According to Femi Fani-Kayode (David Oluwafemi Adewunmi Abdulateef Fani-Kayode) Nigerian former Minister of Aviation, Bakassi was given to Cameroon without the respect of human rights.
” If I am in president Buhari’s shoe, If I am the president of this country, my priority will be to reunite nigeria by sending our forces to that place, and takin g it back, holding it and telling the cameroonians, This was not done lawfully… If this doesnt happen today, a time is coming when a nigerian president will rise in this country and he will take that territory back in order to restore the owner and the dignity of the people of Cross River state and the people of bakassi and Nigerians.
We lost Bakassi to Cameroon because of failed political leadership. Incompetence and corruption has done far more damage to Nigeria than anything else. pic.twitter.com/ug7vZrUsgv
— Defense News Nigeria (@DefenseNigeria) March 12, 2022
It should be recalled that The UN-mediated settlement of the Bakassi territorial dispute was hailed as an example of successful diplomacy. As such, it may contribute to bolster mutual trust and to deepen co-operation in other key areas, including trade, infrastructure, energy and security. Relations between Nigeria and Cameroon have indisputably improved since the Greentree agreement of 2006 and a number of crossborder initiatives have been launched since, including a highway between the towns of Bamenda in Cameroon and Enugu in Nigeria. The easing of tensions over Bakassi has also boosted bilateral trade and investment, albeit from a low basis, and talks about joint offshore oil exploration projects are ongoing. In addition, Cameroon and Nigeria have effectively worked together on some security issues, most recently in February 2013, when negotiating the release of a family of French citizens who were kidnapped in northern Cameroon by gunmen claiming to be linked to Boko Haram, a Nigerian Islamist militant organisation, and taken to Nigeria.