Bakassi: Obasanjo Ready to Meet with Biya

President Olusegun Obasanjo said Tuesday in Abuja that he was ready to meet with President Paul Biya of Cameroon "anywhere" to work out a political solution to the dispute between Nigeria and Cameroon over the Bakassi Peninsula.

Responding to an address presented to him by a delegation of Bakassi indigenes led by Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, President Obasanjo said that Nigeria would spare no effort to negotiate a peaceful, political solution to the problem.

He said that it augured well for a peaceful solution that the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan had already brokered a meeting between him and President Biya before the recent judgment by the International Court of Justice.

President Obasanjo told the delegation that he had spoken with Mr. Annan after the judgment and conveyed to him Nigeria's willingness to negotiate a peaceful resolution of the dispute.

"We have a responsibility to maintain peace within our country, peace with our neighbours, peace in our sub-region, peace in Africa and the world. We will not initiate any action that will amount to a breach of the peace. We will spare no effort to dialogue and negotiate. There is no human problem that cannot be resolved through dialogue. We want peace but the interests of Nigeria will not be sacrificed. It must be peace with honour, with the interests and welfare of our people protected," the President said.

President Obasanjo said that the judgment of the International Court of Justice was politically hard for Nigeria to swallow. "Judgments are not given in a vacuum. What may be legally right may not be politically expedient," he said, adding that to the Government of Nigeria, Bakassi was much more than an issue of maps and treaties.

"The judges of the International Court of Justice may just look at treaties and give judgment, but we cannot do the same. For us, Bakassi is real. It is men, women and children. It is people living in their homes, on their own land, going about their normal day-to-day lives and wanting to be at peace with themselves and their neighbours," the President said.

He assured the delegation of the Federal Government's solidarity with the desire of the Bakassi People to remain part of Nigeria. "We are together. We must remain together. Let the world know that you are determined that we should remain together," he told the delegation.

The Bakassi people had in their address to the President applauded the Federal Government's rejection of the ruling by the International Court of Justice. They affirmed that they have always been part of Nigeria and rejected what they called an international conspiracy to cede their land to a country with which they have no cultural, social, political, linguistic or economic affinity.

Nigeria Information Service Centre
November 5, 2002.