Prof P.K. Titanji should not have been Vice Chancellor

May 2 to 3, 2013, served as the days for the scientific laudation of Prof Vincent P.K. TItanji, holder of a M.Sc. in Animal Biochemistry (1973), PhD in Physiological Chemistry (1978), made Research Associate Professor  in Physiological Chemistry in 1988,chartered biologist since 1990, Fellow at the Institute of Biology London since 1977, fellow of the institute of the academy of sciences  for developing Countries since 2004, African academy of sciences and fellow of the Cameroonian Academy of sciences. This is just an ounce of the accolades the distinguished Cameroonian professor has garnered over the years.  The scientific papers he has authored as well as his current and past research interests have been sidelined because of the space there would occupy. 

 In light of the above and role scientists and high – profile intellectual intellectuals like Prof Titanji under foreign skies play in activating the developmental process through research and innovation, one can ask a few questions. Should scientists be appointed to administrative posts? Should the reward for their academic brilliance be elevation to air-conditioned offices, away from their labs? Aren’t big and bigger research grants better recognition for a scientist than insertion into the quagmire of our universities’ administrative landscape? All these questions are all the more pertinent given the current national and international as well as potential social and economic importance of the research focus of these scientists. Sure, the argument can be made that these scientists could have declined these appointments but this is another issue. The core issue here is the political mindset that perceives appointments, and not research grants, as the only grease that can be put on the scientific elbow. This needs changing because appointing scientists will obviously culminate in lower output from them since there’ll have to sideline their research and run the school. This far appointing scientists to administrative posts in Cameroon has led to the scarring of their hard-earned reputations in varsity upheavals, Prof Chumbow , Dr Mrs Dorothy Njuema and even Prof P.K. Titanji as well as recently Dr Mrs ..................

This is not necessarily an impeachment of the managerial skills of scientists. It is simply a call for a revolution in the ends to which we put our beloved scientists and intellectuals. Leave administration to the ENAMists and leave research and innovation to scientists, not forgetting the concurrent enabling environment.

So Prof P.K. Titanji should not have been Vice Chancellor. He should have been comfortably tucked in a laboratory with the tasks of coming up with a new drug for malaria or some other ailment resting firmly on his able shoulders.