Bakassi: A
people doubly betrayed
By JOSSY IDAM (jidam14@yahoo.com)
Saturday
July 8, 2006
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•Bakassi
community bank
•Photo: Sun News Publishing
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Anger. Fear. These are two words that capture the prevailing
mood in the disputed territory, Bakassi. The people there
feel completely let down by President Obasanjo’s decision
to parcel the local government to Cameroon.
Their anger is also directed at their leaders-the paramount
ruler, Etinyin Etim Okon Edet, their local government chairman,
Ani Esin, their state House representative, Joseph Etiene
and Senator Florence Ita Giwa, alias “Mama Bakassi”.
The Bakassi indigenes feel their leaders live and stay mostly
off-shore-in the cities and cosy up to the government. “Every
time, we here there are meeting with Duke in Calabar and Obasanjo
in Abuja. Now they are doing meeting again with resettlement
committee. Na so so meeting. So, they meet there to sell us
to Cameroon…”a young man at Abana who only gave
his name as Bassey said.
The people are haunted by the fear of what the so-called handover
portends. The powers-that-be has told them they can stay in
the place as Nigerians in Cameroon, apply for visa, and the
numerous reams of “pass” papers the Cameroonian
authorities are fond of issuing or relocate to a settlement
yet to be demarcated and built, in their home state, Cross
River.
A wooly, dark cloud pervades their minds. And out of this
nebulous cloud looms questions without answers: Are we really
leaving our ancestral home to an unknown new place? How will
a fisherman survive on land without water to ficast his net
and haul in fish? What will happen to our property-boats and
houses? What host community are we going to be lumped with?
Will they be friendly or hostile? What about our sacred places
like our grand parents graves and shrines? Proud children
of ancient warriors- how do we now grovel before invaders
and accept to be slaves in our own very land? What do we tell
our children-that we are the ones who sold their heritage
and cast them adrift in the wide, wild world? The questions
rise, lash and crash in the mind like tidal waves.
Firm resolve
With their leaders acting as quislings, Bakassi students worldwide
have resolved to soldier on. In a statement entitled “Bakassi:
our resolve, our stand” which was made public on Wednesday,
June 28, the students took their leaders head on and resolved
“to disgrace and frustrate those greedy, heartless and
devious potentates who have abandoned our struggle for self-determination”.
Describing the representative of the Bakassi people as “Shameless
politicians” who are only too earger to share the six
billion naira which the Federal Government intend spending
on what is now known in government circles as “the Bakassi
project”.
The students further dismissed the entire scheme as “archaic,
philistinic, warped and against natural justice, equity and
good conscience”. They neither spared the ICJ nor the
UN. In clear terms, they said: “We have resolved neither
to retreat nor surrender our ancestral home to Cameroon. We
demand our right to self-determination, which is inherent
and inalienable. We are determined to protect and defend this
right”.
On a warning note loaded with venom, they concluded: “We
shall rain aluta sulphur on any traitor working against us.
No retreat, no surrender”.
Boiling point
To make bold their stance, the students on the same day broke
into the Cameroon consulate on 21, Ndidem road, Calabar and
pulled down the tri-colour flag of Cameroon.
Led by the president of Bakassi students worldwide, Emmanuel
Asuquo, the students left the Cameroon consulate shortly before
a detachment of mobile policemen came to the place. Emboldened
by the presence of the police, the consul, Mr. Joseph Foe
Atagana came to the gate of the consulate and told reporters
who had earlier tried to reach him that he was too upset to
talk.
As he said, he was upset because the students insulted his
president, Paul Biya with obvious strain on his face and in
his voice, he said that he and Donald Duke, the Cross River
State governor had agreed not to grant interviews or comment
on Bakassi until after seven years.
Heckled by the reporters, he gushed out like water tap and
said the students did not only call Biya a dictator but a
sit-tight president and despot who has not allowed a free
and fair election to be conducted in Cameroon. Speaking further,
he said he told the students to take their protest to Abuja,
Bakassi or Lagos…”Bakassi is a volatile issue.
We won’t talk about it until after seven years:, he
finally concluded and clamed up.
Mild drama
Ostensibly responding to a distress call by the consul, the
mobile policemen on arrival at the Cameroonian consulate mistook
the reporters who were leaving the consulate gate after an
earlier futile attempt to talk to the consul.
Saturday Sun’s reporter and a few others were entering
the premises of a business centre opposite the consulate when
five mean-looking mobile policemen stopped him and others,
and ordered them to “halt and come with us”.
“Why officer, are we under arrest? Our reporter asked.
Pointing at a parked black wagon, one of them mumbled: “Go
and talk to our Oga”.
“Why? We are journalists and have no business with policemen”.
“Tell our Oga”, the mumbling policeman grunted.
Our reporter and others walked over to their boss who came
out and leaned on the parked vehicle. “I know some of
you, what is the matter?” he asked.
“We came here to cover Bakassi students protest”.
“But someone there (pointing at the consulate) …says
you are the ones who came and removed their flag”.
The reporters erupted in laughter.
“Let’s see the person who said it”. Reporters
and policemen walked into the gate of the consulate.
“Are these the students?” the leader of the policemen
asked a short, dark man at the gate.
“No be dis ones, sir. But dem come here also”,
he managed to say in pidgin. But hearing that the man had
even acted as a go-between for the reporters and the consul
irritated the police officer. “You see, if we had acted
otherwise…” he fumed. Anyway, the drama drew out
the consul who earlier refused to come out or comment on the
incident.
Call for restraint
A man so passionate about the Bakassi debacle, Evangelist
Dr. Emma Isong, the General Overseer of City of Testimonies
thinks the Bakassi student went to the extreme. “They
should take it easy. In fact, their reaction is rather too
late. It’s like administering an injection to a corpse.
Their going to the consulate is a violation of Cameroon’s
territory. They shouldn’t forget there are millions
of Nigerians who live in Cameroon”, he cautioned.
Though disgusted with the Federal Government’s handling
of the matter, he feels restraint should be applied to avoid
total break down of law and order and blood-letting.
“Just because a man had querelled with his wife does
not mean he should kill the children got out of the marriage
and tear the marriage certifitcate”, he said,using the
imagery of marriage to highlight the delicate nature of the
situation.
Inside Bakassi
It is diffiult to fathom why the army andpolice in Bakassi
think reporters, espeicaly those from The Sun, should obtain
visa in the military base at Kang before coming to the island.
Two of our reporters at different times were arrested and
detained last month. Emerson Gobert detained for days at Ikang.
Joe Effiong, our Akwa Ibom State correspondent was only released
about two weeks ago. They kept him behind bars at Bakassi.
Well, a third reporter wangled his way in there and spent
a whole day unnoticed.
On the side of history
Posing as a history student, Saturday Sun reporter entered
Bakassi without visa or permit. He warmed his way to the military
personnel at Bakassi local government headquarter, Abana.
With star beer flowing in the officer’s mess, the reporter
discussed the Bakassi palaver extensively with some officers
who prefer to be shielded. All in all, most of them are not
happy that they would be withdrawn from the place soon. “Why
did they deploy us here?” one of them asked. Another
said he lost a room mate and friend at a battle with the Cameroonian
force there.
“So, my friend, and others died in vain here”,?
he asked with a heavy heart. Yet another blames it all on
absentee leaders of the Bakassi people. “We hardly see
them, the local government people only come when they have
allocation to share”.
Sounding philosophical, a sergeant said “this is Bakassi
land. The Bakassi people should determine their own destiny.
There is little some of us can do.”
Children everywhere
In Bakassi, the population of children out number that of
adults. A visitor there would readily notice the uniquitous
presence of naked and partially clothed kids. They bask around
the island like fish fingerlings. It is no wonder therefore
that Abana alone boasts of four secondary schools and six
primary schools.
When IGP came calling
For the first time in the history of the island, an Inspector
General of Police visited the Island on Tuesday, 27 June.
A speed boat blaring siren heralded the Nigeria police boss,
Sunday Ehindero’s arrival. He came accompanied by a
retinue of the top echelon of the police. The men in black
uniform tumbled out of five speed boats around midday.
After inspecting the police unit at Abana, he walked around
the island and casually walked into their local government
guest house, where the vice chairman, Udeme E. Okon received
him. He said he visited to brief his men and prepare them
to take effective charge when the military pulls out. Udeme
welcomed him and told him that the Cameroonian gendarmes are
daily harassing, torturing and extorting money from Nigerian
fishermen. He further told the IGP that three of his Yamaha
outboard boat engines were seized about a week ago by the
gendarmes.
When the august visitor left, Udeme felt low-spirited and
said: “Imagine, a whole Inspector General of Police
came here and we didn’t give him a red carpet reception.
The mood is not right. In the best of times, there would have
been singing, dancing and feasting. But see, it’s as
if no one of such importance came.”
Shape of things to come
Lamenting further, he revealed that two Nigerian fishermen
were recently killed by the notorious gendarmes. As he told
Saturday Sun, this wasn’t the first time. It happens
always. He attributes the reason to the fact that Nigerian
soldiers are not allowed to patrol the waterways. “When
they catch a fisherman, they seize his engine and leave him
to paddle with his hands or die, he explained.
Uncertain exit.
While the top brass of the military are preparing to pull
out Nigerian troops there, the government is constructing
a big floating jetty at Abana. Observers are wondering what
it is meant for and the significance of the gesture. Just
on the day that Obasanjo told the world that Nigeria would
cede the island to Cameroon, the wife of the Cross River State
governor, Onari Duke visited the place and commissioned a
maternity. If indeed, Nigeria is giving up the place for good,
why build and commission fresh projects? The answer to this
is blowing in the wind.
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