By Christopher Ambe Shu
Top picture-President Paul Biya of Cameroon
Middle picture -Bakassi map(courtesy:Sun News Publishing)
Bottom picture-President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua of Nigeria
Bakassi peninsula, which projects in to the Gulf of Guinea and is believed to contain up to 10% of the world’s oil and gas reserves, is now under the full control of Cameroon, with effect from August 14, 2008- the day Nigeria finally ceded the disputed Peninsula to this Central African country.
Up to 300,000 people reside in the Bakassi area, out of which over 85% of the total population are Nigerian fishermen.
Cameroon and Nigeria disputed over the legal ownership of the peninsula for years.
But conscious that Bakassi belongs to Cameroon, President Paul Biya (of Cameroon) finally brought the matter before the International Court of Justice, ICJ, which is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.
In October 2002, the ICJ, drawing wisdom and strength from a March 11, 1913 colonial agreement between Britain and Germany, ruled in favor of Cameroon. The Court ruled that the sovereignty over the Bakassi Peninsula lies with Cameroon
The Court judgment
was final, without appeal, and binding for both parties-Cameroon and NigeriaSurprisingly, a defeated Nigeria, raising various concerns, challenged the ICJ verdict.
But it took high-level diplomacy and peace negotiation for Nigeria to eventually come to reason; thus the signing on June 12, 2006 of the UN-brokered Green Tree Accord by Cameroon and Nigeria on the implementation procedures and schedules of the ICJ ruling on the Bakassi peninsula.
And so, on August 14, 2008, Nigeria handed over the Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon to end a 15-year dispute over the oil- and gas- rich territory .The handing over ceremony, which was initially to take place in the Bakassi area, was moved to Calabar in Nigeria over security concerns.
Bloody clashes in the Bakassi area, in past several months, between Cameroon Army and alleged Nigerian Rebels/Pirates (Niger Delta Defense and Security Council, NDDSC) left about 50 people dead, the majority being Cameroonians
The handing over document, in line with the ruling of ICJ, was signed by Nigeria's Justice Minister Michael Aondoakaa and by his Cameroonian counterpart Minister-Delegate in the Ministry of Justice Professor Maurice Kanto, in the presence of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and representatives of Britain, France, Germany and the US, among others.
"(Cameroonian) President Paul Biya ... looks forward to new, reliable and mutually beneficial relationship between Cameroon and Nigeria," Kanto said just before the handover, according to AFP.
"It is a day of triumph for the rule of law, which lies at the very core of the values of the UN," said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, in a message read out at the ceremony
For his part, Said Djinnit, UN Secretary General's Special Representative for West Africa, wished that the handover “should serve as a model in the many places in Africa where borders are under dispute".
"As painful as it is, we have a responsibility to keep our commitment to the international community to advance international peace and cooperation ... and advance the cause of African brotherhood and good neighborliness’," AFP quoted Nigeria’s Aondoakaa, as saying.
Although, Nigeria has officially ceded Bakassi to Cameroon, there are still fears that Nigerians including armed groups, lawyers, politicians and senators-who oppose the handover may try to give hard times to Cameroon authorities who have taken over the administration of the region.
Just weeks before the August 14 handover, a little –known armed Nigerian group called Niger Delta Defense and Security Council, NDDSC, bitterly opposed to the handover arrangement ,attacked Cameroonian soldiers, but was unfortunate that 10 of its gunmen were killed and its speedboat seized by the latter. It was not the first time the NDDSC attacked Cameroonians. The armed group is responsible for previous attacks on Cameroon army and administration in the Bakassi area, as it claimed.
"The (Nigerian) government has abandoned its duties," said Kayode Fasitere, the lawyer acting for some displaced from Bakassi who sought to have the handover delayed, according to BBC news
According to Nigerian newspaper, the Daily Sun, in a letter dated August 1, to Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua titled, Bakassi: Before You Handover, Senator Bassey Ewa-Henshaw, representing Cross River South Senatorial District, to which the people of Bakassi belong, stated that the entire issue surrounding Bakassi have turned out to be an intense struggle between truth and falsehood.
“In the letter, Senator Ewa-Henshaw, stated that the fact remains that Nigeria has a responsibility to comply with the provisions of Section 12(1) of the 1999 Constitution by not rubber stamping the Green Tree Agreement as an independent sovereign state.
He writes: “Mr. President, our Constitution is our internal law of fundamental importance and was not complied with at the time the Green Tree Agreement was signed. The signing of that agreement violated several sections of the constitution, principally sections 12 and 14. These violations can and should be remedied without interfering with our compliance with the judgment of the ICJ… ”
However, Cameroonians are very happy to have recovered the Bakassi peninsula from the grip of Nigeria. The Cameroon Government has been in the past several years been allocating huge sums of money to improve infrastructure and social facilities in the area to fascinate its administration.
President Paul Biya too has just created ten police posts in the area to help address security concerns.
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