Omer Yembe - Online Memorial Website

YEMBE THE SOBAN

 

 

            Our lives as Sobans started when we were admitted as Students into Sasse College . Unlike other ex-Students Associations, we respect the year of entry into Sasse, not so much the year we left. Omer Yembe sojourn as a Soban thus started when he entered Sasse College as Student No. 739, in 1953, contemporaneous with His Lordship Mgr. Francis Teke Lysinge, Bishop of Mamfe. The rigorous, moral and academic training offered in Sasse then, adequately fortified and prepared him to be a successful administrator throughout his life.

 

            His public life started after bagging two degrees from Ibadan University , a B.A. and Dip. Ed. He returned home in 1965 and was appointed Vice Principal of his Alma Mater, Sasse College , the first Cameroonian to hold the post. Those were the years when University Graduates were rare in Cameroon , and the few around could pick and choose lucrative posts in the Government Service. Omer's humble start as Vice Principal of Sasse College, plus his meticulous handling of the post, won the confidence of the Principal, who readily recommended him for the post of Deputy Director of Secondary Education in, 1967.
And here started his meteoric rise in the Public Service of Cameroon, as:

            
Principal of the prestigious CCAST Bambili,

Director-Delegate of ENS Annex Bambili,

Cultural Delegate for Education in West Cameroon ,

Provincial Delegate for National Education, South West Province ,

Secretary General in the National Institute of Education in Yaounde .

All these within the space of less than ten years (1967 - 1975)!After four years of studies in Columbia University , New York , USA , he returned home with an M.A., M.Ed and a Doctorate Degree in Education. These post-graduate degrees, launched him to the higher strata of the Civil Service, as:

            

• Director of Private Education in the Ministry of Higher Education,
• Cultural Counsellor in the Cameroon Embassy in London .  

Then back at home:

• Lecturer in ENS Yaounde
• Charger de Etudes in the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research,
• Sub-Director of Equivalence and Senior Lecturer at ENS, Yaounde ,
• Director-Delegate of ENS Annex Bambili.
• He finally ended up as the Registrar of the Cameroon GCE Board, a Board that was born out of the sweat, tears and blood of West Cameroon Parents.

 

            I have mentioned this long and exhaustive profile of Dr. Yembe, to illustrate the claim I made earlier, that he has been a thorough Administrator, well groomed and seasoned from the foundries of Sasse College . So organised was he, that every book, every paper, every pin, had its special place on his table, both in his Office and at home. This I know very well, from my intimate association with Dr. Yembe, first as his Tutor in Sasse College (1958), then as a close Friend, and later as a Colleague in ENS Annex Bambili. Of all the Director-Delegates I have worked with as an unappointed Assistant, Dr. Yembe was the only one who physically handed over the keys of his Office and the Administration of ENSAB, to me, in 1990, as he went on a one-month long Mission to Europe .

            
Throughout his sojourn from one post to another, from one town to another, Dr. Yembe has always been a faithful Soban, committed to the great ideals of Sobanism. It is this spirit that inspired him to donate so lavishly in support of the young Bambili Parish Projects, and to offer his Chateau in Bambili to the Marist Fathers of Our Lady of Fatima Parish Bambili, when the Presbytery was still under construction.

 

            Besides every successful man is a great lady. We call our Wives Sobanese. It was in 1965 in Sasse College that the beautiful Miss Faustina Ojongtambia, from our ‘Sister’ College at Okoyong, became Mrs. Yembe, and from that moment she became a Sobanese. It was an epic event, the first of its kind in Sasse College , and in fulfillment of the slogan SMOG, which the Nigerian motor-owners painted on their Mami-wagons, meaning Save Me O God, but which was reshaped by Sobans to mean Sasse Marry Okoyong Girl! Since then Mrs. Yembe has been fully supportive of her husband, in fair weather and in foul, and a Mother to all his students as well as hers. She has been very active in Soban affairs, always ensuring that her husband is up-to-date in all Soban commitments.

 

            The most trying moments came when Dr. Yembe fell ill in Buea. She nurtured him until their return to Bambili, to finally settle down in retirement. It was a red-carpet welcome we gave the Yembe's when a THANK YOU Mass was offered on their honour, by the entire Parish, on Sunday 3^rd September 2006. Since then he has been on and off, for medical reasons, but up to his last moments, he has fulfilled all his engagements as a Soban in our Chapter.

 

            Om, as I always called him, you are going to join the slowly increasing band of the Departed Sobans of my Chapter: Bernard Tangang, Christopher Tankwa, John Awemo, and the much larger band of Departed Sobans Nationally.

            
We pray that the Almighty God whom you so faithfully served, will forgive your earthly transgressions, and receive you in His Heavenly Kingdom. We pray that St. Joseph , Patron of Sasse College and Foster Father of Jesus, will lead you, In The Hollow Of His Hands, to his Foster Son.

 

One verse of: With St. Joseph ever near to guide us.

 

Eternal rest grant onto him O Lord,

And let perpetual light shine upon him!May his soul and the souls of all the Sobans departed

Through the mercy of God, rest in peace! Amen


Peter NSANDA EBA
SOBA President ,Bambili Chapter