THE ROLE OF ICJ IN THE RESOLUTION OF BAKASSI CONFLICT: AN ANALYSIS

IN THE GREEN TREE AGREEMENT.

INTRODUCTION

BACKGOUND OF THE STUDY

The Bakassi peninsular is a region of some 1,000 km of mangrove swamp and half
submerged islands distending into the Bight of Bonny, (previously known as the Bight of
Biafra).
Since eighteenth century, the peninsular has been occupied by fishermen settlers the majority
of whose residents are Efik-speaking people of Nigeria (Anene, 1970:56).
Since 1993, the peninsula, which apart from oil wealth also boasts of heavy fish deposit, has
been a subject of genuine debate, between Nigeria and Cameroun with score of lives lost from
military animosities that have been for the most part induced by Cameroon (Saturday Punch,
Olumide, 2002: 4).
The regional question emitted into brutality in May 1981, and intermittent skirmishes
continued to take place until the matter was resolved. Nigeria in fact claimed that in 1884 the
chiefs of the area accepted British protection, but did not give up sovereignty.
It also opines that the 1913 agreements that bordered the boundary from Yola to the sea were
never ratified.
The matter, though, took a legal turn on March 24, 1994 when Cameroun instituted a suit
against Nigeria at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), at the Hague, looking for an injunction
for the expulsion of Nigerian force, which it said were occupying the territory and to hold back
Nigeria from laying aver to sovereignty over the peninsular.
The entire border argument began when the Obong of Calabar signed a "Treaty of
Protection" with Britain on September 10, 1884, Britain then decided to "extend its protection" to
the Obong and his Chiefs.
The Obong agreed and promised to abstain from going into any understandings or
arrangements with foreign nations or Powers without the prior consent of the British
Government. That is, he signed away his Kingdom as a British territory. All of this was prior to
Nigeria creation. Noticeably, besides that unlike agreements between metropolitan powers these
so called protectorate agreements with African Kingdoms did not have accurate definitions of
precincts.
The conflict between Nigeria and Cameroon was a border and territorial clash – the Bakassi
Peninsula being the most raced.
Endeavors were made in the past to determine the debate through two-sided transactions, but
in 1981, and again in 1993, 1994 and 1996, the dispute nearly rises to a war. Between 1994 and
2002, the issue was before the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
A verdict was pronounced in 2002 by the ICJ on the matter and the Nigerian government
issued a statement rejecting the judgment of the International Court.
Yet following dialogue between the two countries, make possible by the UN and crowned by
the June 2006 Green-tree Agreement in New York and subsequent instruments, Nigeria
completed the taking out of its military, administration and police from the Bakassi Peninsula in
August 2008. This has been described as an incredible outcome in conflict resolution in Africa.
Conversely, it will be inexperienced to conclude that the issue has been neatly resolved
without a careful examination of the linkages propelling the variance and resolution processes.
Figure 1 is a conflict map showing the relationships among various actors and issues in the
dispute over the Bakassi Peninsula. The states in conflict are Nigeria and Cameroon, and the ICJ
gives the Peninsula to Cameroon in October 2002.
Following the ICJ judgment, which of course has no enforcement mechanism, the Nigerian
parliament submitted that the surrender would be unconstitutional and required a referendum
(Price 2005). Even the UN body overseeing the dialogue – the Cameroon-Nigerian Mixed
Commission – between the countries did show that technical problems delayed the shift of the
Peninsula to Cameroon.
This commission was set up by the UN Secretary- General on the appeal of President Paul
Biya of Cameroon and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and chaired by the Secretary-
General’s Special Representative for West Africa. Its responsibility was to decide ways to
implement the ICJ ruling and move the process forward (United Nations 2006).
Article 1 of the Agreement states: “Nigeria recognizes the dominion of Cameroon over the
Bakassi Peninsula in agreement with the judgment of the International Court of Justice of 10
October 2002 in the matter of land and maritime boundary between Cameroon and Nigeria.
Cameroon and Nigeria recognise the land and maritime boundary between the two countries as
demarcated by the Court and entrust themselves to continuing the process of implementation
already begun.”
The National Assembly come into view to depend a lot on section 12 of the 1999 Constitution in
arguing that the Green Tree Agreement should have been referred to it for approval, and the
failure to do so would make the Agreement illegal, unacceptable and void. It has been a troubled
that this position would appear to be a misconception of the legal effect of section 12, principally
as regards the distinction between agreement making and implementation, and the dual nature of
Nigeria’s obligation – its obligation under international law and national law.
Minimal over 10 years prior since the ICJ administering and the resulting procedure of
political settlement and almost a year since the final hand over of the contested Bakassi
Peninsula to the Cameroon on August 13, 2013 by Nigeria, it would show, from current
developments, that the process of resolution excluded the indigenes of the area, the Bakassi
people whose rights, land properties and means of occupation were influenced the most and were
at the heart of the contention.
This come about because of the investigation and application of the Court ruling and the
outcome of the Green Tree Agreement by the concerned parties in such a way that greater
significance was attached to the Peninsula as well as its strategic significance and oil deposit
rather than its inhabitants.
In the blink of an eye, the Bakassi individuals have been strongly dislodged from the
Peninsula and have been continually driven out from their homes, harassed, killed and hence,
stopped by the Cameroonian gendarmes and soldiers from engaging in fishing and other
maritime activities which have been their main source of livelihood (Channel TV News 4 April
2013, Vanguard July 23, 2013) opposing to the Green Tree Agreement, (Article 3 of Green
Agreement) on the ground that the people were encroaching on Cameroonian territory.
On the Nigerian end, a percentage of the general population who chose to traverse to
Nigeria have been neglected, abandoned (Edem Duke, 2012) and are being treated as refugees,
only briefly protected in assigned primary schools and public buildings in dehumanizing
conditions in Akpabuyo Local Government of Cross River State, (Nigerian Newsday 2013).
To show plainly that they were no more Nigerians, from the period of the 2011election
till date, these people have not been allowed to partake in any election in Nigeria on the grounds
that (a) their area (electoral wards) have been transferred to Cameroon (b) their names afterward
cannot be found on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s Voters’ Register.
Correspondingly several months of effort to settle these people by the Federal
Government of Nigeria through the committee saddled with this responsibility has not yielded
any result. As a result, like the Roma (Gypsies) people in Europe, it would seem like the Bakassi
individuals have been rendered stateless.
The implication of these actions by both Nigeria and Cameroon is that their primary
center and hobby was just on the Peninsula, its vital advantages and assets yet not the general
population.

Implications of the Bakassi conflict resolution for Cameroon

Figure 1: Conflict dynamics and settlement linkages: Cameroon, Nigeria and the Bakassi
Peninsula

Global Institutional: Environment

(World Markets, the UN System, Former
United States etc.)

Border Struggles:

(Contradictions, Law, Mixed Cameroon

Nigeria
Comm, Credibility, etc.)
•Efik
•Cameroonians
•Ibibio The •‘Ambazonians’

•Obasanjo Peninsula
•Biya
•Yar’Adua

Social
Movements

Potentials for Peace, Growth and Development:

★★Infrastructural Developments: R Hospitals, Radio & TV signals,
★★Exploitation of Natural Resource gas, Fisheries, Water-ways, L
 ★★Bilateral formal trade

Source: Francis Menjo Baye

Figure 1 also refers to the idea that border struggles between Cameroon and Nigeria are the product of a
number of contradictions:

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

The boundary argument is over the Bakassi Peninsula in the Gulf of Guinea, the 1,500-
km border between Cameroon and Nigeria, and quite a lot of areas along Lake Chad. The dispute
can be pointed into two main issues: the fight for the Bakassi Peninsula linked with the potential
oil development and fisheries off the Peninsula's shores; and the partly resolved dispute over
certain areas of the Lake Chad region linked with nationalist ties of numerous groups to the land
as a result of colonialism.
In essence, there are two simultaneous issues at hand, the potential for environmental
dent resulting from oil development and excessive fishing in the Bakassi region and the potential
for more violence as Ambazonians (English speaking Cameroonians), Francophone
Cameroonians, Nigerians and the inhabitants of the Bakassi Peninsula (Efik) race the region's
demarcated areas of the boundary decision by the International Court of Justice.
In terms of environmental issues, in recent years Lake Chad has overwhelmed various
times, driving neighborhood fishermen to either become farmers or move with the changing
shoreline, causing them to cross international borders in the process. This has further exacerbated
nationalistic strains in the region.
There has been a dramatic rush of conflicts in post colonial Africa. The common
denominator has been the change of apparently petty disagreements, dissatisfaction,
misunderstanding or rebellious uprisings into major conflicts or wars as they rise to greater
extents with annihilating results on the people, the resources and the African image around the
world.
In endeavoring to determine these contentions, different states and non-state actors have
often adopted different approaches spanning from economic sanctions, diplomacy or outright use
of force. Fizzled endeavors to gently resolve the vast majority of these contentions in recent
times have resulted in the erection of new ones or the deterioration of old ones.
The unlucky outcome of this dilemma has led to: the springing of ideological wars,
distorted progress, division, new boundaries, widened political exclusion, and abuse of human
rights, increased poverty and power struggle as it continues to affect the relationship between
states.
This prompts the understanding that a continent that seeks to advance unity is naturally
expected to be more vivacious in resolving crises without causing more harm than good and
without trying to break some barriers while constructing new ones at the same time.
This is where the nonviolent resolution of the Bakassi conflicts comes in. In wanton
difference to warfare on the continent, the efforts of a few men focused on peace and urged by
the yearning to greatly state the pride and worth of human nature found it necessary to develop
an unassailable and majestic roadmap tampered enough to render bare all possibilities of a major
warfare between two neighborly countries. Even with this huge accomplishment, new pages in
history were written as the editorials of morning newspapers revisited their drafts to include this
happy episode about a continent whose drama is usually painful.
In any case, this tranquil determination was not won without force meeting of the forces
of power of both countries. On the flip side, if power is understood as the ability to achieve
purpose and the quality required to achieve the craved reason, then it is conceivable to
comprehend that this accomplishment was not just conceivable because of the nonattendance of
the forces of power demanding the use of force, but the presence of the forces of power
dedicated to the preserving of peace.
Above and beyond, it is enviable to identify that the peaceful resolution of the crisis over
the Bakassi Peninsular could dually be termed as a drop of water in the ocean but also as a tip of
the ice sheet that uncovered a couple of the numerous human qualities if sufficiently given space
for expression.
Likewise, this reasoning springs to mind a few inquiries went for deciding the factors
that account for the overwhelming imbalance and success in the peaceful resolution of conflicts
on the continent.
These reasons and understanding make it fascinating to examine the circumstances that
account for the successful resolution of the said crisis without resorting to a major warfare.
As a result, this study will focus on the peaceful resolution of the crisis between
Cameroon and Nigeria over the Bakassi Peninsular with a spotlight on exploring the factors that
made the peaceful outcome possible.

SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
The choice to explore this crisis is not only enthused by the futile losses of human lives and the
curiosity it has ignited on Cameroon, Nigeria and the international community, but evenly as a
result of the significance of its peaceful resolution to world politics, diplomacy, peace and the
conflict between tradition and modernity involving the haunting of the contemporary
Cameroon’s and Nigeria’s reality by the history of the pre-colonial Kingdom of Calabar.
• The outcome of this work will help in revealing the implication of conflict so that most
people will understand the effect and consequences attached to it.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

This study aims at examining the role of International court of Justice (ICJ) in the resolution of
bakassi conflict: an analysis in the green tree agreement

Objectives of the Study

The study was guided by the following objectives

 To find out the level of imperialists having intensified the conflict between Nigeria and
Cameroon
 To find out the real issues to agreement of Bakassi Peninsula
  To establish the level of poor insight of the inhabitants of Bakassi not being Nigerians of
Efik extraction.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
To guide this study, research question were formulated as shown below:
 What causes led to the crisis between Cameroon and Nigeria over the Bakassi Peninsula?
 Why was it possible to reach a peaceful resolution?
 What are the building blocks of the conflict?
 How and why was the crisis over the Bakassi Peninsular resolved?
 What lessons can be learned: how does the peaceful resolution of the conflict serve as a
model?

STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESIS

Hypothesis is a tentative statement about the universe which may or may not be true. For
the purpose of this research work, the following hypothesis is considered.

 Is there a significant relationship between creation of the imperialists, colonialists and

capitalists and conflict between Nigeria and Cameroon?
 Is there a significant relationship between economic and strategic as the real issues in
argument of Bakassi Peninsula?

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of this study is not anticipated to embrace in detail all that may have been
required to develop the topic of the study because of its broad and its inherent difficulties
associated with obtaining data because of time constraints – which will hamper a useful detailed
development of the research topic.

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Sorry to say, a number of factors bound findings to be limited within a definite framework
but devoid of undermining concise data necessary to achieve the goal of the study. Example of
such limitations is the absence of primary data such as interviews from major actors who played
important roles in bringing about a peaceful resolution, frontline soldiers in the conflict, former
and present administrators of the Bakassi Peninsula, Natives, chiefs and present and previous
occupants in the region. There is additionally the nonattendance of comprehensive research and
scholarly material on the issue. One of such limitations is the absence of a succinct map showing
Bakassi and King points which surfaced out of the 1913 Anglo-German agreement and its border
demarcations.