Permit me to use your widely read Newspaper to air my view on Bakassi
issue. I read with total dismay on the pages of some newspapers where
our servant leader, President Yar’Adua keep on saying that there is no
going back on the handover issue. Meanwhile, a Federal High Court in
Abuja on July 31, 2008 stopped the FG from ceding the disputed Bakassi
Peninsula to the Cameroonian authorities but He is insisting on
handing over Bakassi.
I do not really know what these our shylock
leaders stand to gain seeing their subordinates suffering. Obasanjo
because of his evil third term agenda which is not for the interest of
Nigerians hurriedly accepted the verdict without due consultation. Now
the servant leader is determined to hand over at all cost. Why the
hurry!
Look at the freedom of information bill (FOB) that the masses
would have benefited from have not seen the light of the day. The
leaders are doing everything possible to kill the bill. Nigerians
should only run to GOD for help; He (God) is the only one that has
solution to our predicament. As for these our so called leaders they
are only there to enrich themselves and their families. If not so how
do we reconcile that a country that is blessed by God with natural
resources; their citizens are languishing in jail and thousands
perishing when trying to cross Europe. I read with tears when the
Minister of Foreign affairs Ojo Maduekwe in Daily Champion of August
08, 2008 said that …”10,000 Nigerians die, crossing to Europe,…” and
another from Tribune that …” 1,461 Nigerians languish in British
prisons…”There are 1,461 Nigerians currently languishing in prisons in
the United Kingdom. This is outside the 391 in India, 1,500 in Libya,
550 in China, 23 in France, 15 in Nepal, 65 in Morocco, and six in
Afghanistan prisons.
All these souls ravaging in foreign land! Yet the
government is not doing anything about it rather what they are after
is the ceding of Bakassi to Cameroun. Nigerian leaders should have a
rethink for the evil that men do live after them.
The pertinent part in this article is the part about the US Supreme
Court treatment of the decision of the ICJ. Please read it carefully
and compare what OBJ did to my people and my arguments against giving
Bakassi to Cameroun based on any ICJ decision. ICJ decisions are
usually ignored as non binding but advisory. The United States
violated international law by putting a Mexican national to death in
Texas. The offence of the Mexican, Jose Ernesto Medellins was that he
rapped and murdered two teens in 1993. “The Government of Mexico sent
the U.S Department of State a diplomatic note of protest for this
violation of international law, expressing its concern for precedent
that it may create for the rights of Mexican nationals who may be
detained in that country”, the Mexican government said in a written
statement. “The Ministry of Foreign Relations reiterates that the
importance of this case fundamentally stems from the respect to the
right to consular access and protection provided by consulates of
every state to each of its nationals abroad”.
Medellin’s execution was also the first of what promises to be a busy
month at the state’s death chamber in Huntsville. Five other men are
scheduled to die in the next four weeks by lethal injection, including
Honduran native Heliberto Chi Acheituno on Thursday.
Mexico took the case of Medellin and four other nationals on death row
to the international Court of Justice at The Hague. The Court ruled in
2004 that the United States has violated the Vienna Conventions of
Consular Relations, which requires a country to notify another when
one of its nationals is accused of a serious crime.
After the ICJ ruling, President Bush reluctantly ordered Texas to
comply with that decision and reopen Medellin’s case. Texas appealed.
In March the U.S Supreme Court ruled the Vienna Conventions were not
binding on the United States, which is signatory to them, because
Congress had not passed a law requiring their enforcement.
The ICJ ruled again that the executions should not be carried out
pending a ruling on a request for further interpretation of the 2004
ruling. But Texas, which had set Medellin’s execution date immediately
after the Supreme Court ruling, carried out the execution Tuesday
night after Supreme Court denied an appeal for a say.
My argument is this; United States and Texas executed Medellin despite
ICJ ruling and up till today ICJ has not done anything to them. Why
then is Nigerian government in a haste to cede Bakassi to Cameroon?
This Question needs an answer from our so called leaders including
Aondoakaa
