Senate Rejects Bakassi Handover
donne4real | November 25, 2007
On Thursday, the Nigerian Senate handily voted to reject the handover of Bakassi to Cameroon.Here are excerpts of the story from Punch Newspapers:
The Senate said the decision by Obasanjo to sign the August 14, 2006 Green Tree Agreement ceding the area to Cameroun, was unilateral and contrary to Section 12 (1) of the 1999 Constitution. The Section reads, “No treaty betwen the Federation and other country shall have the force of law except to the extent to which any such treaty has been enacted into law by the National Assembly. The Senate’s action followed a motion by Senator Bassey Ewa- Henshaw and 21 others.
The motion, titled “Impending crisis in and uncertain fate of the people of Bakassi,” was seconded by the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekwerenmadu. The Senate noted that on October 10, 2002, the International Court of Justice, to which Nigeria had subjected itself, gave judgment in favour of Cameroun in spite of strong historical, cultural, political and legal arguments put forward by Nigeria. It added that the former President went on to sign the agreement in spite of the disaffection by Nigerians to the judgment. The Senate also noted that Obasanjo did not only sign the agreement unilaterally, he failed to ‘place it before the National Assembly for scrutiny as required by the constitution.’
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information, Senator Ayogu Eze, gave the details of the Senate’s position. He said, “Technically speaking, nothing has been ceded. In law, Bakassi is still part of Nigeria because the areas supposedly ceded are all listed in the constitution. “Unless the constitution is amended, the areas remain part of the country.
The act of ceding the area ought to have been sanctioned by an Act of parliament and unless that is done, we take it that those places still belong to Nigeria.”Eze said the Third Schedule to the constitution listed Bakassi and other areas ceded to Cameroun as parts of Nigeria.
The Senate, therefore, resolved to, among other things, carry out the following:
-Draw the attention of President Umaru Yar’Adua to the fact that the transfer of Bakassi and some othe r parts of Nigeria to Cameroun under the agreement of August 14, 2006 without ratification by the National Assembly as required by Section 12 (1) of our constitution is unconstitutional;
- Request the Federal Government to forthwith stop any further transfer of the territories in the Peninsula, particularly Abana, Atabong or any other part of the country to Cameroun until and unless the agreement is ratified by the National Assembly;
- Urge the President to submit the agreement to the National Assembly without further delay to enable it determine whether or not it is in the interest of Nigeria; and
- Urge the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, provide for the immediate rehabilitation and resettlement of the people of the peninsula and other parts of Nigeria who have already been displaced from their homes.The Senate also sympathised with the people of the Peninsula for the hardship caused them by the ‘unfortunate cession’ of their ancestral homes and the neglect by government to take appropriate steps for a less traumatic relocation and rehabilitation.
