I Have Not Been Bribed To Pipe Down - Afu Stephens, PEATTU President

After Appointment As Manager of Schools: AFU STEPHEN SPEAKS OUT

For those who thought that Afu Stephens, President of the Presbyterian Education Authority Teachers Trade Union, PEATTU could have turned down a recent appointment could be sadists. Appointed as the Manager of Schools within parts of Mezam division a few days ago, Afu Stephen has accepted to face the challenges. Skeptics thought that like Simon Nkwenti, the Executive Secretary General of the Cameroon Teachers Trade Union, CATTU, Afu would turn down the position.

Chronicle caught-up with Afu last Friday, in Bamenda while he was engaged in the marking of the GCE examinations at Lourdes, for his reaction to his appointment and his views about other quizzical worries within the Presbyterian Educational System.

Excerpts:

The PEA just ended with its meetings that culminated with appointments, postings and transfers. From the outcome, what assessment can you make of the Education Secretary, the ESR and the overall picture surrounding the changes?

Yes, the meetings that started on the 18^th of June with staffing for basic education ended on the 21^st with that for secondary education. The meetings were those of a transitional period – from the former ES to the present. You know, transitional periods always have a lot of challenges, and when you have a new office, you must be very careful not to effect changes that can rather destroy. The changes must be well studied and not effected for the purpose of change. Change comes with the unknown – to the person effecting it and to those affected by the change. But the underlying motive is that such changes should be positive.

The appointments, transfers and postings have been done. We have not yet analysed them, but by your question for me to assess the Education Secretary of this aspect – this is the assessment I have about him - assisted by the ESR.

Within the very short period he has occupied that office, he already has a lot of information about issues surrounding the office. His tours opened him up to the realities on the field which together with our reports - helped him/them to get verifiable information. He has combined truth, honesty, hard work, availability, openness and above all humility to approach issues surrounding that office. These same characteristics also surround the ESR together with whom he works.

As I indicated in my last interview, before the period of such meetings, they were characterized by speculations, lobbying, expectations and dreams. This period had but frightened expectations, void of slander, blackmail and lobbying. The outcome this time took all by surprise. The E/S maintained a level head, after due consultations with his hierarchy and representative to come out with the final document. As a  human society, this cannot please everybody. Comments I get on the majority indicate that on the most part they were done in fairness.

Press reports opine that as President of PEATTU you have been bribed with the office of manager to tore down your union activitism. Your friends and colleagues expected you to have turned down the appointment as Simon Nkwenti of CATTU did sometime when he was appointed Principal. What is your position?

Thank you for this very important and pertinent question which gives me this opportunity to state my position. Egoistic minds always tend to think that when one is in a position to fight for the welfare of others and when his services are needed more somewhere, it is a bribe. Far from it. To bribe someone is trying to make someone to do something for you by giving either money, presents or something else that they want. What is the something else that those hierarchy that appointed me want me to do for them? Rather, I think that being appointed into this office is a big victory for the union that hitherto was looked upon as a terrorist group. Because they have read good meaning in the union, I think the Moderator and the Education Secretary together with the others considered many things before taking that decision.

The policy of inclusion belies this decision. I am convinced and to the best of my judgment. The Moderator and Education Secretary plus Education Secretary’s representative saw us as belonging to one house. As a father, the Moderator accepted us as his children belonging to the same house.

To be very precise and concrete - Afu Stephens Kwah is an employee of the PCC and not of the union. The union is an offshoot of the school system of the church under which the union is operating. By this mere fact, and logically looking at things other considerations put aside, I am bound to accept the office.

The office again gives the union many advantages and a challenge to work and set the examples of what the union stands for.

Those who are requesting that as President I should refuse the office, should I also order the other union members appointed to refuse these offices? What about some principals who before these appointments are union members? You see, the pressure on me to refuse the office from some members is coming purely from malicious and egoistic angles.

Let me seize this opportunity to congratulate all union members who were upgraded, while urging them to keep the flame burning. Their output caught the attention of the authorities to appoint them to where they have been sent. They should work and define more union ideals.

The comparison with Mr. Nkwenti Simon’s case is different. The systems, timing and dispensations are different. We just need to be realistic. Let me conclude this answer by assuring members of the union that, the union will continue to pursue the objectives it was created for with Afu Stephen Kwah as President or not, appointed to a higher office or not. For your information, PEATTU Presidency has a position in the PEA now as Observer. This gives the union many openings and the President privy.

Again, the union is not a political party. You know what happens with political parties when their leaders are bribed. We hope as a union operating under a school system in the church to act as the moral conscience of the nation and set the right examples.

Many obscure things surround the primary school sector that we need to uncover and help seek lasting solutions. My prayer is that being a very challenging domain, God first would give me the strength and courage to face the challenge with the others supporting as you Mr. Journalist has always done and will continue to do. I have taken so much time and space to answer two questions because of the intricacies it involved. I hope the answer clarifies their misconceptions.

As an observer in the meeting, that come out with appointments/postings, how did you observe the conduct of it?

Candidly speaking, this time the deliberations were intense, far-reaching and for once I could see total commitment, attention, participation at the level of discussions. When it was time for decisions to be taken, they were unanimously done with little or no dissenting voices. I had the chance to observe that I was leaving the meeting with satisfaction and to report to union members and others that there was some serious work done and that PEA was moving forward. The details will be theirs on the 27^th July, when we will be staging our 2^nd ordinary general assembly in PSS Mankon.

Let me seize this God given opportunity again to invite all the teachers from basic to secondary- union members or not to attend this meeting and get the real situations from the mouths of the horses themselves.

Together, we can move ahead; which we should. It will be necessary that those who still are not yet union members should enroll and belong- contribute their ideas within the union for progress and not without. Our doors are still open even to those who at one time swore that they would never pronounce that name PEATTU. However, they still have the right not to belong. It is their religious and democratic right.

What will be the highpoints of the upcoming PEATTU AGM?

I won’t want to let the cat out of the bag, but the AGM has been placed under the theme: The Agenda of Change- Measurement of Performance and Reward; modernizing the school milieu. The AGM will be quite revealing.

Any last words?

Thank you for the challenges. I hope your readership will have convincing points to allow me accept the office for which they already had ruled that I had been ‘bribed’. All of us should work together to keep the system transparent, accountable and in unity, being each others keeper, while recognizing that just as you need something, know that some other person too needs it. We should shun selfish interests, malice and slander and rather embrace the qualities of sharing, love and humility towards one another.

I am deeply and religiously inspired by the likes of Ntumfor Nico Halle, Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Kofi Annan from the secular world and from the clergy; I have the Rt. Rev Moderator Asana, Rev Bame Samuel, Rev Fomuso BF Henri, Retired Cardinal Tumi amongst others I cannot name here for want of time and space. To them I doff my hat. Mr. Journalist, thank you immensely. We are always available to clarify issues that surround the union. God bless you for your daring job.