The Post´s Assistant Desk Editor Defends Master‘s In Int’l Relations

The Post’s Njodzeka Danhatu takes congratulations from Co-Supervisor as defence jury look on

By Sendy Forlemu

The Post Newspaper’s Assistant Desk Editor, Njodzeka Danhatu, on Tuesday, May 16, defended a Master’s in International Relations at the Department of International Relations and Conflict Resolution, University of Buea.

The thesis was entitled: “The impact of human rights reports on public action in perpetrating and escalating conflict in Africa. Case study: The Cameroon Anglophone Conflict.”

During his 20-minute presentation of the research, Njodzeka told the three-member jury that the study was anchored on the persisting perpetration of human rights abuses during the Anglophone Crisis and the lack of action against perpetrators.

His main recommendation was, therefore, that human rights organisations, who have been at the fore of exposing rights abuses, should go an extra mile towards holding perpetrators accountable.

He arrived at this recommendation after sampling the views of 100 people who have lived through the armed conflict in Buea Subdivision, to get their appraisal of human rights reports published on the crisis.

The respondents affirmed the usefulness of such reports in exposing abuses which could have gone unreported, but also said they were fed up with just publications and no concrete action being taken to stop them.

“From the findings that we received, we noticed that those human rights reports still actually have impact on them. There are some things that they raised – even though the impact is there, but they believe that these people should do a lot than just reporting, than just investigating, than just documenting human rights atrocities that have been committed in the two Anglophone Regions,” Njodzeka said.

He also recommended that soldiers and separatist fighters have to be sensitised about human rights so that they may be more conscious when they are about to commit an abuse.

“In one of the recommendations, we insisted that there should be enough education for people to understand, be it for the separatist fighters and the government, to know that these things that you are doing, they are actually committing human rights atrocities. And if they are actually aware of those things, I believe that in one way or the other, there is some sort of calm that will return to these two Regions,” Njodzeka recommended.

The study was supervised by the late Professor Paul Ndue, and Co-Supervised by Prof Ta-Mbi Nkongho. In his remarks as one of the defence jury, Prof Nkongho viewed the study as relevant in quickening the path to peace in the Anglophone Regions.

His Co-Jurists – Dr Arrey Sylvester (Member); and Prof Irene Sama-Lang (Chairperson) –took turns to drill the candidate, before recommending him for a Master’s of Science Degree in International Relations.

Njodzeka Danhatu is now the second working staff of The Post to have defended a Master’s degree, after the Desk Editor, Andrew Nsoseka, in 2022.

The Post’s staff members, including the Editor-In-Chief, Bouddih Adams, congratulate him for the feat. Before pursuing a Master’s in International Relations, Njodzeka had earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Buea in 2019.