The 29th session of the Cameroon-Nigeria UN-sponsored Joint Commission for the implementation of the ICJ judgment of October 10, 2002 resumed work in Yaounde on Thursday.
They had not met since the last session of the mixed commission in Abuja on July 22 and 23, 2011. The December 2011 slated meeting in Yaounde which did not hold, could have led to some murmuring. But when members of the Commission convened at the Yaounde Hilton yesterday for the 29th session of the Commission, it was rather a business-as-usual come together with old faces and acquaintances regretting the long absence separating the Abuja meeting and the Yaounde event.
In the interim, the iconic leader of the Nigerian delegation, Prince Bola Ajibola had quit the helm of the delegation, leaving the position to the no-less charismatic Mohammed Bello Adoke, Nigeria’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice appointed in November 2011 to head his country’s team. His designation was hailed by Amadou Ali, leader of the Cameroonian delegation as a sign of Nigeria’s commitment to see the process of peace taken to the end.
The UN Special Representative for West Africa and Chairperson of the Mixed Commission, the senior Algerian diplomat, Said Djinnit, in his statement, recognised the new leader of the Nigerian delegation as one who could take the peace-building process between the two countries to greater heights, given his record as head of his country’s delegation to the Follow-up Committee on the Greentree Agreement. The Chairperson paid special tribute to the forefathers of the Greentree Agreement - former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan and former Nigerian President, Olusegaun Obasanjo and Cameroon’s President Paul Biya - for their foresight in initiating an agreement which has made Cameroon and Nigeria references in matters of conflict resolution.
Something to Celebrate
Although the Commission has been in a kind of abeyance since the last session in July 2011 in Abuja, there were many activities going on, among which are many things to celebrate. All three speakers at the formal opening ceremony were happy that some 1,780 kilometres of frontier had been demarcated, with only about 200 km left. And even with what is left, there are difficulties linked to difficult access or due to the fact that the necessary agreements have not been reached as to how to demarcate.
All in all, the commission is meeting in good auspices, which dispel any doubts created by the recent upsurge of insecurity in the Bakassi area. Hear the leader of the Nigerian delegation, Mohammed Bello Adoke yesterday at the opening ceremony: “I appreciate the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission as a unique conflict-resolution mechanism… It is in this connection that we should recommend the ingenuity and foresight of the founding fathers of the Mixed Commission… Indeed, when the history of inter-African peace and conflict resolution is written, (our) Commission will certainly find pride of place in the chronicle of the events of our great Continent.”
Another positive thing singled out for praise yesterday was the growing ties between Nigeria and Cameroon. Vice Prime Minister Amadou Ali announced that, in the very recent years, Nigeria has become Cameroon’s principal customer with imported consumer goods coming essentially from there.
The two sides later went into a conclave from which the two delegations will emerge today with strategies aimed, not only at quickly attaining the goals of the mixed commission, but also of bringing the two neighbours closer in various fields of activity.
