Science > Prophecies-Of-Nostradamus > Tensions grown over Bakassi peninsula between Cameroon and Nigeria, could lead to SW Cameroonian separatism and rising oil prices
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Science > Prophecies-Of-Nostradamus |
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"The Angry Hierophant" |
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12 Aug 2005 01:04:12 PM |
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Tensions grown over Bakassi peninsula between Cameroon and Nigeria, could lead to SW Cameroonian separatism and rising oil prices |
Bakassi: What Nigeria Stands to Lose
[ Buea - Cameroun ] ( 5/08/2005) Boniface Egboka
The recent judgement for Nigeria and the [La Republique du] Cameroun by
the International Court of Justice at The Hague over the Bakassi
Peninsula is a great tragedy of unimaginable magnitude and dimension
not only to the two countries but also to the entire humanity.The
judgement is uncalled-for, most despicable, shameless, bizarre and
immoral. Many Nigerians and foreigners have condemned the judgement.
The recent judgement for Nigeria and the [La Republique du] Cameroun by
the International Court of Justice at The Hague over the Bakassi
Peninsula is a great tragedy of unimaginable magnitude and dimension
not only to the two countries but also to the entire humanity. The
ill-fated, godless and unjust judgement at the Hague is so humiliating
and demoralizing to every reasonable Nigerian. The judgement is
uncalled-for, most despicable, shameless, bizarre and immoral. Many
Nigerians and foreigners have condemned the judgement.
The Federal Republic of Nigeria and her people have rejected this
neocolonialist maneuvering in all its entirety. The people of Bakassi
peninsula and Southern Cameroons have equally totally-rejected the
tragic and jaundiced ICJ judgement. One can understand the misplaced
few Nigerians who are afraid of what [La Republique du] Cameroun
under-France would do to Nigeria by the force of arms if we refuse to
accept the judgement; and hence, that we should accept the ICJ nonsense
and leave our lands and the people to [La Republique du Cameroun]. May
God forbid bad thing!
One is not surprised by the British who have rushed out quickly to warn
Nigeria to accept the Franco-British ICJ judgement. What a pity on the
part of the British government to so carelessly, give itself away too
early in the day on its jaundiced self-interest. Nigeria will no longer
swallow the bitter contraptions of neocolonialist projects from
Britain. Enough is more than enough from the British; the colonial-pain
has become too much for the people to bear.
As one writes now, we are yet to hear from Chief Paul Biya of Cameroun
who has just returned from a 56 days holiday in Europe. This is a man
who has ruled his people for the past 20 years non-stop. Strangely
though, the British and the French governments find him such a
wonderful President to support in preference to a democratic Nigeria.
Recently, he preferred to send his minister to attend the NEPAD meeting
of Heads-of-State at Abuja instead of coming himself. One has heard and
read the insults from some misguided [Camerounese] who call Nigerians
all sorts of bad names through the BBC because we rejected the unjust
and ill-fated ICJ judgement. But such misguided Cameroonians are not
from the Southern Cameroons or the then British Cameroon. There are
Southern Cameroonians who want to join their kith and kin in Nigeria or
be given their self-determination through a United Nation 's organized
plebiscite. They had earlier gone to an Abuja Federal High Court where
they won a case that commands the Federal Government of Nigeria to
assist them in their bid for self-determination and freedom. The recent
unjust Bakassi misjudgement is a clear vindication of their long quest
for justice. What of the hundreds of innocent Southern Cameroonians who
are today languishing in jails because they want self-determination for
their people?
Biya's government that took over from where Alhaji Ahmadu Ahidjo
stopped, has been intimidating, harassing, haranguing, arresting,
dehumanizing, torturing and imprisoning nationalists of Southern
Cameroons over the years because of their quest for self determination
while the rest of the world looks away. It is high time that Nigeria
tried to see what is happening to her neighbours in southern Cameroun.
Such nationalists like Ebenezer Akwanga of the Southern Cameroons who
has been imprisoned for 7 years comes into mind; a prisoner of
conscience! This young man is now suffering for nothing at the Yaounde
Maximum prison because he is asking for the liberation of his people!
He has suffered from bouts of tuberculosis, fever, diarrhoea, etc.
These days, the former hefty and strong Akwanga is as lean as the
letter 'I'. His wife has been tortured many times to
fraudulently-extract confessions from her against her husband since
1998 but without any success. His young daughter was severely
dehumanized. Mr. Akwanga is yet to see his second daughter, a poor
child, since her birth.
His mother-in-law who has been supporting his family while he is now in
prison died recently in sorrow. But despite all these tribulations,
Akwanga's spirit remains unbroken and undaunted as he fervently looks
forward to the day the Southern Cameroons shall become free! Many
Southern Cameroonians run into Nigeria as they are being chased around
for their nationalist beliefs by Biya's 20-years-old government. That
is why you see many [Southern]Cameroonians in parts of eastern Nigeria
and beyond and in our universities struggling to survive. Even when
they complete their studies, they are most reluctant to go back to [The
Southern Cameroons] Cameroun, afraid of what awaits them on their
return.
The tragedy of the World Court misjudgement would become fatally
obvious sooner than later where the matter is not properly-handled by
Nigeria and [La Republique du] Cameroun. Both countries must not allow
the neocolonialist France and Britain to lure them into war in which
case the two European countries will gain in their sales of weaponry
and mercenaries at our loss of human lives and property. Mr. Kofi
Annan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations must not allow the
two fellow African countries to go to war over Bakassi at the
machinations and shenanigans of neocolonialist spoilers. He must work
hard to bring the two nations together to sort out the problems in the
spirit of African brotherhood. The respected Dr. Nelson Mandela and
other African leaders should also give helping hands to the leaders of
Nigeria and the Cameroon. One highly admires the way our President,
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo ably supported by his Foreign Affairs
Ministers, Alhaji Sule Lamido and Chief Dubem Onyia, is handling the
matter. The entire scenario has brought out the great statesman in
Chief Obasanjo. He makes me very proud!
If one may come to think of it, what can the French and the British do
to Nigeria if the worst is to happen over the Bakassi Peninsula? Can
these two countries not learn from both ancient and modern history?
Nigeria is no more a child-nation to be cajoled or intimidated. She
shall be better off for it if the worst that we do not pray for,
happens. This country is large and elastic enough to contain any short
or long term struggle as now being engineered by the nauseating
neocolonialists. How can Britain forget so soon her encounter with
Nigeria before she agreed to give Zimbabwe its independence? And it was
the same Chief Obasanjo that had that geopolitical tango with the then
British Prime Minister, Mrs. Margaret Thatcher; the case of repeating
history and not history repeating itself. Nigerian leaders and our
country have played noble roles for world peace and development.
Obasanjo, has doggedly-played positive roles in liberation struggles
for South Africa, Zimbabwe and Angola.
Nigeria has for a long time made Africa the centrepiece of her foreign
diplomacy. She has been in the forefront of engineering peace and
integration for African nations and her people. Our people lost lives
and billions of naira in genuine efforts to bring peace and security to
Liberia and Sierra Leone. We have made financial commitments and
expenditure to many African countries in order to alleviate poverty and
sufferings of their people in the spirit of African brotherhood and the
extended family system of support.
One then wonders why the British and French seem not to realize that a
country like Nigeria that has done so much to maintain peace and the
territorial integrity of other countries would not have the guts to
protect and defend her boundary lands whenever the occasion calls for
it. We are not poor if we can put our acts together and right. Nigeria
has got more than it requires in human and material resources to prove
to the world, far and near, that we can stand firmly in our policies
and actions. We must leave no one in doubt that we can protect and
defend our people, lives, territory, lands and property.
Stricto senso, Nigeria does not have any serious problems with the [La
Republique du Cameroun] Republic of Cameroon. The people of the two
areas have been living in peace and harmony since God created the earth
and His people. Even since the so called white men from Europe came to
our shores in search of trade and slaves, the citizens of the two
nations have been living together in tranquility and brotherhood. The
problem of Nigeria over the Bakassi peninsula is, principally,
instigated by the British and the French for their political and
economic purposes.
There are also a few misguided [Camerounese] who are pawns in the hands
of the avaricious French. The Federal Government of Nigeria can deftly
sort out the problems we have with the [La Rewpublique du Cameroun]
Republic of Cameroon through dialogue. The British and the French must
be made to realize our fundamental rights and recognize our
sovereignty! But one is most amazed and sadly embarrassed that Biya
went to the ICJ at The Hague to sue an African country over a problem
that is entirely an African affair instead of reporting to fellow
Africans. He never bordered to go to the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) or the African Union (AU) or to any matured
African nation like Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, etc. He wanted an
unjust justice from his colonial mentors. Bakassi is not just oil,
fishes and lands! No, there is over 90 per cent population of human
beings, Nigerians, who have been living in the area since the million
years of Genesis! No man-made court or force can transfer the
nationality of these humans to elsewhere other than where it is done by
the people themselves possibly through a plebiscite! Now, Biya's
closest road to a peaceful solution of the problem without a war is
recourse to an African solution devoid of any neocolonialist
intervention.
We have come of age to improve on the image created by our forefathers
when the white men were regarded as something else above humans. It is
a pity that Nigeria did accept to go to The Hague at the first
instance. We should have come together with the [Camerounese]
leadership, probably, under the auspices of another African country to
talk over the issues and resolve them. Britain and France have already
done enough damage to their colonies and protectorates since the
colonial times. We should no more solely-depend on them or on their
structures to solve our cultural, political and boundary problems as
perpetuated in history by them.
The Bakassi Peninsula was part of the British protectorate and was
never a colony! In 1913, Britain handed over the area to Germany. Since
Britain did not own Bakassi, how could she have given away what it
never owned? Nemo dat quad non habet! But even at that, Germany went to
war with Britain. She was beaten by the Allied Forces that took away
all her overseas territories including lands from the British German
treaty of 1913.
When Germany lost those overseas lands, all the treaties became non and
void and of no effect. It is now obvious that France, Britain and
Germany in one way or the other have special interests over the Bakassi
affair and hence, the judges of the World Court from these countries
should not have participated in the case. They could have constituted
judges from other countries that have no interest and are free of any
bias. But they have interest and are guilty of bias, thereby, making
their judgement a nullity. [La Republique du] Cameroun was a former
colony of France and has a military pact with her. One is highly-
amazed at some poorly-informed Nigerians who say that Nigeria should
accept the World Court ruling; that we should not go to war if we are
attacked. I do pity such individuals.
What did Britain do to Argentina over the Falkland Islands? What did
the United States do at Panama Canal? Or the British at the Suez Canal
even where such lands did not belong to them? What about the Vietnamese
war with the Americans? And the French-Indochina war? What is now
happening between Britain and Northern Island? What of Israel and her
Arab neighbours fighting over lands, waters and boundaries? What about
Ethiopia and Eritrea? What of the Kashmir affair involving India and
Pakistan? What of Serbia and Montenegro? What of Britain and China over
Hong Kong and their eventual peaceful settlement? And China versus
Taiwan? How can any sensible human being think that the case of Nigeria
shall be different where her lands and people are unjustly-given away
to France-[La Republique du] Cameroun? An acceptance of the ICJ ruling
by Nigeria is a sure pathway to the disintegration of Nigeria.
This judgement if accepted and effected, shall lay an ominous, bad and
scandalous precedence that will be cited worldwide! Already, there are
problems in Zimbabwe where Dr. Robert Mugabe is now forcing out white
farmers from the fertile lands cornered by their colonial forefathers.
Many lovers of peace have condemned this. One of these years, the Boers
of South Africa would go after the lands they abandoned to the
so-called blacks after the apartheid regime. One will not be surprised
if smaller and weaker neighbouring countries will not wake up one day
to start laying such false claims as [La Republique du] Cameroun has
done. Nigerians love their country; we shall fight for her to remain
so! The World Court has given a bad and an unacceptable judgement
against Nigeria. Can they try such on the United States, South Africa,
Zimbabwe, Israel, Ghana, Libya or North Korea?
They think Nigeria is a giant with clay feet despite our fighting roles
in the Congo, Yugoslavia, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Let no one be
deceived. Nigerians can fight for their lands as patriotically and
viciously as any other nation. If anyone is in doubt about the fighting
courage and prowess of Nigerians, one may ask the Biafrans or the
Nigerians when they were embroiled in the Nigeria-Biafra War! One can
also recollect when Major-General Muhammadu Buhari gave it to the
Chadians when they were encroaching into the Lake Chad area of Nigeria.
They were taught a military lesson of their lives! The United Nations
and their agencies, the Caritas International, World Council of
Churches, the Red Cross and the Red Crescent should now call for
justice between the two countries and discourage Britain and France
from their present meddlesomeness.
Otherwise, when the avoidable confiict starts, they will be at a loss
on what to do with the thousands of the wounded, hungry, war criminals
and refugees that may result. Can the world economy afford the stress
from such potential volume of refugees and sufferings? The ICJ
treachery stretches from Lake Chad in the north for thousands of
kilometres to the Atlantic Ocean in the south. If there is a war with
[La Republique du] Cameroun, the war front shall stretch for the same
long distance. All lovers of peace must bear these in mind and look
before they leap.
Nigerians and Cameroonians[?] living in France and Britain should come
together now and discourage the French and British governments from
bringing an impending destruction to their home countries. The French
and the British should realize that African countries have come of age
and should be allowed to handle their affairs without let or hindrance.
The issue of independence by these countries should be given its proper
meaning. They are no more turncoats of former colonial masters. Equity
demands that their sovereignty should be acknowledged and respected.
Nigeria and Cameroon[?] are independent members of the United Nations
and the Commonwealth where they have been fulfilling all the necessary
obligations as required. They are free from the colonial-apron strings
of either Britain or France. They should be allowed to enjoy their
independence status and not pushed into conflict with one another.
Britain and France should chart a new course that is devoid of
neocolonialism. They should stop taking Africans as something else, may
be, from the zoo. Africa is no more a dark continent, it was never
really so in history. There was enough light provided by God for our
forefathers. They survived and lived despite all the dehumanization
from generation to generation.
When the 1913 treaty was signed between the British and the Germans,
our people protested then in writing and travelled to London to lodge
such protests to the British monarch. Many Africans saw civilizations
and ancient religions years before Europeans as shown in archaeological
findings. Africa has history, science, engineering, technology and
works of art as x-rayed in several literary works. African art works
were stolen and are now kept in museums in parts of Europe. In Europe
and the Americas today, many African engineers, scientists, doctors,
sports men and women are providing efficient services to the people.
These Africans, many of whom are Nigerians, are respected for their
contributions in these foreign countries. But when it comes to
politico, socio-economic issues concerning African countries, there is
a tendency to believe that Africans cannot handle their affairs.
Unfortunately, some corrupt and fraudulent African leaders give undue
credence to the wrong belief that Africans cannot handle their affairs;
hence, the need for a white-man third-party intervention. This
anachronistic thinking must be jettisoned forever as Africans can do
their own thing now and in the future!
The leaders of the Republic of Cameroon [La Republique du Cameroun] and
Nigeria should meet and dialogue with one another as equals without
mediation from Britain or France. They should first commit themselves
never to solve their boundary problems through the force of arms. They
can agree to disagree and go for a United Nations' supervised
plebiscite for the people of the areas in contention to decide on where
they want to live. Both countries should abide by the outcome of what
people of the areas have voted for. There is no other way to prevent
the looming tragedy that would befall the people of the two countries
if they choose the path of war. You have to fight or have been involved
in a war to appreciate its sufferings.
The ICJ judgement is a pyrrhic victory for [La Republique du] Cameroun
and France as the paper on which it is written is not worth much
anyway. There is no good that comes out of force except for those
Europeans who will sell arms and become mercenaries. If one must have
dialogue for settlement after every war, why not skip the war and talk
to settle for peace. A word is more than enough for the wise! Quad
scrpsi scrpsi as the ancient Romans would say.
Prof. Boniface Egboka
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