Bakassi Peninsula: New Deal Territorial Gain

President Paul Biya won the Bakassi Peninsula from Nigeria back to Cameroon.

The greatest territorial achievement the New Deal Government has had for Cameroon is the oil and natural gas rich Bakassi Peninsula. History says Cameroon and Nigeria clashed over the disputed Bakassi Peninsula in 1981, 1994 and 1996. President Paul Biya referred the dispute to the International Court of Justice at the Hague in 1994.

The case dragged on for eight years and on October 10, 2002, the International Court of Justice ruled in the case over Bakassi in favour of Cameroon. The ICJ ruling also concerned the entire land and maritime boundary between Cameroon and Nigeria. Cameroon’s ownership of Bakassi moved from the ICJ verdict to concrete action on June 12, 2006.

This was when President Paul Biya and his then Nigerian counterpart President Olusegun Obasanjo under the auspices of the then, Secretary General of the United Nations Organisation, Kofi Annan signed the Greentree Agreement in the United...