chapters) jammed the BIROCOL Library by the Bishop’s House, Soppo-Buea, today 10th March 2018, to rise above influence peddling and petty bickering to participate and engrave their names in a historic SOBA General Assembly.
All these participants will go down in history books as wise draftsmen who revisited and amended the First SOBA Constitution which was put in place in 1947. We are in 2018, seventy one years later. The resounding presence of SOBANS confirmed the strength of our resolve and matchlessness of the love for our Alma Mater, SOBA. No one man, no chapter is ever bigger than Sasse College or SOBA.
It is against this backdrop that the General Assembly and the newly elected SOBA general Executive unanimously condemn and dissociate themselves from the unenviable activities of certain “Agents Provocateurs” of their self-styled Revival General Assembly and its nameless name, the Caretaker Committee.
We implore each and every SOBAN to pause, look around him, and appreciate the growth, breathe in and attest to the truth of this declaration. After all, we have great challenges and great opportunities. Make no mistake, we will need them and make SOBA greater than it has ever been before. Let us all turn from spectators to participants; the stakes have never been higher. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that when SOBA lasts for thousands of years Men will say “This was their finest hour”.