Did Nigeria actually cede the Bakassi Peninsula to the Cameroon? I recall that we lost that case at the World Court. Many commentators including legal luminaries, of which Itse Sagay was just one, pointed out how the Obasanjo government of the day shot itself in the foot in several ways. One was that it accepted the jurisdiction of the World Court in the dispute. Next, it regarded the legal and political joust as just another job for the boys and proceeded to populate Nigeria's team with legal neophytes and underperformers. Actions decades earlier and posturing by the Yakubu Gowon led military regime during the war with sessesionist Biafra, all in an effort to secure the support of Ahmadu Ahidjio's Cameroon, had come back to haunt Nigeria when the territorial dispute was returned to the front burner.
Even now people still wonder today why Nigeria did not insist on a referendum, which it could easily have won. Tunnel vision perhaps. The government must have been afraid that the leaders of the then nascent agitation for Biafra, MASSOB, would have found that a basis to demand the same. In the final analysis, Nigeria DID NOT CEDE Bakassi, but simply lost its case.
It is also entirely possible that Nigeria's pathological fixation on oil revenue from "the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula," blinded the leaders of the country that what was really at stake was A PEOPLE, nominally citizens of Nigeria, not just a piece of real estate. Renowned playwright and Nobel Prize winner, Prof Wole Soyinka, had pointed out this obsession many years ago. His take: If Nigeria has not been able to make any headway with all the petroleum resources and income flow from the vast UNDISPUTED territories of Nigeria, what then is the guarantee that the marginal increase from the Bakassi prospect will fix all its problems? No one has cared to answer that question.
It is in this vein that one may choose to analyze the statement credited to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo. He promised during his visit to Calabar, that displaced indigenes of the region will be resettled. Clap for him! We have heard that before. A serious minded nation, having lost it's case, would have completed plans for this resettlement two full years before ceding the territory. Hence twelve years down the road, the Bakassi people, who have been foolish enough to cast their lot with Nigeria, are still being told stories. How exactly did the PDP under Obasanjo, Yar'Adua and Jonathan campaign in this neighbourhood?
What about the APC? One year in government is a long time. I am thoroughly ashamed. It seems that the only way not to be disappointed by the serial contraptions that we have been having in Nigeria in the name of government, is to lower one's expectations. No, that would be unfair to my grandchildren.
Ceding Of Bakassi To Cameroun, A National Loss - Osinbajo • Channels Television. http://www.channelstv.com/…/ceding-of-bakassi-to-cameroun-…
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