How OBJ handed over Bakassi in hurry

By Our Reporter - 27.12.2007

Nigeria had the option of asking for an extension of time for the implementation of the World Court decision on Bakassi between it and Cameroun to enable the National Assembly to ratify the treaty, but the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo did not take the option, Empowered Newswire has reported.

United Nations sources indicated that Nigeria agreed for the treaty to come into force in 60 days under which Nigeria would have ensured that the National Assembly completed the ratification.

They said that the Senate, however, did not ratify the treaty at the said time and that former President Obasanjo went ahead to implement the treaty, even though he had the option of seeking for more time from the UN.

A top official of the UN Office of Legal Counsel, Brad Smith, in a recent interview with Empowered Newswire, said there were different scenarios for treaties to enter into force, but said that most treaties indicate when they will come into force.

According to Smith, there are treaties that come into force legally in international law once they have been deposited at the UN.

Others, he added, may come to force at the time the states that ratify them stipulate so.

Although Smith said he would not comment specifically on the accord, also known as the Greentree Accord, which the UN brokered between Nigeria and Cameroun, he stressed that an international treaty would explain the timing of its coming into force within its provisions.

Article 2 of the Greentree Agreement said “Nigeria agrees to withdraw all its armed forces from the Bakassi Peninsula within 60 days of the date of the signing of this Agreement.

If exceptional circumstances so require, the secretary-general of the UN may extend the period, as necessary, for a further period not exceeding a total of 30 days.