Bakassi: Or the Politics of Exclusion and Occupation?

Chapter 5. The Bakassi Identity Problem: Who Is Bakassian and Who Is Not?

131 Chapter 5 The Bakassi Identity Problem: Who Is Bakassian And Who Is Not? The Bakassi Identity Problem This study and research have led the author to conclude that the Bakassi problem of identity and management of the conflict is very delicate and should be handled with a lot of diplomacy, because it is not very easy to establish what I would call “cartographic nationality and cartographic sovereignty” and then believe that everything is okay. This therefore calls for a caveat to all stakeholders and actors in the Bakassi region for the years to come, if the re-edition of conflict will be preempted . Care should therefore be taken then not to lump all fishermen and fisherwomen in the Bakassi region, especially the Bakassi peninsula, as just “recent migrants” to the area. The Effik/Ibibio natives of Bakassi complain that since the handing over of Bakassi by Nigeria after the Green Tree agreement, they have continued to be treated by Cameroonian officials and the military as “foreigners” and segregated from Cameroonians by the fact that they have asked to be registered and the Divisional Officers and the Mayors, who are charged with issuing “Birth Certificates”, to register for the National Identity Cards, tell them to wait, till after the transition period of the Green Tree Agreement. Most of the informants disclosed to the researcher that they have become very suspicious of the Cameroon Government’s good intentions and good faith regarding their plight, because of the harsh administrative agents set in place to manage the Peninsula. They argue that it would seem that there is deliberate delay tactics by the civil administrators who are already distributing their land without their opinion to Cameroonians from other parts of the national territory. They interpreted this act as a very discreet way of side-lining them and excluding them from exercising their territorial rights of participatory sovereignty like all other free and responsible Cameroonians. Some intimated that they were asked to apply for naturalization. Most of 132 these families labelled as migrant families have been resident in the region for hundreds of years before colonisation. Key informants and residents can trace their family descent and family trees for over six generations for most of them. Their only reason for not being Cameroonians is because it is alleged that they will be subjected to the naturalization process which the civil administrators seem to promote as the whispers go. It is no hidden truth that this will be a very long and tedious, if not corrupting process for the native inhabitants of Bakassi. If one considers the fact that the Cameroonian naturalisation law is rather complex and very restrictive and selective, then one can appreciate the amount of corruption that this process will generate, knowing Cameroon to be what it is with its high rate of corruption at all levels of the private civil and public society. And until the “Epervier” anti-corruption squad will flex its muscles more vigorously, it will not be an easy task to register the over one million inhabitants that make up the Bakassi peninsula and its contiguous territories. It should be remembered that trans-borders and trans-national ethnicities (Fongot Kinni, 1976) do not very much respect the “cartographic nationalities” imposed by the artificial colonial boundaries, even though they are ratified by various colonial and post-colonial treaties. So sit will not be possible to restrict these ancient water nomadic fishing populations to stop their trans-border activities even when they are declared Cameroonians. Cameroonians do not seem to be realistic when they accuse the border natives of Bakassi of trading with Nigeria and not with Cameroon. But most Cameroon traders leave as far as from Yaoundé, Ngaoundere, Bamenda and Bafoussam to transact trade with Nigeria as far as Lagos. Then what about those that are just an hour away from Nigerian markets; as compared to the distance of four hours from Bakassi to Limbe, the first business centre in Cameroon. Most of the conflicts in the world, especially Africa arise because of the poor strategies set in place in handling and managing transborder ethnicities and confrontations arising from ineffective sovereignty establishment. It no debatable fact that sovereignty is more efficient with the provision of infrastructure, services and equitable distribution of resources for the effective human development priorities to life and sustainable livelihood management. This goes with 133 the management of nationalities and national identities both at...