BAKASSI: FG URGED TO MAKE CASE FOR SELF DETERMINATION BEFORE UN.

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The federal government has been urged to galvanise international support and sponsor the agitation of the people of Bakassi for self-determination and make a case in the United Nations to this effect.

A university don, Dr. Alobo Eni Eja, said a plebiscite should  be organised for the people of Bakassi to decide whether they want to go with Cameroun or remain with Nigeria.

Eja, who is the Head of Public and International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Calabar, spoke in Lagos yesterday, at a lecture to mark the 60th birthday of the former judge of the Federal High Court, Lagos, Justice Charles Archibong.

Speaking on the topic: "The Judgment of International Court of Justice on sovereignty over Bakassi: Aftermath, Lessons and the Legal Option of Self-determination," Eja said it was incongruous and insensitive for Bakassi to have been ceded without a say by the people of the area.

"Nigeria should immediately press for a UN-supervised plebiscite or referendum with a view to determining the wishes of the inhabitants of the affected area," he said.

According to the lecturer, though a plebiscite may not reverse the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on sovereignty over Bakassi, it will help to facilitate the protection and resettlement of the Bakassi people.

Eja noted that the plight of the Bakassi people bears testimony to the fact that leadership of the country, both past and present, have failed the people, adding that Nigeria had not had the opportunity of being governed by a truly, proactive, responsible and visionary leadership.

While noting that the ICJ judgment was a travesty and a brutal re-enactment of colonial injustice, Eja said it was a sad reminder that the case arose in the first instance as a direct consequence of the buccaneer activities of the imperial powers of Europe, who, having earlier traded in Africa's virile peoples, sought at the close of 19th century to balkanise the continent in the infamous scramble for Africa.

According to him, a very worrisome perspective in the ICJ judgment, which is a major critique, was the total neglect of the true intentions and wishes of the indigenous people of Bakassi to remain with their extended kith and kin in Nigeria.

"The court preoccupied itself with what the British thought of the 1884 Treaty but unfortunately and quite regrettably failed to consider what the kings and chiefs of the old Calabar had in mind when the treaty was entered into, even when the intention of parties was unambiguously demonstrated in the treaty," he noted.

Eja said the intimidation and terrorising of Nigerians in the Peninsula constitute a breach of fundamental human rights and had elicited the calls for the exercise of the right to self-determination by the Bakassi people.

  

"The challenges facing the Bakassi people must be addressed urgently, vigorously, committed and with determined consistency," he said. This Day reports.