A communiqué signed by the Minister of Higher Education, Prof. Jacques Fame Ndongo, has stipulated that university lecturers' salaries could be improved. According to the Buea Branch President of the National Syndicate of Teachers of Higher education, SYNES, Dr. Mike Yanou, the duration of the strike which they called off recently was predetermined.

He said the strike was intended to be a warning, after which they would have to wait for the government's reaction.On whether they were satisfied with the Minister's communiqué, he said, "our problems have not been solved. Lectures will continue normally, the Minister indicated in his communiqué that there will be some improvement in lecturer's salaries so we intend to wait and see whether the improvements will be reflected in the current budgets," said Yanou.

He was, however, optimistic that the situation will change; "it is really unfair for the Cameroonian lecturers to be receiving less than 20 percent of a Senegalese lecturer's salary whereas Senegal has but a groundnut economy compared to that of Cameroon," Yanou stated.

On why they had to resort to striking when there are other civil servants who are also complaining of poor wages, Yanou said, "in SYNES we look at ourselves as a call. We do a comparative analysis of ourselves with lecturers in other economies which are within similar brackets with Cameroon and we noticed that the pay package of the Cameroonian lecturer is rather very poor.

We must also point out that we provide very vital critical services for Cameroon. We train the personnel in almost all other domains. In fact we are the engine that runs the development of this country. It will only be fair for us to be fully rewarded for the very strategic services we offer to this country."

Meanwhile, the Secretary General of SYNES, Dr. Innocent Futcha, signed a press release, dated November 15, in which, he condemned some lecturers in administrative positions who during the strike, resorted to intimidating other lecturers especially the younger ones into submission.

The release reads in part: "Considering that the consensual proposals concerning phases II and III of the triennial (2001-2004) programme have finally been submitted to the appreciation of the Head of State following the SYNES strike."

The release further states, "the strike is suspended until further notice in order to give the Head of State enough time to carefully consider the proposals that have been finally submitted to him..."