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4. A Trust Betrayed by the British Government
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Chapter Four A Trust Betrayed by the British Government From the very beginning of the Southern Cameroons’ ‘decolonisation’ saga, the attitude of the British Government was anything but fair and honest. It was clear the Administering Authority was more interested in yoking the Southern Cameroons to Nigeria. It considered the Southern Cameroons as merely material for “in-filling on the Nigerian border”1 just as it considered British Togoland as material for in-filling on the Gold Coast border. The first act of betrayal by the British Government was the dismemberment of the British Cameroons Trust Territory. The British Government divided the Territory into two, each part being administered separately as a dependency of the region of Nigeria contiguous to it. This was a disguised annexation of the Trust Territory to Nigeria. The British purposefully failed to develop political, economic and social institutions common to both parts of the Trust Territory. This failure had the untoward consequence of keeping both parts of the Trust Territory completely separate and divorced from each other. Each part pursued its own path of political, economic and social development. This impairment of the territorial integrity of the British Cameroons Trust Territory flew in the face of the UN’s prohibition regarding administering powers partitioning non-selfgoverning territories. Indeed, the 1960 Declaration on decolonisation states that ‘[a]ny attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity’2 of a non-self-governing territory ‘is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations’. Having partitioned the British Cameroons Trust Territory, the British Government proceeded to administer each part as an integral part of the contiguous region of Nigeria. This was denoted as “administrative union”. The Administering Authority brushed aside the Trusteeship Council’s criticisms of administrative unions and insisted on continuing to administer the Southern Cameroons as an integral part of the Eastern Region of Nigeria. One disastrous 48 Betrayal of Too Trusting a People consequence of this controversial administrative union was that the identity and legal personality of the Southern Cameroons became blurred. The territory became a mere appendage of Nigeria and consequently a backwater to developments in that country. This had the effect of practically extinguishing the status of the territory as a Trust Territory, a violation of UN General Assembly Resolution 244 (III) of 18 November 1948. The territory was often referred to as a colony within a colony. The Administering Authority failed to develop the territory and then perversely turned round and pleaded its own failing in this regard as a reason for standing in the way of the Southern Cameroons’ independence as a sovereign state. Indeed, having failed to develop the territory the Administering Authority later railed about the territory’s alleged economic non-viability and advanced this as a ‘reason’ for opposing the territory’s emergence into statehood. Furthermore, by administering the Southern Cameroons from Nigeria as an integral part thereof rather than directly from Britain, the Administering Authority created an environment that virtually eclipsed the issue of separate independence for the territory. As a result, much of the political struggle in the territory was about asserting its identity and legal personality as well as securing its separation from Nigeria. Had there been no forced administrative union with Nigeria, the issue of outright independence would have been the primary focus of Southern Cameroons’ politicians, and the disastrous diversion of “joining” Nigeria or “joining” Cameroun Republic would hardly have arisen. The false issue of “economic non-viability” introduced into the independence equation by the British Government would also never have arisen. Further still, a strong majority of the people of the Southern Cameroons clearly did not want to “join” Nigeria or Cameroun Republic. The majority wanted to establish a sovereign independent state3 and it was clear that had the option of separate independence been offered at the plebiscite, that option would have carried the day. The Southern Cameroons’ Government stated that it wanted a continued period of trusteeship administration to be followed by outright independence before any discussion could be initiated, if at all, on whether to “join” either Nigeria or Cameroun Republic.4 [34.230.84.106] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 11:45 GMT) 49 A Trust Betrayed by the British Government Notwithstanding its awareness of the open sentiments of the majority of the people in favour of outright independence and the publicly stated and politically sound position of the Southern Cameroons’ Government, the British Government, eager...