Shey Peter Mabu
25 August 2008
After Cameroon's laudable option and Nigeria's positive response whose result was the 14 August, 2008 withdrawal of Nigerian forces from Bakassi and transfer of administrative authority to its rightful owner, (Cameroon) President Paul Biya has prescribed measures aimed at preventing unpleasant surprises and maintaining the peace we cherish.
In his message to the nation, exactly one week after the historic solemnisation of the success story, President Biya harped on the importance of peaceful coexistence, dialogue and cooperation between Cameroonians and Nigerians whose socio-cultural and geopolitical links make them special on the African continent.
Their sense of responsibility, political maturity, and shrewd diplomacy demonstrated in the settlement of the Bakassi land and maritime dispute, President Biya noted, has once again proven to the rest of the world that the use of force is not the best means of settling disputes. What a reminder to mankind at a time when there is so much talk about globalization amid ever-rising, protectionist tendencies, xenophobia, international terrorism and suppression of the weak by the powerful, and the poor by the rich!
The lesson the rest of the world has to learn from Nigeria, the Largest black nation in the world and Cameroon, the "laboratory of African unity and catalyst of peace, is that in peaceful co-existence what matters in its promotion is not numerical strength, and military might, but the will to forge ahead for mutual benefit.
President Biya made an allusion to this principle when he said, "Cameroon and Nigeria must henceforth do everything possible to consolidate the settlement reached, and seize the opportunity afforded them to develop their relations in all fields".
These fields range from small and medium sized businesses, and joint ventures, to various forms of cooperation in the domains of trade, education, tourism and development infrastructure.
The Cameroon leader's appeal for Cameroonians to maintain the virtues that resulted in the 10 October 2002 ICJ ruling, the Greentree Accord of 12 June 2006, and the historic event of Thursday, 14 August 2008 demands cooperation to prove to their compatriots and the rest of the world that they are mature enough to give meaning to decisions taken to sustain peace and political stability in their sub-region.
In this light, Nigerians and Cameroonians living in Bakassi, like those in Tiko and Kumba, Limbe and Buea, Bamenda and Sabongari, Douala and Yaounde, Lagos and Ibadan, Yola and Jos, Calabar and Kaduna (to mention but these few) should live and work, study and compete healthily as brothers and sisters with much in common and above all, committed to peace, geopolitical stability and progress.
The reassurance declared by President Paul in the domains of security and civil rights, should, and ought indeed to reaffirm the trust and confidence Nigerians in this country have in the government of Cameroon and its people.
With such reassurance of love and bilateral cooperation after the President's appeal for Cameroonians and Nigerian to sustain in an enviable manner, the virtues that have brought us honour, who can doubt that the message to the nation was a timely prescription aimed at pre-empting the ever-increasing number of calamities that tarnish the image of Africa and its people? Who then, doubts that the message was both a curative and preventive dose for a people in need?
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