If President Olusegun Obasanjo had displayed just half the courage, firm resolve and strong determination over the Bakassi matter as President Vladimer Putin did over the Crimean crisis and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher did over the Falkland Islands dispute, the Bakassi Peninsular and all it's people would still have been part and parcel of Nigeria today.
The people of the Crimea want to be part of Russia and not the Ukraine just as, in 1982, the people of the Falkland Islands wanted to be part of Britain and not Argentina. In both of those territories the people exercised their right of self-determination and, because their respective countries and governments not only respected that right and choice but also cherished it, they stood with them and they effected their will and purpose.
Sadly in Nigeria this was not the case. Obasanjo turned his back on the wishes and yearnings of the people of the Bakassi Peninsular to continue to be part of Nigeria and he handed them over to the Camerounians on a plate. This was a great betrayal and, in my view, it was the greatest failing of the Obasanjo adminstration- an administration which I proudly served and which I have often defended.
If we had to go to war over Bakassi we ought to have done so knowing that our cause was just and our right to that territory was not only rooted in history and embedded in the wishes and aspirations of the people that lived there but was also legitimate and lawful.
A government that cannot protect it's own people from the foreign invader and that cannot secure it's own borders from external aggression is an object of shame and ridicule. Each time I consider what we did in the Bakassi Peninsular, how we turned our backs on it's people and how we gave up what was part and parcel of our nation to the invading Camerounians without a good fight, I feel a deep sense of revulsion and shame.
This is one of the few aspects of President Obasanjo's record in public office that I simply find impossible to justify or defend. In this respect Obasanjo had much to learn from both Vladimer Putin and Margaret Thatcher.
President Jonathan show u shege some few days ago, now u are afraid to talk to him again. Baba Iyabo is in trouble now wth this stupid basket mouth
ReplyDeleteThis demon dog is crying because he need chop money from baba OBJ and none coming so he is now attacking him.
ReplyDeleteFanny crackode should take his own medicine and go and prostrate for Baba OBJ and beg for chop money.
Nasir El Rufai help this dog now so he can shut up before he lose the election for APC before 2015.
Obasanjo ceded and sacrificed bakassi people because of personal international recognition and third term agender.cruel,weird and greedy old fellow.
ReplyDeleteLike Obasanjo Like Fani Kayode
ReplyDeleteFunny how people reason. No reasonable comments due to ethnic and religious sentiments. Big pity to nigeria, GEJ has succeeded in dividing nigerians along ethnic grounds.
ReplyDeleteJust wondering why some low class idiots have formed the habit of blaming GEJ for every single thing that happened in Nigeria. soonest someone will fall down and die for just pronouncing GEJ's name. People have the right to their own opinion, what has GEJ got to do with it? mcheeeew!!! useless blood sucking vampires
ReplyDeleteThe analogy is faulty because Bakassi has never been part of Cameroun. It is not closer to Cameroun than it is to Nigeria. The language and identity of people found is that of Nigeria. Let us face the truth and stop running around it. What I heard is that Obasanjo signed away the ownership in exchange for some Military advantage and strategy during the civil war. If I am correct and you are aware of that fact, why bring up the topic now? Fighting Cameroun is the same thing as fighting France because they may have independence but France controls all their resources. Please find something else to write about and stop stoking sentiments.
ReplyDeleteObasanjo is a jackass. No nation surrenders their land so unseriously. The bakassi people have a right to list obj as a military target.
ReplyDeleteWhat would u expect? If Bakassi was owned by the Yorubas, Obasanjo wd nt have dared do what he did without the peoples plebiscite. But becos that is Ette's land he cd sell them off to doom and sack them from their land of their forefathers and give the place over to his cronnies for a mess of the pottage he had covetted, the possible UN job after office as president. It is a case of dog eating dog, Africans hate to love themselves! Anonymous
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