Download complete project materials on The International Court Of Justice’s Ruling On Nigeria/Cameroon Border Conflict: Its Implication For The Socio-Economic Development Of Nigeria from chapter one to five
INTRODUCTION
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Background to the Study
The border conflict between Nigeria and Cameroon was a territorial dispute and the bone of contention was sovereignty over Bakassi peninsula. Bakassi peninsula is an oil rich area situated on the southern border between Nigeria and Cameroon. In the late 19th century, European powers carved out and appropriated chucks of Africa territory.
Germany therefore acquired the territory then referred to as the northern and southern Cameroon through a treaty between Germany and Britain on March 11, 1913. This treaty demarcated their spheres of influence and in the process determined what would later become the international boundary between the successor African states, Nigeria and Cameroon.
Following the defeat of Germany in the First World War, Northern Cameroon came under the trusteeship of the League of Nations.
It should however be noted that peninsula was not part of the trust territories of the League of Nations, which were given self determination option by the United Nations (formerly League of Nation) in 1961. On the event of the granting of political independence to both Nigeria and Cameroon, there was agitation on the part of the people of this territory for either total independence or a choice to merge with Nigeria or what was then French Cameroon.
Following a plebiscite conducted by the United Nations, northern Cameroon chose to join and become part of Nigeria, while their southern counterpart chose to join the French Cameroon. In 1965, President Ahmadu Ahidjo of Cameroon was persuaded by the then French President, Charles de Gaulle to claim Bakassi and parts of the Lake Chad basin territories in Nigeria.
This initiative by Ahidjo was temporarily over shadowed by the Nigerian side in January 1970, such that Ahidjo ordered a surprise military attack on the Bakassi territory in a bid to take over the possession of the territory. The Nigerian leadership under General Yakubu Gowon saw this action as a stab in the back, especially when the Cameroonian leader had earlier resisted France pressure to recognize Biafra during the just concluded civil war.
Nigeria had to respond to the Cameroonian invaders by military forces despite the fact that she was just recovering from a long and costly 30-month civil war. Surprisingly, however, Nigeria responded very weakly by asking Cameroon to discuss the matter under the auspices of the Nigeria-Cameroon Joint Economic Commission, and a meeting in that respect was held in Younde in August 1966. At that meeting and other subsequent meetings, Nigeria continued to press for a diplomatic solution, with Cameroon always on the offensive.
On June 1, 1975, Gowon agreed to shift the Nigerian border westwards and given Cameroon control of chunks of Nigerian territory under the Maroua’s declaration. The agreement was subject to ratification by the parliaments of both countries. While Ahidjo was able to obtain his own ratification within three weeks, Gowon however, failed to obtain one due to a general rejection of the declaration by Nigerians.
When a regime change took place at the end of July 1975, the incoming Murtala Muhammed administration renounced the Maroua’s declaration. All successive governments in Nigeria have refused to respect the declarations (Adelman & Morris, 1983:27).
On March 29, 1994, Cameroon filed an application at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), instituting proceedings against Nigeria in dispute concerning the question of sovereignty over Bakassi peninsula, which it claimed was in part, militarily occupied by Nigeria.
Cameroon also requested the court to determine the course of the maritime frontier between the two states in so far as that frontier had not already been established by the Maroua’s declaration signed by the Cameroonian president and the Nigerian Head of State, (Ahmadu Ahidjo and Yakubu Gowon) in 1975.
In an additional application filed on June 6 the same year, Cameroon extended the case to a further dispute with Nigeria over “a part of the territory of Cameroon in the area of Lake Chad”, which it asked the court to specify the frontier between itself and Nigeria from Lake Chad to the sea, to enjoin the withdrawal of Nigerian troops from Cameroonian territory and to determine repatriation for the material and non-material losses inflicted (Ahmed Y, October 15, 2002).
Cameroon had insisted that its claim to sovereignty of the Bakassi peninsula could be resolved by the application of the Anglo-German Agreement of 1913 and relevant maps. It further cited the Treaty signed in 1975 between President Ahmadu Ahidjo and General Yakubu Gowon of Nigeria in which General Gowon purportedly ceded the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon.
However, with Nigeria’s acceptance to contend the issue with Cameroon with a clear conviction that the disputed territory and residents belong to Nigeria, the International Court of justice began hearing of the case on March 16, 1995.
By a majority decision of fourteen to two of the sixteen Judges, the International Court of Justice on October 10, 2002 passed judgment in favour of Cameroon on the disputed Bakassi Peninsula (Ahmed Y, October 15, 2002). This Bakassi peninsula in the Gulf of Guinea area was awarded to Cameroon.
The court’s verdict was premised on the said Anglo-German Agreement of March 11, 1913. The Court also placed emphasis on the Henderson Fleuriau Exchange Notes of January 1931, between Britain and France.
Through the 1913 agreement, Britain ceded Bakassi to Germany and following the defeat of Germany after World War 1, Cameroon became a trust territory managed by Britain and France. The Court rejected the submission made by Nigeria, which depended heavily on historical consolidation principles and refused to take into account the effective occupation of the territories by the presence of Local Government, police formation and loyalty of the local population to the Nigerian flag as well as their willingness to pay taxes to their Nigerian authorities.
International law recognize effective occupation as conferring sovereignty over a territory but modern developments have somewhat weakened that aspect of the law, which Nigeria too heavily depended upon. The court took a contrary view by rejecting the historical consolidation argument of Nigeria, relying on another legal opinion that a prescriptive title over a territory should not be acquired through the force of arms. The Court instead upheld the Younde II and Maroua treaties of 1971 and 1975 between Gowon and Ahidjo.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Despite the fact that Nigeria was given a leverage in the judgment in the Lake Chad area, the loss of the Bakassi peninsula has been subject to condemnation by a wide spectrum of Nigerians for the apparent fact that the area is 90% populated by Nigerians with a functioning Local Administration, with a chief executive in place. Like all other parts of Nigeria, there are military and police commands on the peninsula.
And in abundance in the Bakassi area, are vast reserves of oil, gas and fish. Given the monumental loss of this territory to Cameroon, this study seeks to evaluate the implications or impact this loss portends for Nigeria’s socio-economic development.
What impact will the I.C.J ruling have on the Nigerian economy? Does the ruling have any effect on the relationship between Nigeria and Cameroon? What options ‘are there for Nigeria’? What are their socio-economic implications for Nigeria? The researcher will in the course of this work attempt to answer these questions.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
This study seeks to examine the impact of the International Court of Justice’s ruling on the Nigeria’s socio-economic development. The major aim being that only by such an examination will one come to a proper understanding as to the true nature of the consequences or otherwise of the court’s verdict.
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