BAKASSI PENINSULA: Though belated, the
Federal Government of Nigeria's decision
to appeal against the 2002 ruling of the
International Court of Justice, which ceded
Nigeria's Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon,
must be commended by all well-meaning Nigerians. Nigeria always had a strong
case over Bakassi but our outing at the ICJ
was fraught with incompetence and
treachery, where it appeared that persons
just used the Bakassi case to garner
enormous wealth and dubious international statesmanship. The first
signal of the FG's determination to win the
appeal must be to ensure that persons like
Olusegun Obasanjo, Richard Akinjide, Bola
Ajibola and Bayo Ojo are not involved in
any way whatsoever in the review process. They have been tried, tested and
found wanting on the Bakassi matter. We
must this time field a fresh, patriotic,
principled, intelligent, competent, credible
and morally upright team of lawyers and
witnesses. And the wishes and interests of the Bakassi people (not 76 oil wells for
Cross River State, Gulf of Guinea
Commission membership for Nigeria, nor
access for Nigerian Navy and merchant
ships) should be the driving force of our
appeal. Indeed, with that as the focus of the appeal, Nigeria would succeed on all
considerations.