KEREWA (NIGERIAN EDITION)

Bang, bang, bang o. Bang, bang. Bang, bang, bang o.
Na who dey enter for mummy’s house o.

David Ayoka Atim*, the poet from Bakassi captures vividly the plight of the people:

do we tell our ancestors that the land they laid their bones now belongs to someone else? do we tell our progeny that we broke the strong chain of heritage…..
…………..that their land we couldn’t defend?
do we pay taxes to a strange master whom our fathers never knew?
Oh! World that passed judgment.

Community land in Africa belongs not to the present generation alone but the believed active ancestry as well as posterity on behalf of whom they hold feudal agency powers. Incidental to this privilege is the presumed responsibility not to act inconsistent to proprietary rights of owners in absentia.

A situation where a world not privy to this arrangement or believe pattern steps in to decide on who takes valid title to land in Africa by importing standards of Western feudal system. More disturbing is the fact that that title to the land was not in dispute between two rival native tribes: two sovereignties disputed over title to the said land in utter disregard of its residents whose unquestioned inhabitance dates back over a hundred years. Such flagrant breach of people’s rights sets a dangerous precedence to title claim on communal lands in Africa.

Any village could be subject to possible scrutiny of odyssey, proprietary attachment and claim to title of its present location irrespective of duration of residence.

The foundations are broken.

It is like remarking a graduating student’s papers right from his first year in order to determine the end grade to categorize him.

Certain forms of proprietary possession of land presently occupied by persons are now obsolete. In weighing present claims questions as to validity of title are limited to authenticity of claim as at time of possession. The essence of this adoption by law is to avoid chaos, encourage continuity and to prevent forceful occupation in present times.

The ouster of the people of Bakassi amounts to an infringement of native title rights by a violent intrusion of superior principles of international law into land law. This conflict of law is an unwelcome fagging of native laws and customs, with an attendant indifference to the presumed malingering of displaced persons. Such bullying if nurtured will see a dearth of local laws replaced by a plethora of high-sounding hybrid laws of international status.

I thought it was the work of the UN to resettle displaced persons?

* davisgraphicsus@yahoo.com Tel:08023815054
The preservation of grass-root structures has been the trend of the march of civilization.

The world has decided; a child has been born in a manger: who owns this fatherless child? The fact remains that the child was conceived by ‘Person’ since he made mummy fall ‘yakata for bed’. The issue now is: which household does it belong to?

By global standards, the choice is left to it upon majority. By decorum, carved out of home etiquette in that traditional setting the father decides on legitimacy by acknowledgement, or the refrain: besides, where is the child to abide till it attains majority at adolescence?

In real terms, the basic issue is one of time. The time of the decision that determines the child’s status. That is to say, if the time is late who should have decided on the status of the child? When should this have been and how?

To the matrix:

The facts before the court told that the towns in Bakassi have Cameroonian names while the people were undisputedly Nigerians. Fundamental essence should have weighed the facts: does land own the people or the people land? Though plants eat up insects no land ever laid claims to anything. How come about the alleged shunt and prejudicial trespass of natives of Bakassi upon an unoccupied peninsular by the Government of a neighboring country?

Did the people successfully stay on by force against all measures throughout the customary duration of decades that the doctrine of ‘original trespasser’ states would vest ownership rights upon the domicile?

Maybe the land wasn’t much to worry about, but has come to acquire a status that justifies its moneys worth in legal prowess and international politics.


History says France obtained the land from Germany by ‘acquisition’: both countries possessed at the time titles that were presently valid. France ‘ceded’ the land to Cameroon upon attainment of independence. Straight titles all.

Nigeria on her part came up with maps dating back to the 50’s which evinced the penin sular to be ‘annexed’ to her. That was a fatal move because rather than try to prove ‘superior title’ she should have opted for a referendum.

A want of ‘continued possession’ would have negatived any proof of earlier title.

Tacit acceptance of the present possession of Nigerians on location would have been interpreted for acquiescence.

Unfortunately, no international lawyer was there to follow the resignation of his tenure on the committee of the ICJ. The patient bird broke its thirty year silence with an armory of facts to launch an offensive on the sleeping giant bogged down with political turmoil.

A very old write-up by our renown Prof. Elias stating Bakassi to be a non-Nigerian territory; proof of population statistical data oblivious of any cognizance of the territory; water-tight proof of successive link of property passes in a chain of valid proprietary claims.

The culminating evidence gives proof of the fact of an ‘authentic efficacious Government on ground’ sealing all loopholes to an attempt towards proof of ‘superior title’. Unbelievable as it may sound, Nigeria foolhardily plunged headfirst for proof of superior title.

Nigeria’s weak attempt gave evidence of effective administration by proof of collection of taxes; awards of honorary and chieftaincy titles; periodic activities involving bureaucratic presence: there the Titanic sank.

Now a deviant is born a rebel with a cause for being pronounced an illegitimate child of his non-biological parents. Or is she truly a legitimate child of donor parenthood by test-tube semen.

Is it scientifically possible to separate land from the people found on it in peaceful possession or can attachment to land be spliced by claims to land and person reverting to opposite sides?

Fairness now calls on the people to make choices: not much of a choice is left in the difference between refugee status and strange servitude as English-speaking citizens of a French country.

It’s like singing ‘By the River of Babylon’.

So one could wake up one morning and find oneself non-Nigerian? This all happened because ‘Daddy go for journey’. Maybe Nigeria should never have played Big Brother to Zimbabwe with South Africa when her backyard was an outhouse. Maybe those in glasshouses should keep their curtains drawn.

But what if the very name ‘Bakassi’ truly originated from the Etung-Abakpa phrase:
‘Mba akasi’
which interprets for: ‘ a road hasn’t gotten here’.

Why were the aged never consulted to confirm the truth of the fact that the little island was used by the Quas as a vantage trading location for sea foods. Fitted with makeshift structures for temporary bush-market sites, the location was reserved to trade and depart.