Posted by By EMERSON GOBERT, JR. on
The sun finally set on Nigeria's loss of Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon yesterday afternoon at the Governor's Lodge, Calabar, Cross River State as representatives of both countries signed the hand-over instrument and exchanged flags.
The sun finally set on Nigeria's loss of Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon yesterday afternoon at the Governor's Lodge, Calabar, Cross River State as representatives of both countries signed the hand-over instrument and exchanged flags.
It was a very emotional moment which stamped paid to all the diplomatic speeches earlier made and President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua resolve to obey the ruling of the International Court of Justice ceding the peninsula to Cameroon.
More than a few people who witnessed the event which was delayed because some principal officers involved in the transfer arrived late could still not come to terms with the reality of the loss.
Forlorn looks were apparent on many faces including that of Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, Former Special Adviser to Former President Olusegun Obasanjo who signed the oil - rich Bakassi Peninsula away. Ita-Giwa, a princess from the ceded area wiped her face profusely with her white handkerchief as though she was not in an air - condition venue. The Paramount Ruler of Bakassi Local Government Area, Etinyin Etim Okon Edet who had earlier vowed not to witness the hand-over sat next to her but maintained a mean stoicism throughout the proceedings.
The emotive atmosphere was further made funeral-like as both Nigerian and Cameroonian National Anthems were twice played in quick succession as though both countries were engaged in a football match.
On Wednesday, many people had thought that the mournful event would take place at Abana, Headquarters of the ceded Local Government Area. There was heavy military presence in Calabar Municipality and accreditation of journalists who had swam like bees into Calabar to cover the event took the whole day and lasted beyond midnight.
At about 8.30am yesterday (Thursday), news filtered to journalists that the ceremony would no longer take place at Bakassi but in Calabar. Swiftly, movement changed, but again, at the gate leading to the Governor's Lodge, the security operatives stationed there re-screened the already accredited journalists and many were barred from entry.
Bomb detectors were used inside the venue to ascertain the safety of the venue while movement across the hall was highly restricted. The ceremony was watched by many dignitaries from various countries including France, Germany, the UK, the US, Ireland, Cameroon and Nigeria under the watchful eyes of delegates from the United Nations.
The Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for West Africa and Chairman, Cameroon - Nigeria Mixed Commission, Ambassador Said Djinnit gave the opening speech, followed by the Acting Governor of Cross River State, Rt. Hon. Francis Adah, who reminded both Cameroon and the Bakassians that the judgment has provisions for the protection of Bakassians if they chose to stay back to maintain their heritage.
The leader of the Nigerian delegation to the follow-up committee, Hon. Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Michael Kaase Aondoakaa who was accompanied to the event with Minister of Interior, Gen. Godwin Abbe (rtd), and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, also made his speech after which the leader of the Cameroonian delegation to the Follow-up Committee, Hon. Minister of State for Justice, Prof. Maurice Kamto, followed suit.
The Chairman of the Follow-up Committee, Sir Kiren Prendergast, summed up the peaceful hand-over as a model for other African countries with boundary disputes to emulate.
Back at the refugee camps in the new Bakassi Local Government Area, it is a compendium of tales of suffering, neglect, want and protest. At Ikang, the land boundary to the deep waters of Bakassi, the youths are literary mad that their land has been sold to Cameroon. While some ignorantly say Ojukwu sold the peninsula to Cameroon, in an apparent reference to Gen. Yakubu Gowon's civil war treaty with Cameroon's President Ahmadu Ahidjo, others are begging for government's assistance even though they are on the Ikang side which is still legally in Nigeria.
Different security operatives including the Immigration, Army Intelligence and the State Security Service, all clad in mufti wander about at Ikang in different guises but may have been deployed there on government order.
The Nigerian Army base at Ikang is now a shadow of itself. The civilian jetty built by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is without activities.
A few locals roam the jetty and its environs like orphans not sure of tomorrow. One thing however has come to stay as a truth: The sun has set on Bakassi and it is now a Cameroonian territory.