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December 30th, 2009 admin No comments

Hand Drawn

Bakassi Handing-over: Nigeria, a Failed Giant of Sleeping States

August 14, 2008, 11.00am, Nigeria had handed-over Bakassi, her own territory to Cameroon and finally kissed the dust. Nigeria which is like a protagonist that died in an action, had failed to diplomatically or using force win her way through to securing Bakassi victory. “Handing-over” became a surprising new word we had to become used to in NIgeria. Can someone hand-over what he was not in control of? Why “Handing-over” and not “Withdrawal? Ask the Nigerian government and ICJ.

Shortly after independence, following remonstrance from Nigerians, the nation opted out of the Defense Pact she had with Britain because her citizens thought the nation could defend her from external aggression and irredentist claims from foreign nations but how wrong they were. The Bakassi situation has clearly demonstrated to us all that the ability of Nigeria to defend territory is in doubt.

I still believe that Nigeria has never had a good leader with absolute love for the citizens of the nation. Anyone who has seen the terrible state of Bakassi children with tears falling from the eyes of their helpless parents will feel the same way I do. Is it a curse to be a Nigerian? Many families in the country today find themselves in deathlike conditions in Nigerian hospitals without hospital equipment where hospitals exist because I know that in my town we have to trek several distance to be in the general hospital built by the colonial government. The whole nation is still in darkness without electricity. School fees are on the increase without employments thereafter.

And now there is no protection for the citizens as the Bakassi issue has shown, a more recent dimension. Many individuals gifted in rare talents, unusual abilities or strengths of personalities have used same to transform the destinies of their nations but we are yet to see this happen in Nigeria many decades after independence. The citizens of Nigeria have become inured to living in a society where we wake up and suddenly discover that we are now citizens of Cameroon because our homeland has been ceded by UNO and the Nigerian government. Who is next in this line of strange event?

The leaders of our country have only shown incompetence in the ability to shape our society, politically, socially and economically. We have not shown even the willingness to shape the future of our citizens. The Nigerian leaders past and present appear not to learn from history thus the situation of the nation is like the Bar Beach in Lagos which in spite of solutions continues to overflow with threats to buildings and passers-by. I hear of claims to annex territories belonging to other countries but Nigeria’s case is reverse, utter willingness to lose part of one’s territory.

When a nation said to be sovereign awakes and suddenly decides to hastily hand-over its territory without a simple protest to the Security Council and to the detriment of the constitution and municipal law then there is something wrong with that nation. From administration to administration, our leaders continue to fail, neglect and refuse take into consideration all sets of objectives that are of core value to her plus the interest of her citizens.

Our leaders fail to understand that “history is not only a story but also of men’s reflections on them and of the lessons that can be drawn from them. History is in short the story of the growth of human experience…” Years to come Obasanjo, Bola Ajibola and Akinjide will tell Nigerians what happened or their great-grand children will surely do.

Comments from these individuals and certain other prominent Nigerians such as Michael Aodoakaa, the Same Bola Ajibola and others are far from those with special concern for the welfare of humans. They simply were not humanistic in their comments and actions. Ajibola appeared more concerned for the professional retainer’s fees he was paid than the welfare of his dislodged fellow Nigerians.

Mr Aodoakaa in justifying the handing-over stated thus:

“As painful as it is, we have a responsibility to keep our commitment to the International community, promote international peace and co-operation and advance the course of African brotherliness and neighborliness (Saturday Punch, August 16, 2008)

From the above, I infer the motive and gesture of the Federal Government of Nigeria through its agent, Aodoakaa as the willingness to put the interest of the international community before those of Nigerian citizens and implement the age-long “Big Brother” policy, a foreign policy which has continued to fail us, which even successful countries like USA, Britain, France, Russia, Germany, South-Africa etc do not find sensible. It is a known fact in the international that only a nation not willing to grow projects a foreign policy like this. Do our leaders not know this?

The policy itself is like scoring goals in football matches and agreeing that all such goals be recorded for the opponent. I refuse to concur that Aodoakaa would gradually or readily agree with happiness that his hometown in Benue State be ceded and handed-over to another country in a like manner in the name of keeping commitments to the international community. It shows that our leaders are always out to please the international community and displease Nigerians in order to win favors in cheapness, and score personal international points.

The case of Bola Ajibola is very pathetic and simply a matter of desperate attempts to absolve self by trying to turn back the hand of clock. He returned from the ICJ after a defeat by other erudite lawyers and announced to the world that Bakassi never belonged to Nigeria, a statement that made me cover my face with my hands in shame. The world must have ridiculed us once again. The world must have also wondered what he told the panel of judges at the ICJ in defense of his supposed country, Nigeria when he knew within himself that the peninsular did not belong to Nigeria. Did he just go there to deceive the court?

As for Florence Ita-Giwa whom nothing was heard of when her hometown and people were being given out to Cameroon, she should be aware that Bakassi that brought her to glory is no more and she is no more “Mama Bakassi” but “Mama New Bakassi” or is it Mama Ceded Bakassi?

Nigerians have known Obasanjo at last. We were told he was a born again but now a born against. As for me I have contributed my own little quota to my country by going on a one-day hunger strike in sympathy with my fellow Nigerians who were dislodged by the ICJ, Obasanjo, Ajibola, Akinjide, Aodoakaa and others. And as for my fellow Bakassi indigenes, I tell them that whatever a man sow shall he reap. We have lost Bakassi but we have not lost history.

About the Author

Emeka Esogbue hails from Ibusa, Delta State, Nigeria. He is a Historian and International Relations graduate and Public Affairs commentator with lots of published and unpublished works.

emekaesogbue@yahoo.com