CI-NEWS

Will UN create new state out of Nigeria & Cameroon on 10 July?

2020-06-11

No: 503

Will UN create new state out of Nigeria & Cameroon on 10 July?

The Nigerian media at the weekend was awash with reports that the UN will create new state out of Nigeria and Cameroon in the coming days. The date for the announcement of that new state is said to be 10 July 2020. On the basis of that impending announcement, Nigeria will lose 24 local government area councils. President Paul Biya of Cameroon, for his part, has allegedly withdrawn troops from Southern Cameroons in preparation for the carving out of the new country called the UNO State of Cameroon.

But another Nigerian newspaper, Leadership, published a report on 6 June, quoting the UN Office in Abuja as denying any knowledge of any plan to carve out a country from Nigeria and Cameroon.

In a report of 5 June bylined by Njadvara Musa of The Guardian in Maiduguri, titled “Nigeria may lose 24 councils to new UN state”, it is stated in the conditional:

“By July 10 this year, Nigeria may lose 24 local councils, by way of ceding, to a new country to be known as United Nations Organisation (UNO) State of Cameroon at its borders with la Republique du Cameroun.”

The newspaper further reported that “the withdrawal of his country’s soldiers by President Paul Biya from the southern part of the planned UNO State of Cameroon has set the stage for the creation of the new state being spearheaded by the UN.”

According to The Guardian,”The withdrawal of troops by Biya was formally demanded by the former President of the United Nations General Assembly, Ali A. Treki on May 20, 2020. This was disclosed in a May 26, 2020 letter of the UNO State of Cameroon to Prof. Martins Chia Ateh, the United Nations-appointed workshops coordinator in Cameroon and Nigeria.”

Ateh is quoted as saying in the letter: “Greetings and thank you very much for the attached list of those who were detained in the Nkambe prison of Cameroon in August 2008.

“It is only now that the soldiers of la Republique du Cameroun are being withdrawn from the southern part of UNO State of Cameroon.” He said it was a good thing Treki kept the records straight.

On UN’s creation of a new country in Africa, Ateh said: “I should be getting back to you once the United Nations finishes with an official announcement on the existence of UNO State of Cameroon to the international community.”

According to The Guardian report, “While conceiving the new state, the former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, invited former President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Biya of Cameroon to sign documents respecting their countries’ international boundaries.

It was learnt that Obasanjo and Biya signed the documents in March 2003 to cede their twin territories (Northern and Southern Cameroons) to the proposed UNO new country in West and Central Africa.”

According to The Guardian, “In Nigeria, the new country’s landmass extends from Bakassi Peninsula in Cross River State to Ngala Local Government Area of Borno State in the Lake Chad region.”

An aide to Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State is quoted as commenting favourably to the ceding of five local government areas: “We’ll study the recent unfolding developments on ceding Bama, Gwoza, Dikwa, Kala/Balge and Ngala councils to the UNO State of Cameroon.

“The state government will also be liaising with federal agencies on how to cede the affected local government areas as Obasanjo and Biya had signed documents with the UN to respect their international boundaries.”

According to the UN workshop coordinator and chairman, steering committee, Ateh, the councils to be ceded to UNO State of Cameroon, include Bama, Gwoza, Ngala, Kala/Balge, Dikwa. Others include Madagali, Michika, Mubi North, Mubi South, Mayo/Belwa, Toungo, Ganye, Serti, Hong, Jada, Maiha and Jada councils.

It was learnt that before the announcement of the new state, the UN had kept Northern and Southern Cameroons under watch since Obasanjo and Biya signed the documents under the UN treaty.

Meanwhile, the Secretary-General of UN, Antonio Guterres has commenced the process of sensitization towards the July 10 date of creating the new state for the Anglophone separatists in Cameroon.

According to reports, Guterres has continuously reached out to the UN representative in charge of the territories, Ateh to constantly organize sensitisation workshops on the brief history of the UNO State of Cameroon.

The Guardian further reports that “the Nigerian government has been urged to carry out an investigation to establish the facts surrounding the ceding of 24 local government areas to create a new country.”

According to Google Map, Nigeria, particularly in the Northeast region with a decade-long Boko Haram insurgency is sandwiched between its territory and Cameroon Republics, with Bakassi Peninsula and Lake Chad located south and northeast of the UNO State of Cameroon.

The new state will have a total landmass of 28, 214 square km with an estimated population of 20 million people.

The Guardian report insinuates that it was to pre-empt the carving out of the new UN state that “The Speaker of the Cameroonian National Assembly, Cavaye Yeguie Djibril had also asked the Cameroonian government to fully implement the new law on decentralization that seeks to grant greater power to local councils and regions.”

The bill addresses the creation of assemblies of chiefs, regional assemblies and councils with each of the two territories having elected presidents, vice president, secretaries and public affairs management controllers.

But quizzed on the planned creation of the new state, the UN Office in Nigeria denied any knowledge.

According to a report bylined by Francis Okoye of Leadership, considered Nigeria’s most influential newspaper, the referencing of 10 July as date for the actualisation of the new state is false. The UN does not create countries, the source quoted by Leadership quipped.

Meanwhile, Dahiru Bobbo, former Director General of the National Boundary Commission from 1999 to 2006, told Leadership that there was no iota of truth in the report purported to have been published in some media organs to the effect that Nigeria may lose 24 local government area councils to new UNO STATE on the basis of “Obasanjo, Biya Ceded Territories in 2003”. He said he could confirm no summit between Obasanjo and Biya held throughout 2003.

For him, records have it that Biya met Obasanjo on 5^th September 2002 in Paris and 15 November 2002 in respect of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission on the implementation of the ICJ decisions on the Bakassi Peninsula and land boundary between Nigeria and Cameroon. The last meetings between the UN SG, Biya and Obasanjo held in Geneva on 11 May 2005 and Greentree, New York on 12 June 2006 concerning modalities of withdrawal and transfer of authorities in the Bakassi Peninsula.

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Will UN create new state out of Nigeria & Cameroon on 10 July?