Nigeria should appeal against Bakassi judgment – Soyinka

Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, urged the Federal Government to appeal against the ceding of Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon.

Soyinka said this at the commemorative lecture of rights activist, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, at 79 in Lagos on Monday.

He said Bakassi remained a testing ground for Nigeria’s corporate integrity, stressing that the government should know what the people of Bakassi needed.

Soyinka said, “The crucial question that the International Court does not appear  to have considered remains this: what do the people of Bakassi want for themselves? To become Cameroonians? To become Nigerians? Or simply to remain Bakassians? Bakassi became a focus of interest and desire only because of her oil reserves and the greed of state corporations – presented as national interest.”

“So, let the next act commence. The final date of appeal is still ahead. It is within legitimate rights that the Nigerian corporation should appeal the judgment.

“This time round however, let the suppressed voice of Bakassi’s humanity be heard. There is a certain procedure known as Plebiscite. Simple, straightforward, and full of precedents – a time-tested reversal of the pattern of human deficit! Let us give voice to the people of Bakassi.”