Bakassi Resettlement Programme: A Re-Appraisal

AFTER all the pangs of emotions, pains and passion associated with the ceding of Bakassi and the final handover of the Peninsula to Cameroon on August 14, 2008, the dust and storm gradually settles and what remains are the shrapnes of the loss of a territory.

HOWEVER, the problem at home is that of relocating the displaced people of Bakassi who are yet to be fully resettled and this is the biggest task yet ever to be faced by a Nigerian government since the civil war when all efforts were only geared towards internal resettling, rehabilitating and rebuilding homes of victims of the war but not that of relocating or dispersing the people.

THE furore over Bakassi people’s resettlement is more pathetic as theirs is a displacement of not only the people from their ancestral homeland but also from their professional and traditional occupation as well as other means of livelihood.

WHILE the Federal government and the Cross River State government put up joint efforts to ensure that the resettlement is carried out and completed on schedule without inflicting further pains on the people, the slow pace of the exercise is an indication of apathy and insincerity to fully rehabilitate the Bakassi people.

IT is against this background that a Federal High Court on 31st July 2008, restrained the federal government from ceding Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon on August 14 (The act of handing over was executed on this day) against the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) until certain arrangements were finalised as argued by counsel to the plaintiffs.

SPECIAL Assistant to the President on Communications, Olusegun Adeniyi in a recent public comment on the resettlement of Bakassi people said the Federal government considered the welfare and resettlement of the displaced Nigerians a priority. The sum of N3 billion he stated was released by government to reduce the pain of uncertainty that may hang over Nigerians affected by the handover.

THE NIGERIAN OBSERVER asserts that the task of resettling the Bakassi people is something the Federal government should tackle with all seriousness and the wishes of the people should be paramount in this regard.

IT is vitally important that government revisits the issue raised by the Bakassi people in the court ruling though disobeyed, as they contain grounds and neglected areas the Federal government may have overlooked in the resettlement plan.

THE plaintiffs in the Federal High Court ruling led by two former Bakassi Council chairmen, Emmanuel Etene and Ani Esin had sought N456 billion as compensation and an order that the Federal government should resettle them in a place of their choice.

THEIR new place of settlement, called “New Bakassi, they claimed is already inhabited by other people who are hostile to Bakassi people and urged the Federal government to resettle them in Nsutana Iyaba in Cross River State or any other location in the state which they might choose by plebiscite or referendum.

THE NIGERIAN OBSERVER calls on the Federal government not to jettison the wishes of the people of Bakassi as they are at the receiving end and were caught in a helpless situation for which they had no control over. Their choice for a suitable place of resettlement should be given greater consideration and preference. It would amount to injustice and disregard for their welfare to resettle them in a compact environment where they would have no room for growth and where future development opportunities are foreclosed.

THEIR place of choice should be one where they can still carry on economic activities they have been used to and familiar with.

THIS is where the challenge of the Florence Ita Giwa Committee lies to relocate and resettle the people of Bakassi where they would no longer face the gravity of the loss of their homeland.

THE position now is that where they are presently settled is unsuitable and they have been living the lives of refugees. Where the resettlement is not properly executed, the fear is that the Bakassi people will continue to live like refugees in a country where they are bonafide citizens and are entitled to adequate welfare and protection that the government offers the general populace.

WE do not need to wait for the five-year resettlement programme and the time to begin is now so that the people can pick up the pieces and begin life all over again in a new and fresh territory that they can call their own.

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