The Rapid Demise of Cameroonian Artists & The Protracted Enigma on Their Copyrights.

   By  Yangange  Martin Wose*.

A good  number of Cameroonian Artists have  died  in  recent  times looking  back about  15 – 20  years.  Though  the  two  score  years  may  seem  a  long  time,  in  respect  of  the  life  span  of  this endangered  genus,  when  added to  their  lifespan as  at  the  time  of  them  passing  on , it  augurs  that  they  did  not  live  a full  life.  Going  by  the  Biblical  definition  for  a  full  life,  for  which  I  do  not  have  an  alternative,  they  probably  would  have  lived  to  the  age  of  70  and  mor

Other  parameters  suggest  that  good  living  and  modern  medicine  are  sustainable  factors that  could  give  longer  and  productive  lives  to  our  artists.

Could  these  artists  be  an  endangered  specie ?In  this  iconic  domain  of  theirs  as  compared  to  other  professionals  like  lawyers,  doctors,  politicians to  mention  a  few  who stand  out  in  their  respective  endeavours,  I  am  afraid  artists  seem  to  be  dying  too  fast in  these  times.  To  mention  a  few  who  died  recently, there  was  John  Minang,  Jacob  Nguini,  Guy  Lobe,  Lapiro  de  Mbanga,  Mbella  Njoh,  Nelle  Eyoum,  Tom  Yoms,  Bebey  Manga  and  Sammy  Mafany.

The  beloved  audiences  have  lost  Etub  Anyang,  Francis  Ndom,  Bebey  Black,  Beti  Beti,  Eboa  Lottin,  francis  Bebey,  Ali  Baba,  Koto  Bass,  Nico  Mbarga  and  a  host  of  others.  On  the  whole  some  of  these  artists  who  are  fairly  successful  with  their  art,  still  live  poorly.  The  find  it  difficult  to  own  decent  houses  or  keep  a  family.

The  business  of  music  which they  are  conditioned  to  combine  with  the  creative  spirit  is  a  peculiar  art  that  is yet  narrowed  by  time  and  lack  of  the  enterprise  also. This  simply  means  insufficient  promotion  which  is  another  nightmarish  chapter  and  saga  crowned  by  piracy.

There   is  no  copyrights  corporation  for  now.  When it  was  there,  It  was  plagued  by  litigation  and  administrative  bottlenecks. When  royalties  are  paid,  the  stipend  is  ridiculous  such  that  the  artist  is  not  properly  remuneration  even when it  comes it is available   indeterminate  intervals  for  amounts  which  are  too  small.  It  is  best  to  say  the  future  for  surviving  artists  is  amagedon.

When artists  die  at  the  peak  of  their  careers  it  is  an  embarrassment  to  the  cultural  family  not  only  in  the  homeland  but  in  the  world  at  large.

Most  of  our  artists  who  have  passed  on  met  this  fate  because  of  illness  that  could  have  been  averted  whereas  icons  of  their  pedestal  in  better  situations  were  sustained.  In  the  contemporary  situation  of  Africa  some  of  them  are  still  living.  Around  the  world  are  some  legends  like  Jimmy  Cliff,   Ebenezer  Obey,  Victor Uwaifor,  Bongos  Ikwe[NIG] , Boncana  Maiga [Mali], The Oriental Brothers[NIG],  Lionel Riechie[USA], Aisha  Kone[IC], Shala Muana[RDC], Tala Andre Marie[CAM], Zao[SEN],  and  a  host  of  others. While  the  life  of  a  person  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Almighty  Creator, a  healthy  life  could  be  attributed  to  proper  life  style , access  to  medical  care  and  it  might  be  an  overstatement  to  see medical  care  as  the  medieval  alchemist  who  spent  enormous  effort  to  find  an  elixir  of  life through  alchemy. This  said , in  the  Cameroonian  situation  the  rapid  demise  of  local  artists  is  alarming  and  it  is  very  apparent because  hardship  is more of  a  plague  that  is  killing the  artists.  Lapiro de Mbanga died recently after  his release  from  jail in  exile [53], Guy  Lobe ,  Jacob  Nguini[50+]  in  the US and  recently  John  Minang [54]  in Bamenda. The  death  of  many  is  not  known  because  of  other reasons  related  to  their  lifestyle  and  hardship.  The  problem  of  artists  needs   urgent  attention  and  deep  incisive  overhaul  which  could  give  the  minimum  royalties  for  a  livelihood.   Icons  like  Anne  Marie   Nzie  who  have  had  the  grace  to  live  more  than  70  need  to  receive  from  their  bountiful  investment  over  the  years. There  is  provision  for  spouses  of  deceased  artists  to  access  this  investment.  While  such  dependants  languish in  poverty  the  several  protagonists  of  the  copyrights  organizations  have  turned  it into  a  sustainable  mafia  to  the  detriment  of  our  artists  who  have  worked  so  hard  for  the  heritage of  our  country.

The  lofty  idea  of  Copyrights  Corporations  came  alive during  the  era  of  Segat Kou , Minister  of  Information  and  Culture . It  was  SOCADRA , thereafter it changed  to CMC, to SOCAM,  to SOCINADA  and to SOCACIM  which  has  remained  a  dead  letter.

The  twin  brother  FECAFOOT  is  suffering  the  same  epidemic, a quagmire  of  so  many  good  ideas  that  are the  deadly  virus of  the  same  body.

The  churches  of  arts  and  culture , just  as  those  of  football  pray to  one  god  for  salvation.  If  salvation  is  becoming  instead  an  age long  problem  then  it  will  be  a  long  time  before  our  artists  get  their  deserved  dues  and  the dire  casualties  will  be  with  us  for  a  long  time.

FOR  JOHN  MINANG

You  also  went  away  fast

And  your  audience  looked  East

To  the  shades  of  the  rising  sun

Wondering  in  mesmerized  lamentation

About  your  beautiful  song

Fine  fine  woman…simulated

In  the fashion  of  Nico  Mbarga’s

Sweet  mother

And  it  could-should  be  that  you

Must  come  back

And  make  a faint-heated  exit

Like  Rochereau  Aka  Tabu  Ley

Who  gave  the  world  2000 songs

Where  do  stars  go

There  must  be  melodrama of  golden

Voices  at  their  permanent  abode

Where  rejuvenation  takes  place

And  we  stay  content imagining that  home

A  hibernation  where  artists  never  die.

YANGANGE  M.  WOSE* is a freelance journalist and fellow, London  School  of Journalism

Cameroon:Media People as Foot Soldiers

By TazoachaAsonganyi in Yaounde.

Recent outings of two senior journalists have kept me thinking about what we see, hear and read.  The one made statements about media persons and journalism like: blaming journalists for exposing things that are “inexposable”; asking if freedom makes a journalist a nuisance; asking if freedom should make journalists irresponsible; if freedom runs journalists mad; revealing that there are some 600 tabloids in Cameroon; stating that the role he has as a professional journalist is to inform his public correctly with facts - I must be sure of what I say and not base anything I say or write on hear-say or rumour; blaming journalists for getting into the gutter and exhuming decayed car cases to pollute the atmosphere; describing some journalists as untamed nonentities; asking if a free press is that which ridicules society and those who head that society; claiming that criticism has remained a powerful temptation to be derogatory and most of all indecent; claiming that journalists have lost their dignity and become hooligans in a profession of nobility; claiming that only the thief can identify places where theft has taken place; confessing that he would  like to be critical but not destructive, positive and not negative.

      The other said: an official threatened that he would have caused security to arrest a journalist …of that dirty paper; in the process of reporting news, it is only normal that certain jigger-infested toes would be stepped on and cobweb infested cupboards rattled; we report news and when it so demands, interpret it; we go for news even if it is hidden under the bed of those who make but are eager to hide it; some officials consider some news organs “hostile” media; some people are media made people…

Of the two, one seems to write from the side of “power,” the other, from the other side; one seems to write from the side of government, and the other from that of the rest of us!

      Whenever I dabbled in issues of the media and journalism in the past, I was accused of not being of the profession and trying to be holier than the pope; of poke-nosing! True, I am a Biochemist, not a journalist. As such, I deal with life’s basic building block - the cell. The human body is made up of many, many cells. When groups of similar cells come together, they form what is called tissue; there are four different types of tissue in the body known as epithelial (or skin), muscle, nerve, and connective. These tissues form organs, and organs in turn form systems that maintain humans alive and healthy through a tight relationship of give and take.The systems include the digestive, circulatory, reproductive, nervous, endocrine, etc.

      We have said before that society is like a living organism, usually referred to as the life-world. Individual humans can be compared to cells; similar “cells” band together to form society’s “tissue,” “organs,” and “systems.” And so we have governing systems, communication systems, judicial/legal systems, education systems, you name them. Like for all living organisms, there is a tight relation of give and take between these sub-units of society to keep the life-word alive. The life-sustaining processes in the life-world, like in the human body, are interlinked and form networks, every link of which is important to the life-form. That is why everything in society is linked to every other thing. It is the linkages and inter-dependence that explain my interest in journalism and in every other endeavor in society. It is the reason why every one of us should be interested in everything that goes on in society.

      Scientists are concerned with studying living organisms and reporting on the processes that keep them alive and healthy; and journalists can be said to be observers of the life-world. But the two trades are different in that the scientists use the scientific method to produce reports about processes that can be verified over and over again and confirmed or contradicted. On the contrary, journalists are faced in the life-world with gossip/news, speculation/fact, pleasure/business, human interest/public interest, and more, about unstable and constantly changing events; so they end up doing their best to create perceptions about whatever they observe, by how they describe or fail to describe it.

      Unlike the cells, tissues, organs and systems of the living organism whose uncompetitive cooperation in a natural environment provides life, the same units in the life-world cooperate competitively to survive and make society vibrant in an environment managed by scheming governments and leaders. And so judgmental terms like fact, cause, background, nuisance, irresponsible, madness, destruction, and many more are always subjective, and depend on which “side” of the life-world the journalist has got the lenses with which they keep an eye on society.

      Perceptions are created by the various efforts of media people in some “600 tabloids” and not by any single organ. The plurality of opinions prevents one single opinion from creating any perception that crystalizes in people’s minds. It is this plural creation of perceptions about societal issues that makes the media a power measuring meter in the life-world. It is what makes the media the projectors of power, and serviceable and proficient instruments in societal power games. Indeed, the media are a vast landscape of democratic battles between contending powers in society, usually with “tanks” firing shots at adversaries.  This is why journalists and media people are usually said to be the boots on the ground; the frontier soldiers in democratic warfare.They mock and taunt, or they praise, encourage, condemn and much more...This is why Napoleon once quipped that he preferred facing more soldiers than few journalists; in sync with the more common line that the pen is mightier than the sword! People involved in public issues – people of “power” -  would spare their nerves and bile a lot of trouble if they developed thick skins, and participated more in using the media to create the perceptions they would want about their endeavours than in anger, frustration and use of courts and other instruments to silence the media.

       Journalists are therefore not political virgins. They are not innocent bystanders or objective observers of the events and struggles in the life-world. Like the rest of us, they are economic, rational and even psychological beings, and whatever else we are. They are part and parcel of the society in which we live.They can be hired or conscripted or even voluntarily enlist in society’s battles. Like for the rest of us, need and survival can drive even their greatest intellectual engagements.

      Like connective tissue that connects organs and systems of the human body together for harmonious function, the media qualify as the connective tissue of the life-world.It is in this connective role that the media find their value and strength, making them an independent power source, like others that are usually grouped as three arms of government; they are the proverbial fourth power.

      Malcolm X once famously said that if one is not careful, the newspapers would have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. This is why we non-media people have to be alert about what media people say and write. We have to also be alert about what organs and individuals that usually claim to have the expertise and discernment to judge how journalists and the media contribute in molding the perceptions that influence our reactions to reality in our life-world, say and do!

The RECORDER NEWSLINE: Cameroon:Paul Biya, History and Power Politics

The RECORDER NEWSLINE: Cameroon:Paul Biya, History and Power Politics: By Asonganyi Tazoacha  A former French president Giscard d’Estaing with an insight shaped by being a witness and participant in the triumph...

Cameroon:Paul Biya, History and Power Politics

By Asonganyi Tazoacha
 A former French president Giscard d’Estaing with an insight shaped by being a witness and participant in the triumph of the human spirit over unimaginable odds because he fought in the Second World War, once said that history is tragic, and that there can be no response to history without effort. What is sure is that Paul Biya was not a participant in the struggle for the independence of Cameroun. That is why he probably did not understand the French journalist who asked him questions during the joint press conference he held with François Hollande in Yaounde recently. But I think the mention by Hollande of the struggles of Um Nyobe and his colleagues for the independence of Cameroun was indirectly drawing his attention to where the French journalists were coming from.

Human history is one single continuum of the march of humanity in search of liberty, freedom and rights. The British as part of the continuum shed their blood and provided humanity with the Magna Carta. The Americans in the effort to move the struggle forward, also shed their blood in the American Revolution and provided humanity with a written constitution that famously declared that “We the people…in order to form a more perfect union…and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and to our Posterity do ordain and establish this Constitution…” And the French shed their own blood during their own Revolution to take liberty, rights and freedom to their own next level.

In Cameroun, Um Nyobe and his colleagues struggled to add their own value to this human struggle for liberty, freedom and rights; to add their own quota to the continuum of human effort. Unfortunately, the French joined Ahidjo to prevent Um and his colleagues from making any contribution to the advancement of the continuum. The result is that Ahidjo and later Paul Biya understood and copied only the letter of the constitutionalism that is the outcome of this long and continuing human struggle, neglecting the spirit shaped by several centuries of sacrifice to establish rights, liberty and freedom. This is why Paul Biya thinks that the constitution is just a piece of paper that can be manipulated to refuse the freedom, liberty and rights that the constitution is supposed to incarnate; why he can freely turn the constitution from a charter of freedom and rights for all, to a charter of personal power and the liberty and authority of repression!

Paul Biya’s declaration that he has been in power for the last 33 years because the people want it to be so, is a confirmation that history is indeed tragic. He most obviously failed to understand that the question put to him was based on the spirit of constitutionalism, not the letter.

In his boastful answer, he left the impression that he is a messiah, gifted by nature above other humans. Although he is human like you and me, he thinks that he is a god; so he plays god! Since by the letter of his manipulated constitution he is the lone manager of all the powers that he considers sacred, he can play god! He has acquired absolute power, unchecked, creating fertile ground for corruption. In a way, it is his absolute power that provides the fuel for the corruption we live with today. As the wielder of absolute power, he takes liberties to bend and ambush laws and regulations to suit his convenience, desires or aims – all of which has given birth to filthy corruption. Somehow, all coopted persons – appointed officials – decided to imitate the king to the extent they could, and so corruption spread in the various centers of sub-absolute powers the king created and controls!

Paul Biya knows very well that his longevity in power is not because of the people; it is because of the inner logic of the power grid that he has purposely engineered into the fabric of our society. With the power architecture in place, he freely wills himself into power, “election” after “election.” As with all such human exclusionist effort, the state’s political and bureaucratic order has become confused with the state; and the the perception has been created that only the king-cum-chief priest-cum-philosopher and his power servants are true servants of the state. The rest of us in our various team corners doing our best in the service of the state are perceived as outsiders. These perceived “in” and “out” groups – those near the center of power and those removed from it, are also perceived to live opposite lives: the “ins”a “juicy life” and the “outs” a life “in the cold.” Small wonder that our society is what it is today, with the majority “outs” feeling alienated from the state and also constituting themselves into centers of corruption, in imitatation of the center and sub-centers of power.

Power is most obviously not a divine gift; it is a product of the human mind. Power predisposes to greater power, to the delusion of possessing a blank check - politically and otherwise. Humans can decide to aggregate power or allocate and share it rationally and symmetrically. Man uses power to serve specific purposes. This is why a major future challenge for Cameroon and Cameroonians is to think up a new power grid that disrupts the present order and the present attempt to stabilize the power grid in the interest of a cabal, a cartel or monopoly. We have to engineer a new power grid that renders politicians impotent and the people powerful - for the good of the state, and the people.The new power grid will so disperse power that no one bloc, no one person, however temporarily triumphant, can become a domineering or dominant boastful power. As it is usually the case, when we give and scatter powers back to the people, back to their greatest numbers, it will be to ensure that their genius opens windows of creativities and pours out a national abundance for us all, not only for people of power…

Corruption is the abuse of power or office; the use of office, influence or power for what it is not intended by rules and regulations. Corruption is not so much about persons; it is the system that co-opts or pushes persons, most of the time innocent, into corruption. Corruption is about power games, power grids. It is the nature and infrastructure of power distribution in society that can adequately check corruption. Therefore the fight against corruption has to be the fight for the re-engineering of societal power architecture - the distribution of power. Power needs to be democratically shared and allocated to serve the state and all of us well. By using the fight against corruption as a self-preserving weapon to arrest and imprison selected people, Paul Biya has been giving the impression that there are corruption-free “nationalists”, or even saints in his regime. By that, he has indirectly nominated himself and some of his cronies as these “saints” and “nationalists”! However, nobody doubts that they appear to be clean just because their own reputation has been placed beyond enquiry, or the aggregated powers he controls spares them for self-serving reasons.

Politicians are known for their greed. Paul Biya has been emotionally involved for over 30 years in the engineering of the suffocating power grid that we have in Cameroon. It is obvious that time has dented the clarity of his thoughts and the quality of his vision and discernment. His exit will serve the nation better than his further presence and continued assumed contribution. This is why he should not stand election in 2018. And he should leave us to choose his successor through the polls, rather than foist another unknown on us, like Ahidjo did for him.

Medical Education in Cameroon

By Tazoacha Asonganyi * in Yaounde. 

We are informed by the press that the National commission for medical education (with french acronym CNFMP) has taken a decision to organize one entrance examination for all faculties of medicine in Cameroon with candidates choosing only one institution and one filiation of general medicine, dentistry, or pharmacy. CNFMP will select candidates for each institution; the state will no longer interfere with charging of training fees in private institutions, and will no longer pay part of the fees for students in private institutions.

     This brings to an end the half-thought-out programme of not only imposing fees to be paid in private universities, but also fooling the children of the poor that they would get medical training in private universities in Cameroon on state scholarship. When at the end of the 2013/2014 academic year the Minister of Higher Education abandoned the children that he had admitted to study medicine in private institutions to their parents after just one year of cacophony and chaotic payment of their fees, most of the poor parents were left with the difficult task of convincing their children that they could not afford the fees for them to continue their medical education in the private universities.

     This failed programme of “harmonization” does not seem to have dampened the “leveling” zeal of the minister. It is not surprising that the University of Buea Chapter of the National Union of Teachers of Higher Education (SYNES),recently wrote a letter of protest to the Minister of Higher Education against his intended “Harmonisation of university programmes to enhance the mobility of students from one University to another.”The minister seems to abhor diversity which necessarily breeds competition that is always the mother of individual and group genius and intelligence – and excellence!

     It will be recalled that in 2013, when the Minister of Higher Education, Grand Chancellor of Academic Orders, etc. started toying with what he called “reforms” of Medical education in Cameroon, I wrote an article expressing doubt about the wisdom of what he was about to do. Most of the reforms have now come to naught after causing so much pain and hardship to many households. Unfortunately, the new dispositions announced by CNFMP still have a lot of shortcomings. This is because the dispositions ignore the fact that every Cameroonian child that wants to study medicine has the right to compete for a place in a low-fee-paying state university faculty first; when theyn fail to get a place, they can then elect to study in a private, high-fee-paying university faculty. Therefore I still think that the best the state should do is organize a national common entrance examination for candidates who would like to study medicine in Cameroon.

     Such an exam should be marked nationally, and those who score marks that class them in a group with the highest aptitude to study medicine (List A) should be so classified, and the role of the state should end there. Each Faculty, of private or public universities, should then proceed to organize interviews/oral examinations for admission of candidates from “List A” into its Faculty. To be fair to the candidates and give all of them an equal opportunity to benefit from state sponsorship, Faculties of state universities should first conduct their interviews before the private universities follow suit.From my personal knowledge of the performance of such candidates over a period of some 30 years, I have no doubt that even if we multiply the present number of Faculties of medicine by 10, they will still be unable to absorb all those who will qualify for “List A” each year.

    This said, since I think that what I wrote in 2013 is still very pertinent to what CNFMP is presently engaged in, I have decided to make it available as part of this new article.

Medical Education in Cameroon Needs Product Approval and Certification, Not Disruption! (Yaounde, December 2, 2013).

“Vision-2035” that has since become the mantra of the Cameroon government promises in the area of health, education, science, and technology that “A national product approval and certification system will be established.” Such products, one would hope, include goods, services, and trained manpower. The system should include an oversight on the production process. If well executed, the system would prevent people from settling on the notion that “anything goes.” The system should be based on special codes to reduce complexity and establish behavioral expectations. It should not threaten the autonomy of society and the vibrancy of the private sector. It should be robust enough to avoid being abused or being used for strategic ends of groups or individuals, whoever they may be. To increase their robustness, such codes should be constantly acted on through plural democratic processes that not only put into question the established “norms,” but also help to legitimate, concretize, or improve them.

     When government policy is not well thought out and appropriately communicated to society, public opinion is easily dominated by general, speculative ideas. If policy that should be shared through processes of participation and communication becomes subject to the organizational logic of administrative power, this leads to confusion, demobilization, distrust, and poor implementation.

    The recent activities of the ministry of Higher Education in relation to medical education in Cameroon were an effort at fighting against an old error which the ministry was a willing accomplice in perpetuating. The ministry gave authorization to persons to start medical training institutions without clear rules of engagement; without enforceable codes of conduct. So when the ministry started playing the catch-up game, it left the impression of the desperation of someone trying to catch a train that was already in motion. It also left the perception of theatrical actions that did not seem to have been well thought out, and so lacked a well laid out plan. In the process, it appeared to the public like the settling of personal or group scores because it ended up with decisions that were not only extremely disruptive, but were also certainly unsustainable.

    Citizens usually want well-being not only in body but also in mind; they want both health and happiness. It is because of this that we are clamouring for “development;” for “emergence.” To achieve these, they need to be powered mainly by science, and by the things that science has already delivered to us, and will surely deliver to our children, our grandchildren and beyond. This is why all education systems of the 21^st century have the “STEM” component – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – as their centerpiece. Since Medicine that the ministry of Higher Education seems to be grappling with is a well-deserved component, we can say that it is “STEMM.”  But medicine is just part of a broad spectrum, and should not be allowed, as the ministry seems to be trying to do, to distract attention from other important components of STEMM.

     It is the place we give the STEMM component in our education system that will permit our universities to become knowledge centres of excellence, and generators of knowledge, entrepreneurship and innovation - elements that will impact the economy and general policy development. It is STEMM that should drive our university system and ensure that the universities, private and public alike, produce highly skilled manpower that is internationally competitive; manpower that is disciplined because it pays attention to details induced by careful and rigorous training received from highly motivated staff. Such skilled, disciplined and highly competitive manpower is obviously not the “semi-skilled workers and second-line managers” our universities are presently spinning out as holders of “professional” diplomas and degrees.

    The theatrics engaged by the minister of Higher Education in the medical education sector should not distract attention from the fact that our universities lack infrastructure and a friendly environment to support teaching and research in all domains; that university leadership is appointed, not based on merit but on nepotism, tribalism, and cronyism; that university administration is tele-guided from a central control point in Yaounde that has a penchant for leveling and cutting every institution to size, thus, usually blocking the individual genius and human intelligence that invariably make one country different from the other, one institution different from the other, and one university different from the other.

     If “product approval and certification” means merging the public and private sectors into one unit under the diktats of the government, it will obviously be more destructive than constructive. In the pursuit of the goals of “approval and certification,” the public and private spheres should co-exist and depend on each other, but should operate as different units. The goodness in the private sector is usually the strength of a sure factor – the human factor - which, in the exercise of free choices and actions in an open society, can give birth to competitive institutions that set the bar high on what universities can achieve. Indeed, the goodness of the private sector is in the generation of competition, which has always been the surest means to bring all human capacities to full development. The private sector works on the imperative of efficiency that rejects advancement by personal favour, tribalism, regionalism, corruption or party affiliation that have become the hallmarks of the public sector in Cameroon.

   In what looks like a confused effort to streamline medical education in Cameroon, government is being perceived as an actor among other actors rather than as the provider of the framework that makes possible the competitive operation of university institutions in the public and private realms. The government is perceived as attempting to impose itself on private actors, who, in reaction, seek to resist it because government is believed to have lost its proper function by being reduced to an object of social competition, and a prey to real interests. Such a posture denies government the autonomy and responsibility of judgment in the formulation of just and sustainable policies for medical education in Cameroon. The posture has led to a lack of trust in what government is doing because it is believed that it is tainted with personal, selfish considerations. Indeed, it has led to actors looking for somebody to rescue them from the government!

     National product approval and certification is obviously good for any country engaged in the great catch-up development race of the 21^st century. But it should be a system that encourages competition and excellence, not blocks them. What we urgently need today is not the sort of confused actions the ministry of Higher Education has engaged in the medical education sector. We need an all-encompassing approach defined in a national education forum that charts out strategies for an education system that can make Cameroon a talented player in the biotechnology, technology, medical and other professional and industrial sectors.

 *Tazoacha Asonganyi is professor ,teaching at the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaounde 1,Cameroon.