Barrister Agbor Nkongho To Sue University of Buea over Termination of His Teaching Contract

By Christopher Ambe 

The University of Buea(UB)  on Wednesday ,May 6 terminated the teaching contract of noted human rights campaigner,Barrister Felix  Agbor Nkongho ,who was an  instructor in the Faculty of Laws and Political Science of  the institution since 2015.

But  Agbor Nkongho,considered  as  a spirited fighter, appears to be bent  on  engaging the University of Buea in a legal battle, in the days ahead  ,over what has been described as “wrongful termination of contract.”

“The contract of Mr. Felix Agbor Nkongho,recruited as an instructor in the Department of English Law through Decision N0. 2015/0514/UB/AcA/TTSD/TSS of 02 June 2015 is hereby terminated with immediate effect,” read part of the termination letter ,signed by the Vice-Chancellor of UB,Professor Ngomo Horace Manga. He noted that his termination was,among other considerations, motivated by the unanimous verdict of members of the Disciplinary Council,which Agbor Nkongho boycotted.

After receiving the letter  of termination of contract yesterday afternoon,Agbor Nkongho told this reporter that he was already discussing with  his lawyers the possibility of dragging UB to court.

“We shall end in the court. I prefer that [the university] should also win me there…I am already discussing it with my lawyers”, he said confidently, and would not comment further. 

Agbor Nkongho has been ejected from the Unversity  for setting an examination question on the Anglophone  Crisis,on  a course(Law 243) he was teaching  titled “ Political  and Constitutional History of Cameroon.”  He was teaching in the Department of English Law.

He had been summoned to appear  on Wednesday May 6   before  the Disciplinary Council of the University of Buea  for a hearing on allegations leveled against  him “for non-compliance of professional obligations for a question  you set on law 243,titled Political & Constitutional History of Cameroon,during the  2019/2020first semester examination”, but  he boycotted the sitting and instead sent a  protest letter to the University justifying  his decision not to honour the summons in person.

In his reply to the summons, Agbor Nkongho stated that  legal provisions in force for inviting a teacher before the Disciplinary Council were not respected.

“An invitation for a teacher to appear before a disciplinary panel must be preceded by  the respect of certain statutory provisions. There are a set of decrees and ministerial circulars  entrenched to govern and regulate disciplinary proceedings involving university teachers”,wrote the  lawyer/instructor in his protest letter,citing the  legal provisions to buttress his point.

But speaking  anonymously  to this reporter ,one of the most senior officials at the University of Buea, said: “Mr Agbor’s [arguments] are null and void. Those provisions he cites  do not apply  to him. They appy to lecturers.But he is an instructor whose contract expired in 2019.”

Questioned why  the instructor was still working in the university if his contract had actually ended, the source retorted, “The University was just too kind and polite to invite him to the disciplinary council. Agbor Balla’s contract as  instructor expired in 2019.It has not been renewed and shall not be renewed !”

The Vice-Chancellor of University of Buea, Professor Horace  Manga terminated Agbor Nkongho’s contract, following pressure mounted on him by the Minister of State for Higher Education,Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo, to check the instructor’s alleged unprofessional activities on campus. 

Following is  the controversial exam question  that led to  Agbor Nkongho’s contract termination: “The Anglophone crisis since 2016 was caused by lawyers’ and teachers’ strikes.Assess the validity of this statement.(4O marks).

 The  said course exam was successfully written and evaluated-and students validated it; but it  is unclear whether the UB administration will cancel the  course exam  and another exam set, now that the instructor has been sent away.

The exam question on Anglophone crisis  pushed authorities  to think that  Agbor Nkongho , might have been radicalizing  the  the students he was teaching. 

But he has  maintained  that before the  summons ,which led to the termination of his contract,he had never been queried by any official of the institution.

“I have never been accused by the University authorties of politicizing my lectures or any activity there “, he said.

It would be recalled that Barrister Agbor Nkongho  was  President of  Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium(CACSC),which coordinated civil disobedience  and peaceful anti-government protests in 2016 and early 2017 as a way of forcing the Cameoon government grant and protect the rights of minority English-speaking Cameroonians,who have complained of gross marginalization for decades. 

 The 2016 anti-government protests morphed into what is today known as  that the Anglohpne crisis.