Prince Bola Ajibola (SAN), former
Nigerian Minister of Justice and
Attorney-General of the
Federation, was on the Panel of
Judges, at the International Court
of Justice (ICJ), which decided on
the issue of Bakassi between
Nigeria and Cameroun.
The former Nigerian High
Commissioner to the United
Kingdom took time off his busy
schedule, even at 78, to narrate
to Saturday Vanguard at his
Hilltop GRA home in Abeokuta
recently how the ceding of
Bakassi to Cameroun actually
occurred. Excerpts:
You were not only a serving
judge at The Hague when the
International Court of Justice
(ICJ) gave its verdict ceding
Bakassi to Cameroun. What
really happened and what do
you say about the clamour for
appeal that is presently going
on?
To start with, there is nothing
like appeal in our International
Court of Justice (ICJ). There is
nothing like that.
You see what I mean? An
application can be made to
review certain aspects of the
judgment but not strictly
speaking an appeal. So, an appeal
does not lie to our court there.
All they are now doing is belated
and overtaken by events. What
they ought to have done is to
have put their house in order
before even independence and
immediately after independence.
To be frank, when the situation
became virtually what it is today,
the Ministry of Justice, in those
years in early 60s, sought for
legal opinion on this matter and
because of what happened in
1913 in the Anglo-German
Agreement, it was since then that
we have this uphill task because
it was Britain that ceded the
whole of that Bakassi area, well
described in Article 21 and 22 of
that agreement, specifically to
Germany.
Germany, when it suffered defeat
during the Second World War,
was deprived of that area and
Bakassi went to France and it
was France that gave
independence to Cameroun and
that was how Cameroun got into
it.
A lot of people have been saying
a lot of things that are not really
correct. In most cases, we
ourselves as Nigerians
bastardized our position
because, as far back as 1961, we
had written a note to Cameroun
telling Cameroun that we
Nigerians are aware of the fact
that they own Bakassi!
Throughout all these 1960s and
1970s, our map of Nigeria was
always indicating the excise of
Bakassi out of our own land in
Nigeria as part of what belongs
to Cameroon. In fact, it has
further been stamped by the fact
that we agreed that our
boundary is in Akwa Yafe as
opposed to Rio del Rey. If we
own Bakassi, the boundary
would have been in Rio del Rey
and not Akwa Yafe. We agreed to
that! We Nigerians in Nigeria
here.
And we even at a time asked
Professor Valad in Britain to
advise us on the matter and that
professor told us clearly that we
had an uphill task, that what we
thought we owned had already
been transferred to Cameroun
through that treaty. That is the
situation.
But there are still questions to be
answered, which had already
been ignored or decided against
by the ICJ and you can read a lot
of that in my 'dissenting
opinion'. Your see, the situation
is far more than what a lot of
people have been talking about.
It is what has happened beyond
our time, before our time. We are
now raking the misfortune of
yesteryears and we are now the
victims of the problems that
arose before now. That was at
the time of our independence.
From what you have said, where
and how did General Gowon,
General Obasanjo and you came
into this controversy because it
has been said that Gowon
started it, Obasanjo gave it out
and you sat on the panel that
decided the case against Nigeria?
No. It is wrong. They are not
mentioning the names that they
ought to mention, which really
prejudiced our case before the
ICJ. They ought to mention the
name of our Minister of Foreign
Affairs just immediately after our
independence in 1961 that really
in his note gave Bakassi to
Cameroun. That should be
mentioned.
We are just the unfortunate
victims of what had happened
before our time in Nigeria. And a
lot of things happened
advertently and inadvertently
through our regular mistakes or
misfortunes.
Then, how in the first instance,
did the matter get to the ICJ?
Cameroun took us to ICJ. And let
me say this, that in fact it was
during the time of this litigation
at the ICJ on the application by
Cameroun that we started
changing our map to include
Bakassi (laughs).
That was the obvious and the
judges are human beings. They
are there equipped with
evidence put in by Cameroun. It's
a case of an admission that we
have taken on ourselves to cede
all this area to Cameroun based
even upon the 1913 Anglo-
German Treaty and based on
what we lawyers call pacta sunt
savanda.
It is very, very unfortunate that a
kettle is now calling a pot black.
It ought not to be at all because
the mistake or the problem
started right from the beginning
of our independence. Those who
are now shouting ought to have
started shouting at that time if
they could get hold of all that we
did.
But why do you think the
Nigerian side appeared to be
complacent over the judgment
that they didn't talk about it
until now?
Let me say something here.
Bakassi is not the beginning and
end of the whole issue. What
Cameroun took us to ICJ for was
not only Bakassi. It had to do
with the land in Lake Chad; the
land boundary between the two
of us, the land boundary
between Nigeria and Cameroun
from Lake Chad to the Sea as well
as Bakassi and the maritime
boundary. The maritime limit that
they asked for and that is asking
for virtually all the sea boundary
of our present Nigeria.
Let me say that if they had
succeeded in that, we would
have been in the misfortune of
having no more oil, at least the
foreshore oil. We would not be
so privileged any longer.
But that is not the most heinous
part of the action that was taken
by Cameroun. Cameroun took
Nigeria to court on what we call
'state responsibility'. It's like a
criminal charge against Nigeria.
If they had succeeded in that one
alone, we would have been
thrown into endless debt that
must be payable to Cameroun.
We never allowed that to happen
because we counterclaimed
against them on it, which saved
us the internal slavery to
Cameroun and being in perpetual
penury in which we would have
been till today and henceforth.
We did not allow that to happen
to us. But that wasn't all.
Those who are criticizing should
go and look into the judgment
again and they will find out that
virtually we gained generally
rather than losing. Because the
entire land that Cameroun had
occupied in Nigeria, and we
were able to ascertain that
belong to Nigeria on the land
boundary, far exceeded that
which is now claimed in Bakassi.
And we were able to claim it
back from them.
Could you give a bit of the
details of what we gained and
what do you advise the
agitators for return of Bakassi
to Nigeria to do?
In Chad area, we knew that it
was the ceding of the water that
forced our people out of that
place and since the water kept
drying up, we got into that
situation.
We moved out of that but they
also moved out of the Southern
part of that Chad which they
occupied and which belong to
Nigeria. But I think before they
start doing anything, I mean
those that are now talking, they
should not look into Bakassi
alone because, Bakassi is not a
be-all-and-earn-all of the whole
things involved in this dispute.
It is the land and maritime
boundary. We gained extensively
considering the claim of
Cameroun against us on the
maritime boundary. We gained
extensively in that.
They must not be myopic, they
must be objective and they must
look into the whole judgment
before passing any judgment
further on what they may likely
go back to the court for.
Again, the whole dispute had
three phases, I have to say. It
started with the preliminary
objection on admissibility and
jurisdiction.
We first of all told the court that,
that action is misconceived and
should not be entertained. We
gave eight reasons for this but
the whole thing was turned
down by the court and the court
rejected all those reasons .
Then the case on merit. Also,
before that, there was also an
application on .....on certain
aspects of the case.
These people should go into our
archives and be well informed
and be well educated on this
thing and in fact the antecedents
before litigations.
They should look into it. And they
should look again into the
history of what is Southern
Nigeria and Northern Nigeria and
all that moved. Because the
Northern Nigeria moved into
Nigeria while part of Southern
Nigeria went to Cameroun. So,
we need to look into all that. We
need to check our facts before
we start talking.
Just before stop this discussion,
let me quickly ask: Why is it
that our Constitution still
reflects Bakassi as one of the
774 Local Governments of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria and
yet we believe, as a system
that Bakassi has been ceded?
Whatever may be the problem
with implementing a decision of
the court is the internal problem
of Nigeria and that, in itself, is
strictly domestic. All we need to
do is to check the Section 12 of
our Constitution and put our
house in order.
The international community is
not concerned about that.
Internationally judgment has
been given against us with
regard to Bakassi and that, they
are aware of.
As a matter of fact there are so
many things that one needs not
come out with in this matter that
could have happened
disastrously to what is called
Nigeria. And as a matter of fact, if
we had done something else,
there would be no Nigeria by
now and arms conflicts would
have taken over and there are so
many countries in this world that
are so friendly with the position
of Cameroun because they are of
the view that Cameroun has
Bakassi.
Meaning that even if the verdict
hasn't favoured Cameroun, it
could have declared war
against Nigeria believing there
are so many world powers that
would come to its aid?
They could because so many
powerful countries in the world
are behind Cameroun on this
matter. We have seen that and
we have been told about that. We
are aware of that and actions are
already going on, on that. So, we
must be very careful.
And I repeat that we must be
very careful. We must think again
and we must look into the
history. Those who are talking
now must first of all go into the
history and look at all that
happened before independence
and immediately after
independence.
You see what I mean? And they
should look into all the powers
exercised by the colonial masters
and all the international
agreements and treaties. It is
worth looking at and, perhaps,
they should read my Dissenting
Opinion.

Source
allafrica.com/stories/201209290375.html

bigsam360: Source
allafrica.com/stories/201209290375.html

ajibola n obj So you people gave out Efikland inexchange for hausaland, one day ur own village will be taken by ur enemy

Prince Bola Ajibola has made a vital point. The final decision whether to appeal against the icj verdict or not rested on the FG . It is true that we bastardaized our position on bakassi but goverment should pls listen to the voice of these people for God sake.BAKASSI IS NIGERIA FOR SURE.