Dr. Etim Okon Edet gets emotional once in a while. Each time he remembers the fate of the people who were displaced as a result of the ceding of Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon, the paramount ruler of Bakassi finds himself raising posers which he has no answers to.
The dispute over the ownership of the Bakassi Peninsula led to tension and several spats between Nigeria and Cameroon, which approached the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on March 29, 1994.
On October 10, 2002, the ICJ passed a judgment that Bakassi be handed over to Cameroon. Before the judgment, the territory was a 10-ward local government area of Cross River State in Nigeria.
This marked the beginning of a tortuous journey for the Bakassi people and Cross River State, whose end till date does not seem in sight.
On June 12, 2006, President Olusegun Obasanjo and Cameroonian President Paul Biya, signed the Greentree Agreement in New York concerning the withdrawal of troops and transfer of authority in the Peninsula. A follow-up committee, composed of representatives from Cameroon, Nigeria, the UN, Germany, the USA, France and the UK, was created to monitor the implementation of the agreement.
On November 22, 2007, the Senate rejected the transfer, since the Green Tree Agreement ceding the area to Cameroon was contrary to Section 12(1) of the 1999 Constitution. However, the Federal Government officially handed over the territory to Cameroon on 14 August 2008. The ceremony was to take place at Abana, the capital of the ceded Bakassi Peninsula, but had to be shifted to the Peregrino Hall of the Government House in Calabar for fear of attacks by militants in the region.
Speaking on the occasion, then Attorney General of the Federation, Michael Aaondoaka, said though Nigeria country was saddled with the painful but “important task” of completing the implementation of the ICJ judgment by handing over Bakassi to the Cameroon, the country had a responsibility to keep her “commitment to the international community, promote international peace and cooperation and advance the cause of African brotherhood and good neighbourliness.”
The Federal Government, he said, had embarked on “sincere arrangements” resettlement of the people who elect not to remaining Bakassi as citizens of Cameroon.
The United Nation through its Special Representative West Africa and Chairman of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, Amb Said Djimmit, had also assured the Bakassi people that they shall not be left behind as the Green Tree Agreement guarantees the rights and protection of the people of Bakassi.
However, several years down the line, the sincerity of the Federal Government and the International Community leaves much to be desired, as the Bakassi question is still yet to be answered.
In 2008, the state government set up a resettlement committee. The State House of Assembly had gone ahead to enact a law to create carve out a New Bakassi Local Government area from an existing Akpabuyo Local Government Area.
The then Cross River Governor, Liyel Imoke, completed a project began by his predecessor, Donald Duke, to construct housing units for the Bakassi returnees in the New Bakassi.
In February 2009, the state government allotted 208 buildings units to some of the displaced Nigerians from Bakassi at an elaborate ceremony at the at the New Bakassi Local Government Area. The returnees were also to be taught various life skills.
Though the gesture was intended to alleviate the problem of resettling Nigerians who lost their ancestral home to Cameroon, the essence of the housing scheme seemed to be defeated as none of the houses was ever occupied by the Bakassi returnees. The place had been overrun with weeds.
There were issues with the original owners of the land in Akpabuyo who were not comfortable that their land was just taken from them to resettle the Bakassi people. They claimed they lost their houses and other property following their eviction from the land by the state government, without compensation.
Members of the community had lamented being subjected to suffering following the alleged forceful acquisition of their land by the state government. They said they would never allow the Bakassi people to occupy the houses.
Beyond this, the issue that the Bakassi people were predominantly fishermen who could not be in a landlocked area was another problem.
A government official said: “It is just not about building houses for these people. These persons had a way of life before. The displaced persons are even more worried about how they would source for their means of livelihood than where they would lay their heads. Uprooting them from their natural habitat which is the river, where they earn their bread as fishermen, to dry land poses a new kind of problem on its own.
”Fishermen displaced from Bakassi and settled in a landlocked area called New Bakassi which they even claim is already inhabited and not suitable for fishermen like them but only for farmers is really a problem. Emphasis should be laid on properly resettling the people and how they could be given a means of livelihood rather than on how much has been spent on providing infrastructure.”
Meanwhile Nigerians in Bakassi, who alleged constant harassment by the Cameroonian gendarmes, were pouring into the country, while proper relocation and resettlement continued to elude them. The people continued to lament that the Federal Government and the International Community.
In 2012, ten years after the ICJ judgment, there were frantic calls from various quarters in the state for the Federal Government to file an appeal in the court for a review of the 2002 ICJ judgment.
Those who made the call argued ICJ permits a review of its judgment within 10 years based on fresh facts, which the claimed abound. The FG then, had paid deaf ears to the calls and the 10-year window had elapsed on October 10, 2012.
On March 7, 2013 more Nigerians in Efut Obot Ikot in the ceded peninsula claimed Cameroonian gendarmes invaded their community early in the morning, forcing them to leave their land. Houses were burnt, people were killed and loved ones went missing, they said.
Those who survived the alleged onslaught, said arrived from Efut Obot Ikot by six hour canoe trip to Ifiang community in Akpabuyo from where they embarked on another two hour trek through the bushes to the St Marks Primary School, Akwa Ikot Eyo Edem in Akpabuyo local government area where they have been huddled till date.
Visits to the camp revealed the squalid and unhygienic conditions they returnees are subjected to as they sleep in classrooms. It has been one agony or the other for the over 2000 people camped in the school. From natural disasters to outbreaks of diseases, especially among the children in the camp due to the poor sanitary conditions, the returnees feel they have had enough and the only prayer the people need answered now is proper resettlement in an environment that make them thrive in their business, which is fishing.
A prominent Bakassi Leader, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, who on various occasions has visited the returnees to donate items and give them a sense of belonging, said solution to the problem was for government to resettle them in a virgin, riverine area. She advocated for Dayspring 1, Dayspring 2 and Kwa Islands as areas where the Bakassi people should be resettled. She said Bakassi people were fishermen not farmers. This would also eliminate problems of conflict with originals owners of any land they would be taken to, she argued.
Governor Ben Ayade had promised to revisit the Bakassi matter, which he said had led to the dwindling of revenues accruing to the state from the federation account.
Edet said: “After 14 years the situation has not changed. It is still very much the same.”
He suggested to the state government, “I would like the state governor as he has showed interest in this Bakassi matter to convene a Bakassi roundtable to review the Bakassi matter from a long period of time to the period of ceding. Perhaps constitute appropriate subcommittees to articulate and tackle different aspects of the struggle and then the funding plans. There should also be a strong media team to highlight that the Federal Government and international community have not done much. There should assemble a strong lobbying team to lobby elites and traditional rulers in other geopolitical zone of the country to look into this matter because I have not heard everybody speaking with one voice throughout Nigeria on this Bakassi issue.
”They should also send a high powered delegation to meet with Mr President, the National Assembly, the military, the judiciary at the federal level to seek their understanding and cooperation to enable the Bakassi people and Cross River State get economic justice over the Bakassi matter.
”We must also assemble a strong team to seek the support of the Southsouth and even the Southeast regions of Nigeria to Federal Government’s compensation over the loss of Bakassi.
”The people have suffered. They are completely scattered. The few ones that are still remaining have no hope. There has never been a holistic approach to this Bakassi matter. The people in the primary school is one of the issues, I would want the state government to tackle holistically. If you come in as a governor and see something was done wrong, it is your duty to correct it. I would expect this government to correct what went wrong and why the people have not been resettled properly. They have been relocated but have they been resettled? Who are the people at the Primary School in Akpabuyo? That is very serious question that an answer should be given. Who are those people camped there for over two years or more? Nobody has asked that question. One person or the other or NGOs would just go there, bypassing the traditional institution. Wherever you come from, you should be recognised by your traditional institution. We know everybody, we know those from the area and those who are not from the area.
”In resettlement schemes, the people involved always partake in negotiations. It is usually participatory. The Federal Government has not been transparent on arrangements to resettle the people of Bakassi. The real concerns of the people have not been properly articulated. We need a participatory and properly negotiated Bakassi resettlement program, not all these that they are doing.”
Fourteen years after the ICJ judgment, Bakassi indigenes and Cross River State have continued to deal with the pains of losing the oil rich peninsula to Cameroon. From issues of disenfranchisement during elections, to the state losing its status as an oil producing state, plunging it into further financial problems, more losses are still being counted.
Several pleas from several quarters on the Federal Government and the International Community seem to be falling on deaf ears.
Will the Bakassi question ever be answered? Will the displaced persons every find peace in proper relocation and resettlement by relevant authorities? These are among a myriad of questions still begging for answers.
