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BAKASSI... Prologue:
A handover postponed
CHINWE MADUAGWU
IT
would have happened last Wednesday, September 15. But the pain is still there —
on the people of Bakassi.
On October 10, 2002, the International
Court of Justice (ICJ) of the Hague ruled that ownership of the Bakassi
Peninsula belonged to Cameroun.
By virtue of the decision, Nigeria which
has been administering the peninsula was to hand it over to its neighbour. The
areas in question covered the entire 1,600 kilometres border between both
countries.
The ruling expectedly, did not go down
well with the inhabitants of the peninsula who said they were more than 90 per
cent Nigerian.
Their representative of the Senate, at the
time of the ruling, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa stated categorically, "We refuse
to be part of Cameroun because we have never been part of that country. We are
Nigerians and we will remain in Nigeria."
Incidentally, the peninsula had been of
very little importance to both Nigeria and Cameroun until the early 80s when it
was found out that the area had a sizeable quantity of oil deposits.
It was then that trouble began. In 1981,
hostilities between the two countries increased leading to the military
occupation of the area in December 1993 on the orders of late Gen. Sani Abacha.
In response, Cameroun filed a complaint at
the ICJ in March 1994 seeking a determination of the ownership of the peninsula.
Two months later, it filed a case asking
for a definitive determination of the entire border between the two countries.
Its case was premised primarily on a
border treaty signed in 1913 between Nigeria’s colonial masters, Britain, and
Germany which was lording it over Cameroun at that time. Under that treaty
Bakassi peninsula was to be ceded to Cameroun in principle till a proper
delineation of the borders of the two colonies had been concluded.
That treaty was protested by the people of
the Calabar province who argued that Britain had ignored the terms of
protectorate treaty of 1884 they made with Queen Victoria.
Their argument was that Britain couldn’t
give Bakassi away since the Old Calabar kingdom was not a conquered territory,
but one that freely entered into a treaty of protection with imperial Britain to
facilitate the handover as ordered by the court, a mixed commission of Nigerians
and Camerounians was set up which drew the handover timetable and fixed
September 15 as the D-day.
However, the day has come and gone without
the handover taking place. Before September 15, there had been indications that
the handover ceremony would not take place on the appointed day.
First the House of Representatives passed
a resolution asking the Federal Government not to agree or accept the September
15 deadline until the 1999 constitution was amended.
Secondly, the Bakassi people have
consistently rejected the ICJ ruling and declared intention never to join
Cameroun, said they would go to the Supreme Court to challenge the handover.
According to the Chairman of the Bakassi
Council of Traditional Rulers and Paramount Ruler of the area, Etinyin Etim Okon
Edet, 210 lawyers in the country had agreed to represent the area in the suit
free of charge.
He was quoted as saying, "We are of the
belief that a Supreme Court declaration would carry more weight than the recent
resolution passed by the House of Representatives urging the Federal Government
to stay action on the hand over plan until the 1999 constitution is amended to
excise Bakassi from the statute book."
It was, therefore, not a complete surprise
to many when the handover ceremony failed to take place.
In fact, a day to the handover date, the
lawmaker representing Bakassi constituency in the House of Reps, Hon. Essien Ayi,
said, "September 15 may be relevant in the books of the International Court of
Justice but it means nothing to the people of Bakassi. We are not Camerounians
overnight. We are not bothered by the September 15 deadline.
"We the people of Bakassi are not going to
Cameroun, we do not have any relationship in terms of culture with Cameroun. The
Bakassi people are Efik people and we are not ready to concede our land. If
government cannot defend us, we will take steps to defend ourselves. The people
of Bakassi are ready to die than become Camerounians."
His sentiments were shared by Etinyin Edet
who also said, "If government fails to protect us, then there is going to be
anarchy. We are not going to take up arms, we do not have any but we will defend
ourselves."
Perhaps sensing the mood of the people,
the government had little or no choice than to postpone the scheduled event
based on "technical difficulties".
No new date has been fixed for the handover, even as
Nigeria’s Defence Minister Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso said the government was "very
interested in what is happening to Nigerians… those in Bakassi and elsewhere,"
adding that the two governments (Nigeria and Cameroun) were talking at the
highest level.
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