The Bakassi factor in Nigeria-Cameroon relations: 2006-2015

The Nigeria-Cameroon conflict over the Bakassi Peninsula is territorial in nature with economic undertones. Although the border dispute has been lingering since after independence, the discovery of oil in the 1970s brought to the fore intense interests of both countries in the Peninsula. Cameroon took the case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 1994 in which the ICJ ruled in its favour in 2002. Though both countries accepted the verdict, pockets of violence continue to occur despite the 2006 Green Tree Agreement (GTA), sometimes with loss of lives on both sides. Despite the ICJ ruling of 2002 and the implementation of the GTA in 2006, Nigerians are still agitating for the reversal of the ruling. Thus the study seeks to assess Bakassi as a factor that affected the state to state relations between Nigeria and Cameroon and also to examine the grassroots dynamics of human security and how it affected their relations. The thesis used the systems analysis to analyze the conflict at three levels. Qualitative research method was used by adopting interviews, primary and secondary data. The study found that despite the ICJ ruling and the GTA the conflict has prevailed in subtler dimension till 2015 and beyond; as a result, the dispute may have been abated but not ended. The significance of the thesis therefore is to proffer measures for the cooperation of the two countries that may help improve the political and economic development of both countries, find possible solutions for the Bakassi people as well as stimulate rigorous research in this very important area of international studies