Bakassi: Nigerian government’s Gordian knot by Tordue Salem on Oct 7, 2012 | 2 comments Posted under: Politics 0 0 The Federal Government has decided to look into the 2002 Judgement by the International Court of Justice, ceding the Bakassi territory to the Republic of Cameroun. The region was ceded to Bakassi in 2002 by the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo and in 2008, the government of President Umar Yar’Adua evacuated some of the inhabitants of the community from its borders as they yelled and kicked. The Federal Government has since set up a committee to look into the possibility of a review of the judgement by the appeal at the International Court of Justice. In a letter to the House of Representatives last week, the Justice Minister, Muhammed Adoke, who sought to be exempted from appearing before a House panel, disclosed the decision of the government which has come at the cusp of the appeal deadline of October 10, 2012. “I most respectively write to request the postponement of the public hearing scheduled to take place from October 4-5 to another date to enable me attend to the urgent review of the 2002 ICJ Judgment in respect of the Cameroun/Nigeria boundary dispute”, Adoke wrote the House. Agitations have heightened in the country over the ceding of Bakassi to the Republic of Cameroon, through the Green Tree Agreement which was signed by former President Obasanjo. The judgment also rendered Cross River a littoral state and has attracted harsh criticisms from Nigerians in general and the people of Bakassi in particular. Some members of the committee have even threatened self-rule; it was promptly followed a few years ago by the hoisting of the flag and coat of arms of the Bakassi people, threatening the unity of Nigeria. A former diplomat and now member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Nkoyo Toyo, who represents Calabar/Odukpani Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives, said the main reason the people of Cross River State were angry with the judgement was that “what befell Bakassi was responsible for where we are today with regard to the 76 oil wells that were awarded to Akwa Ibom State.” Toyo who is also a lawyer said that although she wasn’t in court the day the recent apex court’s judgement was delivered, she heard that the judges had relied on a letter that was written by former President Obasanjo stating that Cross River State was entitled to the 76 oil wells on account of the Federal Government’s then on-going negotiations with Cameroon to retain Western Bakassi. According to her, “If there was an intention like that to take back Western Bakassi from Cameroon, the question that arises now is: what has happened to that intention?” She remarked that the Federal Government only had a short time before Cameroon finally takes over Bakassi permanently. She asked: “Has the Federal Government given up completely on the people of Cross River State?” She further stated that the people of the state felt sad about the judgment because “it looks like we have been completely abandoned by the Nigerian State. All these is happening because we seem to have lost Bakassi. But before Bakassi was given up, the indigenous people and the Nigerian state were in possession for about four hundred years.” She expressed the view that the agitation for the complete implementation of the Green Tree Agreement needs to be revisited. Said she: “There should be absolutely no hurry in handing over Bakassi because the consequences of handing over Bakassi have not been addressed.” She further opined that the Federal Government needs to lodge a complaint with the ICJ about the failure of the Green Tree Agreement in line with the provisions of the same agreement. She explained that “This is primarily because there are many Nigerians who have now become stateless; they are neither Nigerians nor Cameroonians.” Hon. Nkoyo further pointed out that there were many unanswered issues surrounding the controversial Treaty including the map. Said she: “We are still looking for the official map that indicates the correct boundary between Nigeria and Cameroon. That official map has not yet been published. All the maps that are available are illustrative- these are maps that are in the process of being developed but have not yet been authenticated. If we can have such a map, it would be helpful to fundamentally address the situation.” The House of Representatives had two months ago, urged President Goodluck Jonathan to appeal the verdict of the ICJ before October 10, when the time for appeal expires. The House of Representatives, through an emergency motion, initiated moves to overturn the ceding of Bakassi Peninsula to the Republic of Cameroun. An International Court of Justice ruling, had in 2002 awarded Bakassi area, shared by Cross River, Borno, Taraba and Adamawa States to the Central African Country, based on a 1913 Anglo-German Treaty. Later, after serious agitation, the United Nations through a Green Tree Agreement, re-affirmed the decision of ICJ. But a Motion of Urgent National Importance brought by Hon. Essien Ekpenyong Ayi (PDP-Cross River) sought the contestation of that ruling and the accompanying Green Tree Agreement in line with section 12 of the 1999 Constitution and legal precedents. That section provides that all treaties or agreements entered into by Nigeria and any other country must be ratified by the National Assembly. The urgent motion entitled, “A Call for Review of the International Court of Justice Judgment on Bakassi”, noted that the ruling of October 10, 2002, must be reviewed based on new realities. According to Ayi, “The Bakassi people are insisting on having a United Nations-supervised plebiscite where they will exercise their right to self-determination, which is an inalienable right provided for in Article 1 of 1966 International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, General Assembly Resolution 2200A, which provides for the right of all people to self-determination by virtue of which they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. Hon. Ayi stressed his awareness of “article 61 of the Statute of ICJ which provides that an application for the revision of a judgment may be made only when it is based on the discovery of some facts of such a nature as to be a decisive factor, which fact was when the judgment was given, unknown to the court and also to the party claiming revision”. He cited legal precedents where ICJ judgments were challenged and reversed in the case of El Salvador Vs. Honduras in 2002; Yugoslavia Vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2001 and Tunisia Vs. Libya in 1982. In his contribution to the motion, the Chairman, Committee on Business and Rules, Hon. Albert Sam-Tsokwa (PDP-Taraba), said, the House must pass the motion for the process of rescind the ICJ judgment to begin in earnest. According to him, “whatever yardstick the decision to cede Bakassi was based on, it must be ratified by the National Assembly or it cannot stand”. He stressed that “by the statute of the ICJ, we have the right to apply for a review of the ICJ judgment”. But besides the House and Senate’s position that the judgment be appealed, the ceding process remains legally inchoate or incomplete without its ratification by the National Assembly and the people of Bakassi who have rightly insisted that as far as they are concerned, Bakassi is their land and that they are Nigerians. Their position is backed by section 12 of the 1999 Constitution that says such a judgment or the Green Tree Agreement or any other international treaty must be adopted by the parliament before it can stand as legitimate or binding on the people for whom it is meant. Bakassi also remains one of the 774 Local Governments of Nigeria and is so listed among the Local Governments in Nigeria. The most annoying aspect to many analysts of the Bakassi issue is that, since 1853 when the area was said to be in the grip of Germany, no referendum or plebiscite has been conducted to determine the fate of the communities in the area. With the ongoing agitation, it is becoming obvious that the Bakassi Pennisula issue is turning out to be the federal government’s Gordian knot.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Aug 2013 10:40:03 +0000
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