CHAD: Students boycott, demand leader's removal

The University of N'Djamena has reopened and students are back in class after intervention by the country's president to end weeks of class boycotts over poor learning conditions and tardiness in disbursing student funding payouts. The campus was closed when conflict came to a head over unsympathetic remarks from the vice-chancellor, whom students said should be removed. A top journalist was arrested for supporting the students in an open letter.

The national university in the country's capital, N'Djamena, has about 10,000 students, most of them children of poor peasants and nomadic herdsmen. Every student is entitled by law to a monthly bursary allowance of about US$50 in local currency. But this amount is insufficient to cater for the needs of the students, especially those from very distant small towns and villages.

Students clashed with the university authorities over poor learning conditions coupled with student grants being three months in arrears.

Said Mamoud Isah, a law student: "Our landlords harass us when we don't pay our monthly rent. Some of the restaurants have stopped providing credit facilities to students. They are no longer sure we will pay our debts."

But Vice-chancellor Professor Malloum Sultan was unsympathetic. He called a press conference where he complained that "rather than accord priority to their studies, the students are more interested [in] fighting for their bursary awards."

"They prefer spending six years on the campus to obtain their bachelor of arts," he said. "Their major concern is not to finish their studies on time and leave the university."

The vice-chancellor's outburst proved to be the last straw for students.

Musa Ibrahim, spokesperson for the UNDT (l'Union Nationale des Étudiants Tchadiens), described Sultan's statement as toxic and unacceptable. The union leadership then called for his removal as vice-chancellor.

To prevent a breakdown of law and order, the university authorities closed the campus.

Law student Isah also claimed that generals in the Chadian military establishment, top civil servants and rich businessmen send their children to universities in France, Canada and West African Francophone countries. "Their children abroad do not feel the same hardship the students of the poor experience here in N'Djamena," he said.

The vice-chancellor's public statement was an opportunity for students to explain the difficulties they routinely encounter in collecting their monthly bursary awards. They said they are subjected to insults and humiliation whenever they collect their dues despite the fact that the funding is integrated into the university's annual budget.

Students also wondered at the lack of transparency in the disbursement of the monthly stipend in a country that for the past three year has depended for revenue on the sale of Chadian crude oil on the international market.

Student calls for the removal of the university leader were boosted by an open letter to the vice-chancellor written by well-known international journalist, Iyakba Serge Ouambi, who is also a former-secretary general of UNDT and the deputy editor-in-chief of an influential daily tabloid, La Voix.

Ouambi reminded the vice-chancellor that in the past, as president of the university's teachers' union, he had convinced his colleagues to go on indefinite strike with a view to forcing the university authorities to improve the working and living conditions of lecturers. Ouambi urged the vice-chancellor to tread a path of honour by acceding to the legitimate demands of the students.

The state intelligence agency intervened in the conflict and subjected Ouambi to interrogation. Denying any plan to destabilise the position of the vice-chancellor, he was eventually released on condition of good behaviour.

The country's president General Idris Déby then summoned the leaders of the students' union for dialogue on the challenges confronting the university. He promised to provide more funds, and to improve the institution's infrastructure.

Déby also reminded students that an ultra-modern campus under construction would soon alleviate their suffering. The new campus, being built by a Chinese company, will have a carrying capacity of 50,000 students.

According to diplomatic sources, the president's decision to intervene was influenced by two considerations.

First, he was wary of the possible 'contagious' effect, among Chadian students, of student participation in the current pro-democracy revolts in the Middle East. He is ready to spend part of the country's oil revenue to resolve students' grievances.

Second, he wanted to prevent the strike from spreading to the country's other two universities, Adam Barka Abéché and Moudou, 450 kilometres and 300 kilometres respectively from the capital.

The students have heeded the president's plea and resumed their studies.

And the vice-chancellor has complied with orders to settle the three months' arrears payments owed to the students without delay.