Wole Soyinka: Neither Nigeria Nor Cameroun Has Just Right To Bakassi

Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has weighed in on Bakassi, the territory that has been a subject of dispute between Nigeria and Cameroun. Mr. Soyinka declared Bakassi a parcel of land that belongs to its inhabitants, arguing that it should not to be seen as a geographical space over which two countries should go to war to contend for ownership title. He stressed that the overt
dispute had to do with the disputed area’s oil reserves.

Mr. Soyinka’s comments on the disputed land came in a lecture delivered yesterday in Lagos to celebrate the 79th birthday of lawyer and political activist, Tunji Braithwaite.

The event was sponsored by a group called Women Arise Initiative 

Speaking on “Corporate Gains and Human Deficit,” Mr. Soyinka outlined two types of wealth which he defined as inert and dynamic. He then lampooned a third type that has emerged in the context of religious overzealousness. Said the globally celebrated playwright, “Let us make a note however of a dubious third, which is virtual – and I do not mean virtual in terms of paper currency or stocks and shares. I am speaking of ‘virtual’ as in non-palpable, vaporous, fantasized
realms – such as heaven or its equivalents in all religions.

You know the religious admonitions – lay not your treasures down upon earth', ‘your reward is in heaven’, plus a hundred other varieties – you’ll encounter them in virtually all religious constitutions, known as the scriptures.” 

The writer bemoaned the collapse of the cotton industry in the northern part of Nigeria. He blamed the collapse and the massive layoffs of workers on “smuggling corporations” supported by the state to the detriment of citizens. Mr. Soyinka recalled “being presented with a bolt or two of fabric from its looms; at that time, the industry was already gasping for breath.” He described the eventual death of the industry as only a matter of time, emphasizing that the industry “did not commit suicide” but “was killed…by highly placed smuggling corporations that were allowed to operate freely through our obliging borders.”

The laureate noted that corporations “are not limited to licensed businesses which
incinerate a hundred or two workers in one fell swoop.”

He argued that corporations “include
other forms of enterprise which slowly starve hundreds of thousands to death and create hordes of unemployed who are then snatched up by spiritual corporations for the destabilization of an entire nation – in the process of which, let us take note, hundreds of innocents in this nation are also incinerated, gunned down, and/or blown to pieces.” 

Mr. Soyinka warned about the consequences of laying off workers, noting that such workers are often enticed by recruitment into vicious circles. According to him, to leave the unemployed roaming all over Nigeria in various degrees of starvation helps their recruitment into syndicates of armed robbers and kidnappers.

He also added: “Vulnerable, impressionable, [the unemployed] also become willing recruits to
extreme religious indoctrination and are focused solely on the hereafter, having been expelled by neglect from the garden of the here and now – albeit a garden overrun by the brambles of inequity.” 



Steering his discourse to Bakassi, the laureate described the contested land as a testing ground for corporate integrity. “The Bakassi islands were not uninhabited spaces,” he said. “The Bakassi islands were human settlements. They existed not as wasteland but as homeland. And then, they were traded off – a quite pertinent expression – traded off between the leadership of Nigeria and the Cameroon corporations during the civil war.”

Mr. Soyinka wondered, “Were the wishes of the people who actually inhabit that space taken into consideration when that head of state appended his signature thereon? Were representatives of the indigenes invited to The Hague to testify? The answer was No, thus vitiating whatever
judgment that learned body chose to pass.”

He continued: “The world no longer lives in a feudal fiefdom. The rights of minorities and indigenous peoples are encoded in the statutes of the
United Nations. The human deficit inserted into the Bakassi decision is now plagued with unpredictable scenarios.” 

Even so, Mr. Soyinka warned Nigerians to be wary of people calling for the nation to go to war over Bakassi land. He described trumpeting war as unpatriotic, contending that they were often out to pursue their own monetary interests.

“Do not take my word for it,” he declared, “the then Head of Nigeria’s version of the KGB cum MI5 etc etc, M.D. Yusuf, has placed it on public record that, among those who urged the nation so stridently to defy the judgment of the international court were indeed those who enjoyed lucrative retainerships from the state. Were they ever interested in the people? Did they care for the humanity of Bakassi? Of course not.”

The dramatist then restated his view that “neither Nigeria nor the Cameroon had a modicum of just rights over the slab of real estate known as Bakassi. 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.”


Mr. Soyinka asserted that “the suppressed voice of Bakassi’s humanity [should] be heard,” calling for a plebiscite in the disputed territory to determine how the residents feel. 

Responding to toasts by various guests, Mr. Braithwaite stated that people must continue to fight in order to realize their dreams. 




Among the guests were Joe Okei Odumakin, the President of the Women Arise initiative, Akin
Oyebode, a professor of International Law and Jurisprudence at the University of Lagos, Balarabe Musa, a former governor of Kaduna State, Yinusa Tanko, the national chairman of the National Conscience Party (NCP), Femi Kuti, an Afro-beat musician, and Debo Adediran, a leader of Citizens against Corruption.