Fellow Nigerians, this is a clarion call for all Nigerians to wake up and see what is happening or what is about to happen to this great country very soon, precisely on the 14th of August, 2008, when the President, Musa Yar'Adua, intends to hand-over Bakassi to another country, that is, Cameroun. This is a call for all Nigerians to come together and speak as one against the many cabals that have held this country at the throat, trying to strangle her. This is a call for all Nigerians to recognize that the united voice of the majority is far stronger and more superior to the voice of the few who think that by amplifying their voice with different artificial means, then their voice become superior to that of the majority of Nigerians. Fellow Nigerians, this is a call for us to rediscover ourselves and our strength as a common people; bond together by a common course of nationhood while retaining our diverse blessings.
Why do we have to speak out now more than ever before? It is because of the resurgence of the slave trade in our country, but this time in a new form. Our brothers and our sisters in the Bakassi peninsula are about to be sold out to Cameroun in the name of keeping or respecting the Green Tree Agreement that was signed by Olusegun Obasanjo, when he was the President, which President Yar,Adua now claims he is obliged to keep; that is, handing over Bakassi to Cameroun on the 14th August, 2008.
But one may ask, where is Bakassi? Bakassi is a part of Nigeria that lies along the delta region; and she is more so a part of Nigeria because till date Bakassi is covered by the Nigerian constitution. Then again one may ask, if Bakassi is part of Nigeria and is covered by the constitution of Nigeria, why then is there the intention of handing her over to another country? The answer to this question has already been given when I said that the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, signed the Green Tree Agreement in which Bakassi was to be handed over to Cameroun. But then the big question, why did Obasanjo sign such an agreement? Some Senators answered this question by claiming that Obasanjo, as the then President, was trying to improve the image of the country positively on the international front, and that it was a move in the right direction for Nigeria to get seat as part of the Security Council. But some other more truthful Senators said it was for him to win the bid of a third term, and possibly be President for life.
Obasanjo may have had his reasons and ambitions before him to the signing of the agreement, but nearly all the Senators agree that he never went through the right process to getting the agreement signed, because they largely claim that the Senators were not consulted and very clearly Nigerians were not consulted. At this point then Nigerians must take a look at the Green Tree Agreement and the International Court of Justice that backed that agreement.
Since that agreement did not go through the right procedures that it should have gone, in conformity with the Nigerian constitution, then that agreement is no agreement at all in anyway or form for Nigeria; at best it can be an agreement for Obasanjo and whatever he thought he owned. It is not an agreement for Nigeria because Obasanjo, even as the then President never owned Nigeria, and will never, because Nigeria does not belong to anyone individual Nigerian, but to the whole people of Nigeria. So if Nigerians wanted to give away a part of her land and people then the decision would have come from all Nigerians, including the people living on the land that they intend to give away. This was never done, therefore there was no agreement whatever by Nigerians that Bakassi peninsula and her people will be given over to Cameroun.
But come to think of it, it is also a disgrace to the so-called International Court of Justice for backing such an agreement. Where is the justice, when the right procedures were not followed to getting the agreement signed? Where is the justice when the people of a nation are not consulted before their people are treaded out like commodities in the market place? Where is the justice where the fundamental human rights of the Bakassi people have been trampled upon? All I see around this agreement is injustices which have been backed by the so-called International Court of Justice; or does this court specialize in approving injustice in the name of justice? If the International Court of Justice has made a mistake in backing such an unjust agreement, why are Nigerians, especially those in government so afraid to tell them that they made a mistake? Why is President Yar'Adua and some Senators in his cohort so bent on handing Bakassi over, all in the name that the International Court of Justice has given her ruling and that Nigeria cannot but obey that ruling?
What kind of ruling did the International Court of Justice give? Have we forgotten that the ruling of the International Court of Justice is non binding as long at it has to do with a sovereign nation, like Nigeria? And in fact, if the ruling of the International Court of Justice has is divinely imposing that Nigeria cannot but obey the ruling, is the International Court of Justice blind or can she not give a ruling over what is happening between Israel and Palestine? Can she not give a ruling over what is happening in Iraq, Darfur? Is the International Court of Justice pretending not to be seeing what is happening with China and Tibet, yet China is allowed to host the Olympics? Why has her ruling in the case of Nigeria become a dogma that must be obeyed at all cost? It means that there is more than the eyes can see with this ruling of the International Court of Justice in the case of Nigeria.
And why is there so much interest in the Bakassi peninsula? If there was no crude oil there will Cameroun ever be interested in that area? And is it not a sort of game plan to sell out the regions in Nigeria that have some natural mineral resources so that the rich Nigerians, Africans and their international allies will ever be richer? Is it not that Bakassi, which is a small peninsula, is being used now so that the sellers will see how well or not this trade will go, and then if it goes well then other parts of the country will follow? When Bakassi goes, who will be the ones to go there and build refineries and get oil wells and oil blocks? Do not be surprise that they may be the very ones who have sold this place out because they know that if they do it while Bakassi is still under Nigeria, then people will question them, but if they do it when Bakassi is under Cameroun then no one can question them. Bakassi is just a testing ground, and if we allow her to go like this then no where is safe anymore in Nigeria, since we can wake up one day and hear that Lagos, or Delta, or Rivers, or Kaduna, or Kano, etc. have been given out following one agreement that we never knew about; just as those in Bakassi wake up one day to find out that they did not have any home land anymore because of an agreement that they never knew anything about, and which they have continued to object till date.
The court of Appeal in Abuja have help raised the consciousness of this objection, restricting President Yar'Adua from handing over Bakassi to Cameroun, but very sadly, the Attorney General of Nigeria and some others lawyers and law makers, came up saying that the court has got no jurisdiction over the matter that has been decided by the International Court of Justice. This to me is a very funny joke. Who has got jurisdiction in this matter? The Court in Abuja is acting within the ambient of the laws of Nigeria, as stated in the Nigerian constitution, while the ruling of the International Court of Justice is trying to be super-imposed on the laws of a sovereign nation, and then these people who should know better get up to say that the Court in Abuja has got no jurisdiction. It is the ruling of the International Court of Justice that is out of jurisdiction in this matter, because it is not superior to the laws of Nigeria within Nigeria. I do not really think these people understand the consequences of what they are claiming by saying that in this matter the ruling of the International Court of Justice is superior to that of Nigeria. Once this is accepted then Nigeria is finished because she is no longer a sovereign nation because there is another law which is superior to her own but this one comes from outside of her, yet all her laws become dead in the presence of this one coming from outside. This is what these people are trying to tell us, but this is completely wrong.
But if this wrong idea that the ruling of the International Court of Justice is superior to the Nigerian laws, and by extension her constitution, is accepted and shown through the action of handing Bakassi over to Cameroun, then the country may as well prepare herself for results like these:
The findings of a research made in the United State of America about three or fours ago that Nigeria will cease to remain as a country within the next ten to fifteen years (that is, ending at about the year 2019) will become true. It will become true because every part, and people of various ethnic group will have known that they is nothing really holding Nigeria and Nigerians together anymore , and then there will be a mad rush for various groups to break away and be independent. Up till now the constitution of Nigeria has been the point of convergence, even though it may be a shaky one, but to have it destroyed completely by this singular act of handing Bakassi over to Cameroun will spell doom for the country.
It will mean that the judiciary in Nigeria is a simple waste of time since one can easily go to the International Court of Justice and get a superior judgment for whatever thing, and to which the laws of Nigeria must bow, and this then cannot be denied because the Bakassi experience will always be there to prove that the ruling of the ICJ is superior to the Nigerian laws.
If things are not very quickly checked and put in their right other, that is, every thing must be done to see that Bakassi remains a part of Nigeria, then it will be about the clearest invitation that the military will have to take over the rulership of the country in the name of wanting to protect the territorial integrity of Nigeria; but if they do so this time, many people may not blame them.
This is why Nigerians must speak out loudly now than ever before, condemning this action that President Yar'Adua is about to take on the 14th of August, 2008; an action which marks the re-introduction of slave trade in the live of the Nigerian people, even though it is in a new form, an action which will mark the beginning of the disintegration of the country Nigeria, an action which insults the people of Nigeria and the status of the country. But if after the people have spoken out clearly against this intended action of the President, and he goes on to hand Bakassi over then immediately the people of Nigeria should call for the President and all those in the Senate and in government who have supported this course to resign, and the Senate must move for the impeachment of the President because he has betrayed the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that he swore to protect, because Bakassi is still covered by the constitution of Nigeria and the constitution has not been amended, and if the constitution is to be amended or changed, the people of Nigeria must play a very active role in the process. None of this has happened yet, so it will be completely against the office of the President of Nigeria and against the constitution of the country, as it stand till date, for Yar'Adua to hand over Bakassi to Cameroun at this time. Even though the people of Nigeria are hearing the name of a place now called 'New Bakassi', that is good because it shows development but then, that we have a new one presupposes an old one, that old one is still part of Nigeria as things still stand and must not be given away if the right things are not done. And besides, what we are talking about here is handing over Bakassi, and not that Nigerians living in Bakassi are leaving the area because it belongs to Cameroun. One gives out what he or she owns or has, and never what he or she does not own or have. If the President intends to hand over Bakassi to Cameroun then it means that Bakassi belongs really to Nigeria but for some reasons that are not known to Nigerians some people have organized to hand her over to another country. This whole thing about handing over Bakassi should only come when all the cards are laid open on the table and the proper things done first; then it will then be known if that world 'HANDING OVER' can be removed for a more appropriate one. If at the end of the day it remains a hand over, then it means that Bakassi is part of Nigeria, and then if the action of handing her over is done, we risk having the continued existence of the entity called Nigeria.
Nigerians stand up for your right and protect your country because we do not have any other one, but if we do not wake up now and speak out now, and we allow this ill-intended action, then soon, am afraid we may not have a home land anymore. But God forbid it. God bless the people of Nigeria, God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

(Fr. Julius Ijekeye, is studying and living currently in Rome, Italy)