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Nigeria: Military - Bakassi Treaty Dangerous
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This Day (Lagos)
17 July 2008
Posted to the web 17 July 2008
Sufuyan Ojeifo
Abuja And Ernest Chinwo in Calabar
A startling revelation emerged yesterday about the Green Tree Agreement (GTA), the treaty ceding the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon, as military authorities spoke about the security implications of the agreement.
The Senate Joint Ad Hoc Committee on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) judgment, which paved the way for the GTA, was told that the nation's naval warships could only operate to a certain level in the Calabar Estuary following the treaty.
Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Andrew Owoye Azazi, and the Director, Training, Nigerian Defence Headquarters, Commodore Dele Izioba, painted to the committee a picture of how the movement of the nation's naval warships in and out of Calabar waterway would be encumbered if the relevant provisions of the GTA were not revisited.
But also yesterday, the Acting Governor of Cross River State, Hon. Francis Bussam Adah, said the scheduled handover of the remaining parts of Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon would go on as planned.
The GTA, which was dated June 12, 2006 and entered into by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Cameroonian President Paul Biya, had transferred the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon.
Controversy had dogged the treaty since the ceding of the peninsula with the National Assembly saying Obasanjo did not send the agreement to it for ratification.
Azazi and Izioba told the Senate commitee that the provision of the GTA if allowed to pass would entail that Nigeria would have to write Cameroon for permission for her naval warships to move into Calabar waterway.
Specifically, Azazi told the committee that the former CDS, General Martin Luther Agwai, accompanied Obasanjo to New York where the GTA was signed, adding that there were no concrete documents on the input of the military in the agreement.
He expressed concern about Article 4 (d) of the agreement which provides that Cameroon would exercise sovereignty on the waterway after five years, a development that will completely forbid the movement of Nigeria Naval warships through the waterway to Calabar except by official permission.
Azazi said: "The Boundary Commission talks about an agreement that was written in 1975 and we are talking about a document that was signed in 2006, which says our warships can only operate up to a certain level.
"The estuary itself is about 12 nautical miles wide and how many of that are deep waters? We are saying that that from the boundary, what access could Nigerian ships have if you say Nigerian ships cannot ply on the Cameroonian side, with the level of deep waters?
"It is of concern to us. If we cannot go through the deep waters, it means on the Nigerian side that is shallow, we cannot make any movement. I would like Commodore Dele to make an explanation."
In his explanation, Izioba said: "The CDS has aptly described what the scenario is, but I will look at it from a professional point of view within the context of legal framework.
"Under United Nations Conference on the Laws of the Sea (UNCLAWS 3) which clearly establishes territorial waters, contiguous zones and exclusive economic zones measured from the baseline seawards; from the arbitrary boundary that the DG of the National Boundary Commission has highlighted on the chart-from Akwaefo Rivers out to sea, it, kind of, divides the entrance to Calabar channel into two integral parts, ceding the right side of it to the east to the Cameroon and the west to Nigeria.
"Based on the provisions of this law, it means that the territorial waters of Cameroon, measured from baseline seawards, automatically impinges on what is acclaimed to be our own waterway and vice versa. In other words, it means there is a conflict, whichever way you look at it."
Izioba continued: "So, what we are saying in this context within the provisions of UNCLAWS is that the issue of maritime delineation should be considered such that both parties would have right of access and let me make it categorically clear here that the area in contest is of more strategic importance to Nigeria than to Cameroon because of Calabar."
He warned that under no circumstance should the nation compromise that security implication because it would have great consequences for national security.
He also drew the committee's attention to "the strategic maritime assets within this strategic area," saying "we have always had our ships go in and out and they may have informed paragraph 4d, which excluded warships. So we must be very careful."
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Izioba shared the position of Chairman of the Senate Committee, Senator Jibril Aminu, that there were no Naval men on the delegation to guide the Federal Government on the implications of the GTA.
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There is a hunch, judging by the theatric around the Bakassi, that some politicians that may be under the influence of foreign powers are trying to drag the country progresasively and surreptitously into all out war with the Cameroons counting on the weakness of the leadership in the country. The people should avoid being gullible and shout and cry out for deliverance to avoid being subjected into an unnecessary war. LONG LIVE NIGERIA AND LONG LIVE PEACE.
Gen. Aziz and Comm.Izioba had made clear the security and economic implications of this GTA agreement between Nigeria and Cameroon. Further the ex-president did not employ the services of his military big wigs on this issue. One will wonder what compelled the ex-president to make this decision of ceding the bakassi area without the knoeledge of senators and top military personell who are good in intelligence. The best thing we can do at the moment is to provide evidence to how security will be disrupted by ceding bakassi. One is the security aspect in Calabar, disruption of trade flow in... [Read Full Text]
Regional security was not considered before GTA agreement was signed between Nigeria and Cameroon.immediate past aministration solely engineered by General Coward ,lied ,conspired with collaborators to signed treaty that undermine the regional security of Nigeria.biased ruling by the ICJ indicated the conspiracy theory of the issues.ICJ itself knew the possible nautical conflict that might arise in decision of ceding the bakassi area to Cameroon. This decision is entirely rejected based on the need to repel and reject issues that might generate to a generation dispute,Nigeria should look into this not to compromise its sovereignty ,security ,history ,culture,tradition ,resources,economy and unity.Fed... [Read Full Text]
Application by anyone to a Nigerian court to void a judgment of the ICJ, while an expression of freedom of speech, begs of intellectual dishonesty given the well settled principle of jurisprudence that a lower court cannot review a decision of a higher court. In fact, the lower court in this case, a Nigerian High Court, is bound by the decision of the higher court, the ICJ, recognized as such by the sovereign. Similarly, the suggestion that “the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, did not consult the military before the cession of Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon,” should somehow invalidate a... [Read Full Text]
That Nigerians should sit and watch supinely as their compatriots in the Bakassi peninsula are tossed out to Cameroon with a stroke of the pen is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in peacetime! This cowardly act by a president who, not only was forced on Nigerians, but came in the guise of a born-again Christian clearly underscores Nigeria's continuous state of quandary.
Like many activities during his undemocratic 8-year tenure, Obasanjo's unilateral sacrifice of Bakassi for Cameroon would not have been possible if the region had included his own village of birth. Believe me, Obasanjo would not have... [Read Full Text]
DIESOLE. PLEASE CORRECT YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF CSOUTHERN CAMEROONS HISTORY. THE CORRECT VERSION IS, THAT IN 1961, SOUTHERN CAMEROONS, WHICH HAD SINCE BEEN FIGHTINGFOR INDEPENDENCE FROM BRITAIN, JOINLY RULED WITH NIGERIA. VOTED TO BECAME INDEPENDENT, IN A (FEDERAL STATE OF TWO EQUAL COUNTRIES) THOSE ARE THE WORDING USE TO EXPLAIN TO THE MASSES , BEFORE THEY VOTED,
AFTER12 YEARS, CAMEROUN RE-COLONISE SOUTHERN CAMEROONS BY MOVING ITS MILITARY CROSS THE... [Read Full Text]
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