As Rector of the University of Buea (2012–2017), Lyonga oversaw an institution that became the spark of the modern Ambazonian revolution. When students peacefully protested against : illegal university charges, rights violations, and opaque financial management, security forces were unleashed.
By The Independentist Editorial Desk
Professor Pauline Nalova Lyonga is celebrated in Yaoundé’s official press as a devoted academic, a champion of education, and a symbol of female achievement. But beyond the carefully polished portrait lies a deeper and darker record — one that intersects directly with the violence and dismantling of Ambazonian society.
A daughter of Fako with prestigious credentials — University of Sheffield, University of Michigan — she should have been an advocate for her people. Instead, history shows a disturbing pattern of career loyalty to a regime executing cultural erasure, political domination, and an internationally recognized genocide.
The Rector Who Oversaw Repression
As Rector of the University of Buea (2012–2017), Lyonga oversaw an institution that became the spark of the modern Ambazonian revolution. When students peacefully protested against : illegal university charges, rights violations, and opaque financial management, security forces were unleashed. Students were beaten, raped, shot, and dragged through the streets of a university that should have been a sanctuary of thought and liberty. Vice-Chancellors are not powerless administrators. Their silence — and their decisions — matter. On her watch, the future of Ambazonia was punished for insisting they had one.
Rewarded for Silence and Compliance
Instead of accountability, she received reward.
In 2018 — after the killings she never condemned — Biya appointed her Minister of Secondary Education. That is how the regime operates: loyalty is prized over integrity, silence over courage, ambition over justice.
Education as a Tool of Colonization
Once installed in Yaoundé, Lyonga became a key player in the regime’s most dangerous weapon against Ambazonia: Curriculum Harmonization. Not genuine reform. Not bilingual advancement. But a calculated program to: drown the Anglo-Saxon system, strip away local pedagogy, and ultimately erase identity through classrooms instead of bullets.
Her policies expanded the Francophone curriculum into Ambazonian schools under the banner of “national unity” — a term that has strangled our freedoms for decades. A genocide is not only in the bush. It is also in the schoolbook.
Prestige Without Principle A career full of titles: Vice-Rector, Rector, Minister But where are the statements against mass school burnings. Against students kidnapped and executed by state forces Against torture of teachers. Against internationally documented war crimes. Silence again. Silence as policy. Silence as loyalty. Silence as survival.
The Legacy She Chose
When the history of this conflict is written — truthfully — Pauline Nalova Lyonga will not be remembered for her degrees or decrees. She will be remembered as: The academic who stood with the oppressor against her own children. The minister who allowed education to become a battleground. The daughter of Fako who defended the throat that strangled Fako’s future.
Ambazonia’s Message
To the world: We honor our scholars. We honor our women leaders. We honor excellence. But we do not honor those who side with oppressors, who bless injustice with silence, and use education to dismantle a people’s soul. Ambazonia will rise.
Ambazonia will educate its children freely. Ambazonia will restore the dignity she helped others destroy.
The Independentist Editorial Desk
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