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TFT Magazine Editorial
July 27, 2008

A few years ago, the former UN Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan, was reported to have been unceremoniously frisked at the Nsimalen Airport in Yaoundé as he boarded an Air France flight from the Camerounese capital. The reason for this, it has been rumored, was to retrieve a document signed by President Paul Biya in his bid to provide lasting peace to the Bakassi conflict in which Biya committed his government and himself to respect the international boundaries of Republic of Cameroun at her independence on January 1, 1960. International law calls it the concept of uti possidetis, and the African Charter recognizes this by calling on all states to respect their international boundaries at independence.

It does not take a legal expert to know that the Republic of Cameroun had no maritime boundary with Nigeria on January 1, 1960, and therefore Bakassi, indeed the entire Southern Cameroons, is not legally, a part of the Republic of Cameroun. This is the crux of the legal arguments for the self-determination of the people of the Southern Cameroons.

Yaoundé may trot out the Plebiscite, Fumban, May 20, and any other concoction undertaken under French tutelage with the conspiracy of the British and other western colonialists, but the fact remains that Article 102 of the UN charter rubbishes any of Yaoundé’s claim to rule territory that was not part of its own at independence, and gives the right to “assailants” in Bakassi and elsewhere in the Southern Cameroons to fight for their self-determination.

Article 102 states:
1. Every treaty and every international agreement entered into by any Member of the United Nations after the present Charter comes into force shall as soon as possible be registered with the Secretariat and published by it.
2. No party to any such treaty or international agreement which has not been registered in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article may invoke that treaty or agreement before any organ of the United Nations.

There is no treaty registered at the UN that gives Republic of Cameroun the right to rule the Southern Cameroons, a territory not part of it at Republic of Cameroun’s independence. It rubbishes that fraud, the so-called Greentree Agreement, concocted by third tier western diplomats instrumentalized by France and signed by two mesmerized African presidents, Obassanjo and Biya, whose time, like Jacques Chirac who orchestrated the whole charade, is long past.

In the last week, the French Cameroun press has been expressing a bogus patriotic fever of triumphalism after the Camerounese Defense minister announced in a press release that the Cameroun army had killed 10 assailants in Bakassi in a military riposte on Thursday, July 24. From Le Messager to Le Jour and Cameroun Tribune, they have been falling over themselves to out shine each other in establishing their patriotic bona fides.

The French Cameroun press, when it comes to matters of truths and facts regarding the French Cameroun’s illegal occupation, inhuman and criminal activities in the Southern Cameroons, like their government in Yaoundé, has elevated mendacity to a fine art. The very credible government daily, Cameroun Tribune, was quick to provide space to the French embassy and its ambassador, maybe spoiling for another Rwanda type conflict with their Operation Aramis already in the Southern Cameroons, to proclaim their support for Yaoundé in Bakassi. Surprise!

The fact of the matter remains that the Republic of Cameroun, Yaoundé, has no business being in Bakassi and the Southern Cameroons. The fact is Bakassi is located in Southern Cameroons’ territory and Abuja did the right thing in recognizing this truth and ceding that territory which was not part of it at her independence on October 1, 1960. Yaoundé will also have no choice but to follow Abuja’s lead; but as is typical with African regimes under the tutelage of Paris, they’ll only do so after committing further atrocities and engaging in the type of genocidal tactics that was used successfully to establish this current client regime in Yaoundé in the 1960s but unsuccessfully in maintaining another one Kigali in the 1990s.

It is the position of TFT Magazine that the native inhabitants of Bakassi, as part of the Southern Cameroons, and like those of Victoria, Buea, Mamfe, Batibo, Wum, Kumba, Bamenda, Kumbo and the entire territory of the Southern Cameroons’ (the former West Cameroon) have a right to political self-determination and sovereign independence. They also have the right, including the use of armed self-defense, to confront and end the colonial occupation of their land.

It is the position of TFT Magazine that members of the Niger Delta Defense and Security Council (NDSCC) should formulate their legitimate legal grievances as part of the ongoing international conflict between their internationally recognized territory of the Southern Cameroons (whose boundaries are not being drawn today) against the Republic of Cameroun (the former East Cameroon) whose own international boundaries were established on January 1, 1960 without the territory of the Southern Cameroons.

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