Nigeria: CNPP Says No to Bakassi Handover
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Vanguard (Lagos)
4 August 2008
Posted to the web 4 August 2008
Kingsley Omonobi
The Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) said yesterday it was against the handing over of Bakassi to the Cameroons against the wishes of the people of the area insisting that there must be a plebicite to determine the way out of the imbroglio.
In a statement titled 'No To Bakassi Handover', signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Osita Okechukwu, they said, CNPP blasted the Green Tree Agreement signed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo as a self serving agreement meant to attract international recognition to himself.
The statement reads, "Conference of Nigeria Political Parties {CNPP}, says no to handover of Bakassi and other Nigerian territories to Cameroun , without plebcite".
"We predicate our submission on the fact that the Green Tree Agreement was a self-serving agreement, born out of the desire of ex-president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to gain international recognition in his bid for life president".
"We are constrained to agree that President Umaru Yar 'Adua as a beneficiary of the failure of 3rd Term, cannot consign this agreement to the dust bin of history and allow the people of Bakassi and other parts of Nigeria ceded, to benefit from the exit of Chief Obasanjo and consequently the fall of 3rd Term."
"CNPP views the argument of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoaka, that Nigeria must obey the International Court of Justice {ICJ}as paradoxical.
"Paradoxical in the sense that the same government is in league with those who support President Omar Bashir, to disobey the order of the International Criminal Court, indicting Omar Bashir, on the Darfur crisis. Despite the culpability of President Bashir in the Darfur inferno that had consumed many Nigerian troops".
"Secondly and most importantly, the Green Tree Agreement did not accommodate the local realities nor were the National Assembly and the Armed Forces duly consulted. Infact it was flatly unconstitutional and born out of the whims and caprices of a maverick, lacking broad electoral base.
"We may need to remind President Yar Adua, that in the plebcite of 1961 both areas of the north and south voted to remain in Nigeria .
The people remain the most critical element in deciding whether to cede a territory or not, they were not consulted and yet, sovereignty rests with the people".
"It is also clearly stated in Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution that, 'No Treaty between the Federation and any other country shall have force of law except to the extent to which any such treaty has been enacted into law by the National Assembly.
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"CNPP consequently, cannot subscribe to a treaty that is at variance with the 1999 Constitution."
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