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Receiving Bakassi on a platter of gold
"No matter what the statistics (or facts) say, there is always a way". " Bernard Siegel.
TODAY, September 15, according to the ICJ judgement, Nigeria is supposed to handover Bakassi to Cameroon, but what if the reverse happens? What if the "joke" is on them? What if we turn the tables? What if Cameroon hands over Bakassi to us instead?
You may say all these "What ifs" are a bunch of crazy ideas, may be! But I believe a lot of "What ifs" makes you think in alternatives, instead of giving up and playing dead! Or you may also say "that's impossible, improbable, inconceivable". But wait a minute; "impossible", "improbable", and "inconceivable" these are all our favourite words as Nigerians - words we love to defy everyday of our lives. We just have an incredible knack for doing the unimaginable as a lifestyle (a visit to Lagos will convince you) and internationally we also have a reputation for doing the unthinkable (and I don't need to explain that).
Nigerians have an innate ability to find loopholes in any system (especially in the negative). Let us take this creative ability that we have so often misdirected over the years and ingeniously channel it to work for our good. Succinctly, lets find a loophole (legal or otherwise) to get Bakassi back. An example of a voluntary cession took place in 1867 when Russia sold Alaska to the United States. While a compulsory cession took place in 1871 by a sale of Alsace Tarraine to Germany by France. At the end of the First World War, in 1918, Alsace Tarraine was returned to France.
When the ICJ judgment on Bakassi was pronounced, most of us got emotional and cried "foul play", "it's not fair", "how can they do this to us" and we went on and on. As a nation, we are in dire need of a "wake up call"! Hey, let's get real, "life is not fair". International politics is not fair nor was the ICJ judgment fair. Nothing in real life seems fair, so what can we do about it? The first thing we have to do is to snap out of our slumber and use that spherical thing sitting on top of our necks to make life fair to us. And how do we do that? We do it by getting Bakassi back on a platter of gold and astonishing the whole world in the process. After all we are Nigerians and here anything is possible.
To pull it off we need a strategy of great sagacity. We can learn a thing or two from gangsters about settling turf disputes strategically. I once watched a gangster movie staged in the 1930s in New York City. There were three main characters, Bumpy Johnson who ruled the Harlem numbers racket with a rare combination of integrity, dignity and raw strength. He was black. Savage gangster Dutch Schultz, who was white. And mob chieftain Lucky Luciano, who was also white but Italian. In the film, Dutch moves in on Bumpy's turf Harlem with a series of bloody attacks and a turf battle ensues which quickly spins out of control.
Bumpy soon realises that he's been boxed in by Dutch and his only way is to instigate a very dangerous plan involving Lucky Luciano the most feared and powerful New York gangster. Lucky, as king of the underworld, had political connections; he even had the special prosecutor on his pay roll. Dutch had an alliance with Lucky, he gave a percentage of his business in exchange for protection from the law. Bumpy successfully pulled off his plan by forming the same kind of alliance with Lucky. He strategically set up Lucky (without him suspecting) for a war with Dutch in which Dutch got killed by his own.
I am by no means suggesting we go to war with Cameroon, Bumpy going to war with Dutch obviously didn't solve the problem of getting Dutch off his turf, but strategy did. Bumpy got his territory back by thinking like an owner not a victim, responding not reacting and that is what I am suggesting we do with our Bakassi turf dispute with Cameroon. While initiating the alliance Lucky said to Bumpy "Dutch Schultz doesn't realise that partnership requires compromise, I think you do". This statement is crucial to the Bakassi dispute.
Bumpy decided what he wanted and how he was going to get it. He also observed whom his opponent or opponents were (the seen and unseen opponents). Thinking strategically like Bumpy, how can we recover Bakassi without a war breaking out? One thing vital to our understanding of International Politics is that International Politics is all about money nothing more, nothing less. It starts with money and ends with money. The U.S invasion of Iraq was all about - One, American defence companies getting contracts to supply their products (military equipment, weapons) to the U.S military for the war. Two, American oil companies having direct access to the oil in Iraq after the war. The Weapon of Mass Destruction was an excuse and setting up a democratic government in Iraq was incidental.
At the slightest opportunity, as a nation, we are ever so quick to assert our "big brother" role in African politics. In a family situation, we all know and understand that when the parents are out of the house, the big brother (or eldest child) is in charge of everything in the house. He is the custodian, the guardian or some kind of godfather to his siblings during that period. And of course any sibling that steps out of line, knows he'll experience "Big Bros" wrath, and so also will anybody trying to take advantage of his siblings.
However, if a visitor drops by while "Big Bros" is in charge and one of his little brothers starts acting up, misbehaving and making unnecessary demands on "Big Bros" you can be sure that the visitor is "Little bros", favourite Aunty or favourite Uncle or his Godmother or his Godfather etc. In the Bakassi context, who is "Little bros", Godfather? I believe his name is Godfather Jean Crapaud (Jean Crapaud is France's national personification just as Uncle Sam is the United States national personification).
It is imperative to let. "Little bros" understand that he owes his allegiance to Godfather Big Bros and Brotherhood of African Nations (his immediate family) first and foremost, before Godfather Jean Crapaud whose allegiance is first and foremost (his immediate family) to the nations of G8. Bakassi is therefore a "family matter"!
There are some questions Godfather Big Bros needs to answer that will empower him to come up with a winning game plan to help him settle this family matter and legally repossess Bakassi (using what he must have learnt from gangster Bumpy).
In conclusion, the ICJ judgment flies in the face of logic and good sense. It is a well-known fact that people don't normally do things for logical reasons but for emotional reasons. And when it comes to money matters people generally get very emotional. The key question in all of this is how can Godfather Big Bros comply with ICJ judgment and still possess Bakassi legally without a war with Little bros? This trillion-dollar question requires tact. And tact they say is the intelligence of the heart.
Personally, the oil and money involved in the Bakassi issue is not my principal interest. I an interested in our turning the tables on the ICJ players (translated super powers) without actually going against the ICJ judgment and also our protecting the indigenes of Bakassi. In turning the tables, political points would have been scored in the game of International Politics, which would reposition us advantageously in the comity of nations, whilst commanding worldwide respect.
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