TAC TRIBUTE TO BOBE FRANCIS YONG, CAMEROON’S ARCHETYPAL EDUCATIONIST, INCOMPARABLE DEVELOPER AND INIMITABLE NATION BUILDER, WHO PASSED INTO GLORY ON 30/12/2013
On Monday, 30/12/2013, news of Pa Francis Yong’s transition reverberated across the world like a bomb blast, leaving countless folk shocked beyond words – literally completely shattered and devastated... Many found it hard to believe and thought they were in the grips of a broad daylight nightmare; for some time they hoped against hope, that reality would soon give the lie to that not-so-funny April Fool’s joke. Unfortunately, it was December, and soon no one doubted that fate’s knell had inevitably tolled home the incomparable Bobe Francis Yong, Anglophone Cameroon’s foremost education guru and nation builder par excellence.
Reactions could only have been of stunned disbelief, of devastation, given Bobe Yong’s proven mettle in virtually everything he set out to do. They could only have been of shock given the magic touch and aura that he exuded with this uncanny redolence of resounding, unparalleled success that invariably informed the outcome of his every endeavour. “The voice of the people is the voice of God” – Vox populi, vox Dei – so there is no doubt that earth and heaven are today in one accord that here indeed was a rare sojourner who took an unassailable lead in serving mankind in varied dimensions, thus co-creating in grand style, as his creator commanded him to. The indicators are legion for all to see – the labyrinthine legacy Bobe Yong leaves behind, vast as the heavenly kingdom into which he was red-carpeted the day he passed on – does Holy Writ not teach us that the man who transforms his one, two or five talents into many will receive reward untold?
Those who watched Bobe Yong experimentally build up a veritably vast kingdom from apparent initial nothingness, in the style of the laborious ant, cannot today refute the veracity of the “hard work pays” maxim. Thus the titles, encomiums and superlatives lavished on him are but fitting tribute to a nation builder worth his weight in gold and diamond, whose bustling life and activity, whose essence, verve, vitality and drive inexorably transformed him into one of Cameroon’s unmatched developers and work’s most fervent disciple. The symbolism of YOSA’s victory in the Cameroon Cup Finals on the eve of Bobe’s transition – the one victory Bamenda had longed in vain to relish with the countless Division One teams it spawned over the years – is one other sign of this heaven-earth accord. Can anyone doubt that the angels and saints fêted that victory when they received Bobe, like we all did?
Why does fate always choose to untimely “snip” the best of men, if the biblical three score and ten plus is anything to go by? Why should the Almighty always take away only those men of mettle who are of sterling help to mankind, when the bible says that more years than three score and ten are given to those who are strong? Evidence is there for all to see that Bobe Yong was of the very strong breed; that he was an accomplished go-getter, always indefatigably sourcing out new ways of bringing light, comfort and security into the dark recesses of the heart and the earth. There is no gainsaying the fact that many children from Anyajua through Bambui, Njinikom through Bamenda, from the North West and South West Regions and from Cameroon at large, saw this cherished light and gained this much elusive comfort and security thanks to the visionary drudgery of this departed educational colossus.
Did we say educational? Yes and no. Bobe Yong incarnated education but had plans that were too prodigious to fit only into that microcosmic framework. Yes, vintage Bobe Yong nursed his dream stenographic, commercial and secondary general institutions from scratch into sprawling, booming academic complexes but eventually transcended secondary education, with the creation of the National Polytechnic Bambui. Thus Bobe, who ironically was no an academic egghead, stands tall among those stakeholders who have etched North West education in gold on the Cameroonian educational landscape with his secondary and higher educational institutions of practical, productive bent.
Yes, vintage Bobe was a professional educationist but he also showed much interest in sports and in the promotion of local sporting endeavours. Thus despite his enviable position as President and member of the North West Olympic Committee, he still went strides ahead to create football teams the pride of the Bamenda metropolis – YOSA and the budding Polytechnic FC. That was not all. He was one of the pioneer moguls who privatised and vulgarised radio and teevee in the Region, thus bringing its services very close to the people. His romance with the film industry, as the first sponsor of a local film of world renown that pooled together famous actors from Cameroon and Nigeria was another red feather to the countless laurels that he deserved/got. Thus Bobe Yong stood tall as a pace-setter, a veritable pace-setter – in education at high and higher levels, in sports, the media and communication and in culture – and how he had this legendary magical Midas touch! Today, in death, he stands tall as one who pursuit of excellence distinguished him in the corridors of at least five Ministries, where posturing and mediocrity seem to be hallmarks and meretricious gains the happy take-home.
Yet despite Bobe’s grand stature, he remained down-to-earth and approachable – a real epitome of humility. This writer recalls with heart-warming nostalgia how Bobe graciously and instantly recruited him at first sight when bleak unemployment and broken promises threatened to turn him into a bitter young man. Great was equally my surprise and heartfelt appreciation when I realised at the end of the first month that my benevolent boss had gone out of the terms of our contract to give me a salary raise of 10,000 FRS, in appreciation for what he described as my “dedicated service”. I recall that after I left in 1990 because of the call to serve elsewhere, he at different moments employed at least three other jobseekers just because I recommended them. This anecdote simply seeks to amplify Bobe’s empathy – thanks to which he godfathered many hapless youths and set them on their different professional paths. Why then does God not realize that Bobe’s likes should live long, to continue to bring physical, material and psychological healing to the millions of wretched children in this world?
Our whys and wherefores must necessarily be voiced, since death continues to confound the living. Nevertheless the realisation that we are chickens in God’s coop ultimately forces us to rationalize Bobe’s exit in our Christian conviction that our Father of inscrutable ways saw Bobe’s accomplishments as worthy and so called him while he was at the apex of his earthly glory to become the next meritorious newcomer into His celestial realms, where we are told, only the good and the free frolic. So despite abundant flow of tears because we mortals can but see Bobe’s demise only as untimely exit, we try to be comforted that in the end, it is Lord’s opinion that counts. Despite the fact that our hearts are smitten sore and we droop and pine, no longer able to benefit from Bobe’s superlative pace-setting, mentoring and companionship, nevertheless we submit ourselves, in Christian stoicism, to the irreversible verdict of Divine Providence. For it is in this manner that the glory of the world fades away - sic transit Gloria mundi – the Latin sage says!
Ma Roseline Yong, the Yong children and family, you probably think that your legs are going down and shall no longer carry you along; just let them pull you down and the Lord will raise you from that recumbent posture. Experience shows us that no one ever carries the burden that is more than the Almighty God can help carry. You just have to stay steady, focused, purposeful and prayerful, and especially the future of the herculean legacy will be guaranteed. In grief-stricken tones, we assure you that we miss our leader, our Pa, our Bobe, our proprietor and employer, our champion and pace-setter, our companion as much or even more than you miss your husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle and all. Yet with all acquiescence to the will of the Almighty, we leave you with these consoling words of Angelo Patri: In one sense there is no death. The life of a soul on earth lasts beyond his departure. You will always feel that life touching yours, that voice speaking to you, that spirit looking out of other eyes, talking to you in the familiar things he touched, worked with, loved as familiar [husband and father]. He lives on in your lives and in the lives of others that knew him.
Through me, the Teachers Association of Cameroon (TAC) expresses sincere, heart-felt condolences to you, the children and the large family of relatives, friends and admirers that Pa has left behind. And may Bobe’s soul rest in the Lord’s indescribable peace, till we meet to part no more.
Tameh Valentine Nfon,
National Secretary, The Teachers Association of Cameroon (TAC)
