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Nigeria: More Hurdles for Bakassi Treaty
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This Day (Lagos)
2 March 2008
Posted to the web 3 March 2008
Sufuyan Ojeifo
Lagos
President Umar Yar' Adua had, in a letter dated December 7, 2007, to the Senate requested that it (Senate) should ratify the Green Tree Treaty as demanded by the 1999 Constitution. If the Senate ratifies the Treaty, Bakassi would be deemed to have been formally ceded to Cameroon. But the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula in Cross River State was "ceded" to Cameroon in 2006 by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo vide the Green Tree Treaty even though the Treaty was not ratified by the fifth National Assembly.
Obasanjo had sent a letter dated June 15, 2006 to the fifth Senate under the leadership of former Senate President, Senator Kenechukwu Nnamani, asking the Upper Legislative House to ratify the Treaty which was signed in New York, the United States of America, by the Cameroonian President, Mr. Paul Biya and Obasanjo on June 12, 2006. The Senate did not consider and ratify the Treaty. But Obasanjo had, without National Assembly ratification of the treaty, formally ceded the Peninsula to Cameroon on August 14, 2006.
The move by his administration then followed the judgment given by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague on October 10, 2002 and the agreement at Green Tree, New York in which he agreed to surrender the Peninsula. The former President's action, which was in clear breach of the 1999 Constitution, came three months after his tenure elongation bid was aborted by the National Assembly.
Significantly, the sixth Senate had, through a motion co-sponsored by Senator Bassey Ewah-Henshaw from Cross River State and twenty-one other Senators on November 22, last year, drawn the attention of Yar' Adua to the non-ratification of the Treaty ceding Bakassi to the Republic of Cameroon. The resolution, as couched, was to "draw the attention of the President of the Federal republic of Nigeria to the fact that transfer of Bakassi and other parts of Nigeria to Cameroon under the agreement of June 12, 2006 without ratification by the National Assembly as required by Section 12 (1) of our Constitution is unconstitutional."
The Upper House had further urged the President to "submit the agreement (de novo) to the National Assembly for scrutiny without further delay to enable the National Assembly to determine whether or not it is in the interest of Nigeria to ratify the agreement." The motion entitled: "Impending Crisis in and Uncertain Fate of the People of Bakassi" enjoyed wide support in the Senate.
Immediately the President's letter was received by the Senate, the Senate President, Senator David Mark referred the letter and the Treaty to the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs headed by Senator Jibril Aminu, the Committee on Judiciary headed by Senator Umaru Dahiru and the Committee on States and Local Government Administration headed by Senator Sahabi Yau. The Committees, working as a joint committee, were mandated to work on the request for ratification and submit a report to the Senate for consideration.
A member of the Joint Committee and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Senator Anthony Manzo had told THISDAY that the Committee would hold public hearings on the matter in January, this year. The public hearings, as expected, would provide a platform for rigorous engagements and interrogations of all the contending issues and when the report eventually gets submitted to the Senate, members will further subject it to debate before taking a decision on the floor. As it were, the joint committee is yet to unfold its agenda for the consideration of the President's request and this has raised angst in some Senate circles.
A member of the National Assembly said that the ratification of the Bakassi Treaty represents a landmark decision, adding that it should be treated with all care and seriousness. According to him, "This is a very serious matter. It has to do with the sovereignty of Nigeria. And, much as it has been argued that Nigeria should respect the agreement it entered into, it should be noted that the Nigeria people were not part of the agreement because it was not ratified by the National Assembly before it was entered into and implemented by the then incumbent executive head."
The question is why has the joint committee not got cracking with the assignment given to it by the Senate? There were suggestions that the 1999 Constitution must be amended before the Senate can ratify the cession of Bakassi to Cameroon. The contention has been that the cession cannot be ratified without expunging Bakassi Local Government from the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution and that to expunge it could be achieved through an amendment to the Constitution. Is the joint committee therefore waiting for the National Assembly to conclude on the amendment of the Constitution before proceeding to act on the Treaty and make its report available to the senate for consideration? That, indeed, analysts contend would make the committee's job a smooth sail.
But the Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), representing Cross River Central had said that Section 12(1) of the 1999 Constitution "requires that for any Treaty to have a force of law in Nigeria, it must have been enacted into law by the National Assembly." Ndoma-Egba had argued that "a letter forwarding the Green Tree Agreement cannot satisfy the requirement of this Section. For the requirement of this Section to be fulfilled, a Bill must be placed before the National Assembly and be passed as an Act of the National Assembly."
What this means and/or entails is that the Executive must, apart from the letter sent to the Senate, draft a bill which it would necessarily forward to the Senate for consideration and passage. Analysts say that this is without prejudice to the amendment of the 1999 Constitution. The Bill could come before the constitution amendment and the amendment of the constitution would reinforce the cession. However, the concern by the representatives of the Bakassi people in the National Assembly is that the Federal Government has not expressed strong commitment to compensate the displaced people of the area.
With the passage of the 2008 budget, it has become evident that no budgetary provision was made to take care of payment of compensation to the displaced people. The questions being asked in National Assembly circles are: does this mean that the "cession" of Bakassi by the Obasanjo administration and the displacement of the people have not taken place and to that effect really null and void as resolved by the Senate? Does it then mean that once the Sixth national Assembly ratifies the cession, the compensation of the displaced people would be taken care of through a supplementary budget since no provision was made for payment of compensation in the 2008 budget recently passed by the National Assembly?
In fact, the clarion call by Cross River State Senators is for the Federal Government to properly relocate, rehabilitate and compensate many Nigerians who have been displaced in the aftermath of the action of Obasanjo that ceded Bakassi to Cameroon in the understanding of the world. Senators Bassey Ewa-Henshaw and Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) had said last year thus: "We must reiterate that some Nigerians have already been moved out of their ancestral homes in Bakassi. Whether or not the Green Tree Agreement is ratified, these people need to be provided for. So far, they have just been left stranded. They need to compensated, rehabilitated and properly relocated. Adequate provision needs to be made in the 2008 budget for this purpose."
According to them, "Section 14(2) (b) of our Constitution stipulates that the security and welfare of the people shall be primary purpose of government. There is now need for government to observe and comply with this section which for the people of Bakassi has so far remained violated." Will the Government take deliberate steps to take care of the security and welfare of Nigerians living in Bakassi?
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The ratification or otherwise of the Green Tree Treaty is a burden on the shoulder of the Senate, nay the entire National Assembly. How the Senate will handle it is yet to crystallize; and, the joint committee has not applied itself to the assignment of considering the Treaty and reporting back to the Senate for legislative actions. Is the committee waiting for a bill, as pointed out by Ndoma-Egba or is it waiting for the constitution amendment to chart a direction? In the meantime, the Bakassi issue lingers.
Hi !!! I think it's high time our leaders be they those at the senate or at the national assembly stop fueling flames of discord nd hatred. I may not like to call some of them stooges but I think they deserve the appelation. Why do I say this? Former president Obasanjo didn't sign the Green tree agreement with Cameroon in his bed room. This treaty was done in the open in far away U S and considering the government set up. OB has advisers paid by the federal gov't on such issues. and the entire nation... [Read Full Text]
Hi !!! I think it's high time our leaders be they those at the senate or at the national assembly stop fueling flames of discord nd hatred. I may not like to call some of them stooges but I think they deserve the appelation. Why do I say this? Former president Obasanjo didn't sign the Green tree agreement with Cameroon in his bed room. This treaty was done in the open in far away U S and considering the government set up. OB has advisers paid by the federal gov't on such issues. and the entire nation... [Read Full Text]
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