Cameroon has begun giving out free computers to all university students in what the government says will boost education and research. But the distribution of what is said to be a gift from Paul Biya, one of the longest serving presidents in the world, months before presidential elections has generated criticism.

Thousands of students sang as they lined up at the University of Yaounde II in Soa, 15 kilometers northeast from Cameroon’s capital city, to receive free laptops. Among them was Eric Ambe, a 21-year-old second-year law student, who says he can now do online research. He says he could not raise $150 to buy a used laptop sold near his university.

“We are very happy because it will help us to study well, it will help us to prepare our courses well. With this gift, the youths can now study well,” said Ambe.

Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo, Cameroon’s minister of higher education, is distributing the laptops. He said all registered university students will have their own share of what is a gift from President Biya, who, said he, is helping young university students secure access to a modern-day digital economy.

Students sit, waiting for their laptops at the University of Yaounde II, in Soa, near Yaounde, Cameroon, Dec. 27, 2017. (M. Kindzeka/VOA)

“Students are very delighted because they receive a fantastic gift from their father, the head of state, who loves them and who knows that they are the future of our dear and beloved country. The university community thanks his excellency, Paul Biya, for this donation,” Ndongo said.

The first 80,000 laptops being distributed on the campus are part of a promise of 500,000 Biya made in 2016. The government has promised to distribute all of them by April 2018.

The computers, manufactured in the Chinese city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province, are branded PB HEV, short for Paul Biya, Higher Education Vision.

First complaints

But at a computer repair shop at the student residential area of Bonamoussadi, three students have already sold their laptops, complaining that they are not of good quality. Pius Ayeneh, a hardware maintenance technician, says what is very frustrating to users is that the laptops are sluggish.

“The hard drive is too small. The capacity is 32 Gigabyte. The processing speed is just 1.44 Gigahertz. If you install like Microsoft Office and the operating system, you cannot run any other program,” Ayeneh said.

One of 500,000 laptops Cameroon’s government says it hopes to distribute to university students by April of 2018. All of the computers bear the letters PB HEV, short for Paul Biya, Higher Education Vision. (M. Kindzeka/VOA)

The government announced it secured a loan of more than $133 million from China to buy the computers. The government says each costs about $550 and they will use the remainder of the loan to train information technology instructors.

But opposition political parties say the loan should have been better used to set up a computer assembly plant in the central African country. The main opposition party, the Social Democratic Front, (SDF) says Biya is using the computers as a campaign tool ahead of the September 2018 presidential election.

The SDF says Gambia invested $7.5 million to build a technology assembly plant and that Kenya also has one.

Cameroon government spokesperson Issa Tchiroma says the $133 million invested in the computer project includes a provision for high speed internet to all universities and institutions of higher learning. He refuted claims that Biya is using the laptops as a campaign tool.

Cameroon’s higher education minister, Jacques Fame Ndongo, takes receipt of a shipment of laptops at Yaounde-Nsimalen International Airport, Dec. 25, 2017. (M. Kindzeka/VOA)

“This project is a result of the head of state’s initiative for Cameroonian students to give them the necessary boost and beyond, create the psychological trigger for their insertion in the digital world,” Tchiroma said.

Cameroon will be organizing parliamentary and presidential elections in September 2018. There have been calls from within Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement for him to run again for president. He is one of the longest serving leaders in the world, already having been president for 35 years.

Source: VOA

Prime Minister Philemon Yang has said that he wants to know how a student who died months ago gained admission into the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM). Cameroon Concord News gathered that Mr. Philemon Yang has ordered an investigation to shed light on what appears to be a new scandal in Cameroon’s prestigious school, which is going to accommodate Junior and Brenda Biya, the son and the daughter of the President of the Republic for the 2018 academic year.

The controversy came to light after it was revealed the name of a candidate Njdomo Millsaints Claude, who died well before the entrance examination, ended up in the list of those admitted with a score of 14/20. The late Njdomo Millsaints Claude was among the 5 successful candidates into Cycle A of the Faculty of Administration.

The Prime Minister is aware that the late student did not do the oral session of the examination but came first in the scoring.  Philemon Yang has created a commission of inquiry composed of representatives from the PM office, the Ministry of Public Civil Service and Administrative Reform (MINFOPRA), the president of the board of directors of ENAM and the rector of the school.

It is the third scandal that has rocked ENAM’s 2017 entrance examination process. On November the 16th, the results of the eligibility candidates published by the rector, Linus Toussaint Mendjana and announced over state radio and television were immediately annulled by the Minister of Public Service, Angel Michel Angouing. Following presidency arbitrations, other results were published on the 17^th of November by the MINFOPRA that were also affected by many inconsistencies.

By Sama Ernest

Cameroonian author Patrice Nganang was held in prison on Thursday before a court appearance on Friday for the alleged publication of an article critical of the country’s president.

His lawyer Emmanuel Simh confirmed his client was jailed at the capital Yaounde’s central prison ahead of his first hearing at the Yaounde administrative centre.

“I did not have access to his file, but he is prosecuted for apology for crime, contempt and assault threats,” he told AFP, adding that the charge of “contempt of the President of the Republic” and “forgery and the use of forged documents” had been dropped.

Nganang, who teaches literature at New York University, was arrested on December 6 in Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon, on his way to fly to Harare in Zimbabwe. Cameroonian government spokesperson Issa Tchiroma Bakary said that the writer had made threats against President Paul Biya on December 3 on Facebook. Nganang is alleged to have written that he had a gun and that he was going to shoot Biya in the head.

Source: AFP

Cameroonian author Patrice Nganang has had his custody extended by 48 hours by the authorities, his lawyer said on Tuesday, nearly a week after his arrest for publishing an article critical of the country’s president.

“His detention was extended (Monday) for 48 hours by the state prosecutor,” lawyer Emmanuel Simh told AFP, adding that Nganang would “in principle” appear before the prosecutor after its expiry.

‘DEATH THREAT’

Simh said the detention was “illegal” because Nganang was not initially notified he was being placed in custody.

Police say Nganang made an online death threat against President Paul Biya, but Cameroon writers and activists have called for his unconditional release.

Nganang, who teaches literature at New York University, published last Tuesday an opinion piece in French on the Jeune Afrique news site critical of Biya’s handling of the crisis in Cameroon’s restive Anglophone regions.

He was arrested the next day after visiting an Anglophone part of mainly French-speaking Cameroon, where tensions have been running high following a crackdown on a secession movement.

DUAL NATIONALITY

Sources said Nganang was in possession of two passports, one from Cameroon and one from the US, when he was arrested. Local media reports said police maintain he should have forfeited his Cameroon document after taking out US nationality as his native country’s Constitution does not recognise dual nationality.

But many media outlets questioned how many Cameroonian leaders, as well as footballers and musicians, have two or more passports. Nganang was arrested on his way to visit his wife in Zimbabwe, a security official said on condition of anonymity.

Source: Daily Nation