Boundary commission debunks UN take-over of 24 LGs
The National Boundary Commission has debunked rumours making the rounds in both mainstream and social media that the United Nations has taken over 24 local government councils.
The commission stated that Nigeria is a sovereign nation which has clear cut boundaries that cannot be ceded to any other nation.
Recent reports suggest that under the United Nations (UN) arrangement, Nigeria will cede 24 local government councils from parts of the country to be merged with other territories in the Republic of Cameroon to form a new state to be known as Ambazonia.
The commission described the report as false and misleading, stating that there is no arrangement of such between Cameroon, Nigeria and the United Nations to form any new state from the territories of the two countries.
The statement reads: “As an update on the Cameroon-Nigeria international boundary, it can be recalled that the boundary dispute, which culminated into the arbitration by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), was settled with the judgment on October 10, 2002.
“The boundary dispute that was originally largely on the sovereignty over the Bakassi Peninsula was decided with respect to the entire length of the over 2, 000km stretch from the Lake Chad region in the north to the Bakassi Peninsula in the south and a maritime boundary in the Gulf of Guinea.
“To implement the judgment of the ICJ, Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the UN met with the President of Cameroon, Paul Biya and former President Olusegun Obasanjo in November 2002 and worked out modalities on the best ways to achieve the desired result. One of the decisions was to constitute the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission (CNMC) to drive the process.
“The mixed commission had its maiden meeting in Yaounde, Cameroon in December 2002 during which programme of activities including constitution of sub-commissions to implement each of the activities were constituted.
“The special representative of the secretary-general of the United Nations and head of mission, United Nations Office of West Africa and Sahel (UNOWAS) heads the CNMC. Nigeria and Cameroon each have six representatives as members of the CNMC. Presently, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minster of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) leads Nigeria’s contingent to the CNMC.
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“The CNMC is expected to amongst others protect the rights of the affected populations and demarcate and delineate the land and maritime boundary respectively, between the two countries in accordance with the ICJ judgment. To ease its work, the CNMC established sub-commissions to handle the various facets of its assignments.”
The statement by the acting Director General of the commission, Adamu Adaji added that the various sub-commissions and various committees have since completed their assignments except the sub-commission on demarcation.
As an update, the director general stated that the sub-commission on demarcation has constructed a total of 1,344 international boundary pillars along the Nigeria-Cameroon boundary between 2009 to date, revealing that there are approximately 1,354 remaining pillars to be built for which monies have been approved by both presidents of Nigeria and Cameroon
“As it is presently, President Muhammadu Buhari and President Paul Biya of Cameroon have approved and remitted $6million to the trust fund account on the Nigeria-Cameroon boundary demarcation exercise domiciled with the UN headquarters in New York to further support the continuation of the demarcation exercise.
“The United Nations procurement department is on the verge of awarding contract on lot 5 for the construction of additional 355 pillars along the Gotel Mountains of the Nigeria-Cameroon international boundary, which is scheduled to commence as soon as the two countries have finalized security and safety arrangements, agreed upon at Geneva in 2017,” he added.
