By Eric Tataw – Washington DC, USA, Monday, September 7, 2020.
A controversial Cameroonian lecturer is facing backlash from several of his ex-students and colleagues following comments against a popular German-based Journalist.
Dr. Kingsley Ngange of the department of Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC) in the University of Buea, one of Cameroon’s Anglo-Saxon universities made derogatory comments against one of the department’s former students, Mimi Mefo.
Mefo is a JMC alumna of the 2008-2011 class and now works with Deutsche Welle (DW) a 30-langauge German public international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget.
Dr. Ngange suggested in several WhatsApp groups that Mefo’s Journalism degree should be withdrawn, citing Journalism deontology, according to several persons familiar with the matter.
The preceptor also listed in his statements shared by members of same WhatsApp groups who preferred not to be named that he was Mimi Mefo’s supervisor during the now international journalist’s days in JMC.
Several ex-students and colleagues have now said Ngange lied, adding he was never Mefo’s supervisor. National Telegraph has also confirmed that the lecturer lied. Mefo was steered by Prof Enow Tanjong, a National Telegraph finding shows.
Ngange who is among the most hated lecturers in the department didn’t specifically state the exact article for his reprimand on Mefo who is considered as one of the finest the country now prides in.
Many who are palsy-walsy with JMC have described the move as political and have shamed the egghead for unfurling conspiracy theories against the Journalist who also runs a near one quarter of a million-follower Facebook page – Mimi Mefo Info (MMI).
JMC has over the years steered and tailored one of the country’s best journalists and was most admired for its “comrades-in-pen-and-paper” solidarity until the making of Ngange head of the department.
Dr. Ngange has been accused by many of sowing seeds of discord in the department and has increasingly encouraged bigotry so much so that some of his students now secretly refer to him as HSD – Higher Sower of Discord.
“It’s a shame that Dr. Nagnge who was supposed to be happy that Mimi who is one of the best Journalists in Africa, recognised in almost every corner of the world is our own from JMC, is instead spreading lies against her, an ex-student of the 2005-2008 class said.
The lecturer’s move didn’t come as a surprise to many who describe him as a groupie to the Paul Biya regime that once arrested and jailed Mefo at the time she worked with Equinox Television, a private television network headquartered in Douala, capital of Cameroon’s Littoral region, before international pressure forced her release.
