Fred Vubem
29 April 2008
The 11th edition of the university games in Douala witnessed several innovations both in terms of organisation and competition. For the first time, both the opening and closing ceremony was attended by a host of ministers.
The Minister of Higher Education, Jacques Fame Ndongo who presided at the closing ceremony, was accompanied by the Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Augustin Edjoa, the Minister of State Control, Etame Massoma and the Minister of Secondary Education, Louis Bapes Bapes. This demonstrates the interest the government has in university sports which elsewhere serve as a nursery for the nurturing of great sports talents. As Minister Fame Ndongo said, sports is no longer a past time in the university but an integral part in the intellectual and moral upbringing of the students as it cultivates the spirit of fairness, fraternity and conviviality.
The innovation in the sporting side was the introduction of feminine football which was given equal importance as the male event given that the finals in feminine football was reserved for the closing ceremony with the maximum number of people present. There were also exhibition matches in other sports disciplines like cricket, softball, petant and baseball which are knocking at the doors of the federation of university sports to be included as a discipline in the games. Though there was a reduction in the size of the delegations from 2739 last year to 2129 people, the number of disciplines increased this year with the introduction of feminine football.
Another innovation was the fact that henceforth fraud in the games will be assimilated to fraud in examinations and treated as such. Hence, there will be both administrative and sports sanctions for defaulters. The games also witnessed the coming of a new member, St Louis Higher Health Institute of Bamenda. Many other institutions are said to be knocking at the doors of the federation but FENASU wants these institutions fully recognised by the government before they could grant them membership.
Though the phenomenon of mercenaries did show its ugly head, there was a new monster this year. That is, fighting, insults and worst of all, the use of magic to influence victory. Ills that were severely punished by FENASU and university authorities. However, as the saying goes, all is well that ends well. The Olympic flame is out from the Ndokbong campus of the University of Douala and will resurface next year in the mother University of Yaounde I which will host the games in 2009.
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