Why Nigeria lost Bakassi to Cameroon, by Ita-Giwa

Former Special Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo, and an indigene of Bakassi, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa has said that one of the reasons Nigeria lost its case to Cameroon over the ownership of Bakassi peninsula at the International Court of Justice was because people of the area were not included in the defence team. Ita-Giwa, who said this while addressing journalists in Lagos, said the non inclusion of Bakassi people in the Federal Government’s team can also be attributed to “political machinations.”
“We are victims of the political machinations of different forces. Not one Bakassi native was among the Nigerian legal defence team. Infact, at no time were we consulted, no one asked us for any information concerning our sojourn on the peninsula. No one briefed us on the defence team’s strategy. All of these must have contributed to Nigeria loosing the case. Like someone said recently, it was a case of shaving a man’s head in his absence,” Ita-Giwa said.
The former presidential special adviser further said that the ceding of the old Bakassi Local Government Area was not total as erroneously believed in most quarters. According to her, three islands namely: Kwa Island and Day Spring 1 and 2 were not ceded to Cameroon. She thus advocated that the people should be relocated to those areas. “In fact, we were registered to vote and indeed voted on those islands in the presidential, National Assembly and state Assembly elections. It was only the gubernatorial election that we were systemically ostracized for reasons unknown to us,” she said.
The former senator further stated that the people are not interested in self declaration because such often leads to bloodshed.
“We are not interested in any conflict or declaration of sovereignty that will lead to bloodshed. We have observed that in every case where a people resettle in an area with an indigenous population, it leads to bloodshed like in the case of Fulani and Berom in Plateau State. The Modakeke and Ife people in Osun State. Someone should please prevail on the Federal Government to sidestep the desperate elements within Cross River State who want to play the Bakassi card as a bargaining chip,” Ita-Giwa  added.
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