By Martin Jumbam
On Thursday, July 24, 2008, I stood before the members of the Bui Family Union of the United States of America, commonly known as the BFU-USA, as they held the 20th anniversary of their Union at the Holiday Inn in Edison, New Jersey, to plead with its members to come to the assistance of a technical educational institute, the Cameroon Opportunities and Industrialization Center (COIC) of Kumbo, Bui Division, in the Northwest Province of Cameroon. The said institute has been mismanaged to near extinction but some dynamic and determined sons and daughters of Nso, who refuse to let this institute of technical education die, have been campaigning for its revival. This is one such plea made to sons and daughters of the Nso people, residing in North America, urging them too to join the reviving process.
I will like to thank the President of the Bui Family Union of North America for giving me this opportunity to say a word or two to my brothers and sisters of this great union on an issue that is close to my heart. I am referring to the fate of the Cameroon Opportunities and Industrialization Center (COIC) in Kumbo. When I think of this institution, a passage from Sacred Scripture comes to mind. It is this beautiful passage from Saint Mark’s Gospel where Jesus, having spent days on end with his apostles curing the sick, healing the afflicted, feeding the hungry, decides to take a break and to cross to the other side of the Sea of Tiberius to a lonely place where he and his apostles can rest for a while.
The people see them take to the boat, suspect rightly where they are going and run ahead of them, reaching the other side of the sea before our Blessed Lord and his team. As they disembark, Jesus is struck by the desperate appearance of the massive crowd before him and the evangelist Mark tells us that he takes compassion on them because they are like sheep without a shepherd (Mk 6:34).
This evening, brothers and sisters, I’m talking to you about another crowd of desperate young men and women, our own brothers and sisters back home, who are like sheep without a shepherd; the students of the COIC Kumbo. In fact, it is more about the institution itself, that is, the COIC Kumbo that has been mismanaged to near extinction, than the students themselves.
What is COIC Kumbo? The Cameroon Opportunities and Industrialization Center (COIC) Kumbo is part of an international group, the Opportunities and Industrialization Center International, which began in this great country of your adoption, the United States of America, back in the early sixties through the initiative of an African American Baptist Pastor, Reverend Leon Sullivan Hope. He is said to have started a movement in Philadelphia to combat discrimination in employment against black people by white employers. He realized that even where the whites agreed to employ blacks, the blacks themselves did not, for the most part, have the required skills, especially technical, to fill the available jobs. He then began the Opportunities and Industrialization Centers where blacks could receive the technical training to enable them either find employment or become self-employed.
This project was so successful that some West Africans, mainly Nigerians, Ghanaians and Sierra Leonean, decided to replicate this experiment in their respective countries and the first OIC International projects saw the light of day in Lagos, Nigeria, and Accra, Ghana, in the early 1970s through funding from the USAID.
How did it come to Cameroon? The OIC International project was brought to Cameroon in 1986 by a Cameroonian businessman based in Sierra Leone, Pa Athanasius Ebong Kome. It began as the Cameroon Opportunities and Industrialization Center (COIC) of Buea, opening its doors to the first trainees in July 1987.
How did it come to Kumbo? The COIC Buea became so successful that when it became known that thought was being given to replicate the experiment in other parts of the country, some sons and daughters of Nso, residing in the Buea-Mutengene-Limbe-Tiko area, took the initiative to inform the Palace in Kumbo and convince the Fon to welcome the project. Our present ruler, His Royal Highness Sehm Mbinglo the First, warmly welcomed the idea. He then went to Buea to personally meet the officials of the Mother COIC to whom he promised a location for the school in the palace, for a start, with a firm promise of a more permanent site elsewhere later. The officials of the Mother COIC were so impressed by what they heard from the Fon’s own mouth that they quickly agreed to replicate the experiment in Kumbo. That is how on September 29, 2003, the COIC Kumbo saw the light of day in its present location, the Fon’s palace.
What is the importance of this institution to our people? As we all know, Bui Division does not lack institutions that give our children general grammar education. We have renowned public, confessional and private institutions that excel year-in, year-out in public examinations, and many of us here are products of those schools. However, we all know that many graduates of such schools end up, for the most part, especially these days, on the unemployment line.
Secondary and grammar schools do not, for the most part, equip our children with the basic survival skills that can enable them find gainful employment, or start one themselves. Such skills are provided by such technically-oriented institutions as the COIC Kumbo, which undertakes, among other things. • To train young men and women for gainful corporate or self-employment; • Provide needed and marketable skills to unemployed and under employed young men and women; • Change the lives of youths and adults in the society. • Inspired and involve the community in sustainable self-reliant development • Foster and nurture a sense of self-dignity and confidence among the young ones. • Contribute to poverty alleviation and in reducing the crime wave and prostitution that always accompany unemployment.
The programs operated by the COIC Kumbo focus on: - auto mechanic and driving - panel beating and spraying - hotel catering and management - embroidery. These are areas of training that lead directly to gainful corporate or self-employment.
Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, dear brothers and sisters. Forgive me for being a little long in the introductory part of my talk. I thought it necessary to enlighten you on what the COIC Kumbo project is all about. Now, how has this experiment has fared in Kumbo? I wish I could’ve been standing here today talking about the successes of this experiment, but it has been far from being a success. Why?
A year or two ago when it became evident to some of us that the COIC Kumbo was about to collapse, we began to ask some searching questions, which I know must be going through your minds this evening as well. We began to wonder who the owners of COIC Kumbo were. How was it being run and by who? Where was it getting its funding from? Why was it located in the palace in the first place? I’ll give brief answers to them.
Who owns COIC Kumbo? COIC Kumbo is not owned or run by the government. It belongs to no one in particular. Those who convinced the Mother COIC in Buea to create the Kumbo branch became “Interest Group Members”. These were the shareholders, each being expected to contribute 250,000 francs cfa a year. The rest of the money was to come from fees and subventions from the Mother COIC in Buea.
How is it run? The Interest Group Members form the General Assembly that comprises representatives from the various arms of the society: the palace, civil society, religious groups, the council, etc. This group then forms a Board of Directors under a Chairman who also becomes a member of the national COIC board in Buea. The daily running of the COIC Kumbo is in the hands of the Programmes Director, selected by the Group to supervise a teaching staff of five and support staff of two .
Finances seem to have been a thorny issue right from the inception of the COIC Kumbo. This is the conclusion of an audit report issued by the Mbuy Audit Firm undertaken at the request of the Shuundzev Douala group. It reveals disturbing areas of questionable financial use by officials in charge of the institution. If I’m standing here today, cap in hand, head bowed in humility, asking for assistance to revive this school, it is, to a large extent, because of disturbing lapse in accountability on the part of those charged with the responsibility of administering it. That is why a new team of people of unquestionable integrity is being put in place to bring accountability back to the system.
Concerning equipment, it is sad to note that there is a near total lack of specialized equipment for the training of students, the institution having to depend on local garages and carpentry workshops, which are themselves poorly equipped. Priority, the Mbuy Audit Report said, should be given to the acquisition of tools and other equipment for training the students in motor mechanics, welding, panel beating, etc.
For the short time COIC Kumbo functioned, it graduated 94 students. Of this number, 74 were either gainfully employed or self-employed at the time the Mbuy Audit Report was issued. Not a bad record at all for such a short period of time!
What then is the way forward? I am here this evening, ladies and gentlemen, my dear brothers and sisters, to tell you that COIC Kumbo must not be allowed to die. We have thoroughly diagnosed the ills afflicting this patient. We do not have a terminal case in our hands yet. This patient is agonizing, yes! But still revivable! It’s still full of life. The school is about to re-open its doors to students next month (August 2008). COIC Kumbo must live!
So what am I asking of BFU-USA and its membership? To BFU-USA, I say, you have been sponsoring praise-worthy projects in various areas of our land; please enlist COIC Kumbo among those you intend to sponsor in this and the coming years. With the backing of a powerful force like BFU-USA, I’m sure COIC Kumbo will receive quite a new lease of life.
To individual members of the BFU-USA, I call on you to help us at this crucial moment of the life of COIC Kumbo so that those of our children, who have been selected to study in this institution, can start school this August. Your donation in cash, in kind, or in pledges will be most welcome. We are also looking forward to the day some generous sons or daughters of our people would opt to provide tools and other specialized equipment to enable COIC Kumbo to have a garage and a carpentry workshop of its own worth the name. Can we count on you to be one of them?
The students of this institution are like sheep without a shepherd. Can you be their compassionate shepherd? Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for giving me this opportunity to bring to your attention the fate of a technical school in our homeland, one of two in Cameroon, that is struggling to survive. Knowing how sensitive BFU-USA is to the fate of our children, I’m confident you will listen to this appeal and help us revive COIC Kumbo, for the sake of our children. Be their shepherd. They are the sheep of your flock. May God bless you all! Thank you for giving me a voice in this forum.
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