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Cameroun petitions UN over Bakassi
By Dan Alo
Correspondent, Lagos
Cameroun has
petitioned the United Nations on Abuja’s non-compliance with the
September 15 deadline for the handover of the oil rich Bakassi Peninsula.
Obviously not
satisfied with President Olusegun Obasanjo’s claims in his speech at the
just concluded General Assembly session of the UN that the handover would only
be a gradual process, Cameroun registered its displeasure in a letter dated
October 14.
Ahmadou Saidou, a
member of the Nigeria/Cameroun Boundaries Commission, who was in Lagos at the
weekend, disclosed that Cameroun is not comfortable with the levity with which
Abuja is treating the issue, as it has only been paying lip service to the hand
over, shifting dates.
He explained that
the petition showed that Nigeria reneged on its earlier agreement when
President Paul Biya and President Olusegun Obasanjo met in the presence of UN
Secretary General Kofi Anan in Geneva on November 15, 2002.
Although Saidou
accepted the implementation of parts of the communiqué adopted at the
first meeting of the commission, such as the withdrawal of troops from the
disputed region, there was a joint assessment of the area - with the
two governments basing their understanding on the International Court of
Justice judgment of October 10, 2002 - he insisted that Nigeria has not
shown enough evidence to indicate handing over to Cameroon.
However, former
Director General of Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Gabriel
Olusanya, has defended Nigeria’s attitude, saying it has no
“sinister motive” by delaying the handover.
He said in an
interview in Lagos on Tuesday that Abuja’s inability to honour the
handover date “does not portend anything sinister”.
He added:
``Nigeria is not disputing the judgment nor is it saying that it is not going
to move but there are practical difficulties in trying to move the people out.
First of all, the people who live there, the Nigerians, do not want to move
out because they, unfortunately, did not prepare for the movement since Nigeria
did not know that it would lose the case”.
Olusanya argued
that evacuating the residents would be difficult “because mass movement
of people is not easy. The residents are not inanimate objects, they have
feelings, values and traditions that must be respected”.
The residents are
calling on the UN to conduct a plebiscite to enable them decide whether to be
with Nigeria or Cameroun.
But asked if the
UN would need to intervene again to sort out the issue, Olusanya said such
intervention is no longer necessary under the present circumstance.
Nigeria is
apparently in a dilemma over the handover of the island, described by security
experts as its sea corridor on the Eastern flank.
Analysts believe
that the Bakassi issue would return to the front burner as soon as Cameroun
concludes its on-going Presidential elections, which incumbent Biya is expected
to sweep.
He and Obasanjo
have displayed a rare statesmanship on the dispute, adopting dialogue rather
than confrontation.
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