Regaining Bakassi Peninsula from Cameroon: The Options Available to Nigeria
Publication Date: 29/03/2019
Author(s): Adeleke Olumide Ogunnoiki.
Volume/Issue: Volume 2 , Issue 1 (2019)
Abstract:
The Bakassi Peninsula is a 1,600 kilometres long peninsula protruding from Calabar into the Gulf of Guinea. During the colonial rule of present-day Nigeria, Great Britain ceded the peninsula to Germany with the Anglo-German Treaty of 1913. As a result, the resource-rich Bakassi Peninsula became a disputed territory between Nigeria and her immediate neighbour, Cameroon, in the post-colonial era. In the year 1994, Cameroon instituted legal action against Nigeria at The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) which ruled in its favour in October 2002. In the month of June 2006, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and his counterpart President Paul Biya of Cameroon signed the Green Tree Agreement (GTA) in New York, United States, which eventually led to the ceremonial handover of the peninsula by Nigeria during Yar’Adua’s administration to Cameroon in August 2008. Nigeria had up to 2012 to appeal the ICJ verdict with fresh fact. Sadly, the government of President Jonathan failed to do so. Hence, Nigeria, through the adjudication method of pacific settlement of international disputes, lost Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon. Thus far, there has not been any policy statement by the government of Nigeria to regain the peninsula from Cameroon. Should there be in the nearest future, this paper identifies the possible options still available to Nigeria to repossess Bakassi Peninsula. The research methodology adopted for this study is the historical approach with the qualitative method of secondary data collection.
