The issue might not have degenerated into a public shouting match; or the recalling of accredited ambassadors, but hardliners within the Cameroon government have been pressuring President Paul Biya to withdraw Cameroon’s Special Forces currently engaged in the war against the murderous Islamist Boko Haram sect in the northern part of the country, as part of a coalition of the willing to curtail the activities of the terrorists that have killed over 15,000 people and displaced around 1.5 million people during the six-year insurgency in which it has tried to establish an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria. Tension between Cameroon and Nigeria is mounting after Cameroonian authorities worked diplomatic back channels to demand an official explanation from Nigeria for the diplomatic snub by President Buhari; failure to which they will back out of the anti-Boko Haram coalition, in which Cameroonian troops are currently engaging Boko Haram.
Yaoundé authorities are irked at what they said was a diplomatic snub by the new administration in Abuja after President Buhari skipped Cameroon and visited Chad and Niger Republic, to discuss efforts at combating the insurgency that has spiraled into neighboring countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Cameroon has been on the frontlines of the fight against Boko Haram, committing several battalions of its rapid intervention brigade (BIR) to the northern part of the country where hundreds have been killed, including at least 100 of its soldiers, fighting Boko Haram. Thousands have also been displaced in the fighting along the northern borders; where Cameroon is hosting a battalion of Chadian soldiers fighting the insurgents.
Multiple sources at Unity Palace; the Cameroonian presidency told Huhuonline that Yaoundé was apprehensive that President Buhari decided to pay his first foreign visit to Niger, where he spent two days with President Mohamadou Issoufou; from where he flew to Chad to meet with President Idris Derby Itno for talks on the way forward in the war against Boko Haram. Cameroonian officials had hoped that after Chad, President Buhari would at least make a stop in Yaoundé, which is just an hour flight from the Chadian capital, Ndjamena. But that did not happen.
To their consternation and surprise, Buhari returned home, only to honor an invitation by G-7 leaders in Germany to talk about climate change. “The action of the Nigerian president is the highest watermark of ingratitude; an insult and a mark of contempt by the new Nigerian leader for the people of Cameroon and this is unacceptable,” a source at the Cameroon embassy in Washington DC told Huhuonline. The source said, “Cameroon had no dog in the fight; Boko Haram was a purely internal Nigerian affair; we were dragged into the war following repeated incursions by Boko Haram militants who forayed into our territory and kidnapped foreigners and the wife of the Cameroonian vice prime minister, who was later rescued.” Cameroonians are angry over the perceived diplomatic snub on the part of Nigeria because not only has Cameroon been at the frontline of the fight against Boko Haram and has lost dozens of its valiant soldiers as well as innocent men, women and children; but unlike Chad and Niger, Cameroon is also hosting thousands of Nigerian refugees who have fled the violence and are now living in Cameroon.
No reason was given by Aso Rock for President Buhari’s failure to visit Cameroon but Presidential spokesman, Malam Shehu Garba, only confirmed in a statement that the President’s trip to Chad and Niger specifically focused on “matters of security,” since Nigeria’s neighbors remain crucial to ending the Boko Haram insurgency. This open acknowledgment reinforced hard feeling amongst Cameroonian officials that Buhari treated them with “disrespect” and for which an apology will not even be enough!
The combined operation by forces from Cameroon and Chad have seen the Nigerian military claim a series of major victories over Boko Haram across the northeast but the terrorist have made Cameroon their second front and still hold positions along the Cameroonian border with Nigeria, in the Sambisa Forest and Mandara mountains. Joint operations by Chadian and Cameroonian forces have also seized Boko Haram positions and prevented Boko Haram fighters from escaping as Nigerian forces and South African mercenaries close on them.
It was expected that with Cameroon having suffered the second largest casualties in the ongoing war against Boko Haram, Buhari would have visited Cameroon first, given that Cameroon is also host to over three million resident Nigerians, including refugees from the Nigerian civil war of 1967-70, who currently call Cameroon home. Diplomatic watchers have interpreted Buhari’s failure to visit Cameroon, as evidence of the frosty relations between President Biya; one of Africa’s longest serving presidents (in power since 1982) and Buhari; now the new face of Africa’s democratic transition. The animosity between the two men are said to be more personal.
Yaoundé diplomatic sources believe that Aso Rock is sending a message that Cameroon no longer featured in their strategic calculus to defeat Boko Haram after the Nigerian army effectively relocated its headquarters from Abuja to Maiduguri, the largest city in the northeast, on Monday. Aso Rock sources hinted that Buhari did not fail to notice the earlier snub by Biya who failed to attend his inauguration despite repeated assurances by the Cameroonian president; who was represented at the event by vice-prime minister, Ahmadou Ali. “Why would the President visit someone who refused to honor his own invitation” the source asked?
According to the source, the Cameroonian president is known to be “snobbish” and “arrogant” and despite Cameroon’s effort in the war against Boko Haram, Buhari is said to harbor strong feelings against Biya for not doing enough to end the harassment and victimization of Nigerians residing in the Bakassi peninsular which was handed to Cameroon by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). “The issue which has thus become imperative to address is how to save the people of Bakassi from the negative implications and consequences of the ICJ’s decision and protect them from the brutal proclivity of the Cameroon Government,” the source noted, adding; Buhari will like to see the Cameroonian president focus on “the catalogue of inexplicable and unjustifiable harassment, intimidation and extra-judicial killings of Nigerians living in Bakassi by Cameroonian gendarmes.”
Huhuonline understands that Buhari, like most in the military, were strongly against ceding Bakassi to Cameroon, saying Obasanjo sacrificed the sovereignty of Nigeria on the altar of his personal quest for international credibility as a statesman, following his election in 1999. Many soldiers, including then Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Chukwumerije favored sending Nigerian troops to occupy the peninsular; and ignore the ICJ verdict, pointing to states like Britain, Israel, and others that had ignored similar verdicts. But OBJ overruled them, even after Biya left him waiting at the airport in Yaoundé for over three hours.
The incident was recounted in Lagos by former Cross Rivers State Governor, Donald Duke, at a special lecture to commemorate the 60th birthday of retired Federal High Court Justice, Charles Archibong. Duke recalled that Biya snubbed Obasanjo over an earlier clash between him and former military Head of State, late General Sani Abacha. “The issue of Bakassi is interesting. There was the legal aspect and there was the international politics aspect of it. Behind the scene, a lot of meetings took place and in a bid to attend one of those meetings, we arrived at the airport in Cameroon with then President Olusegun Obasanjo and at the airport, President Biya was there seeing off another leader, but he snubbed us. “He (Biya) left us at the airport for over three hours and we were there at the airport with embassy staff not knowing what to do. Grudgingly, he met with us and lectured us on Bakassi. We later found out that he was reacting to an earlier confrontation between him and General Abacha over Bakassi,” Duke narrated.
It remains unclear whether Buhari can re-litigate Bakassi since the 10-year statute of limitation expired and the government of President Jonathan refused to appeal the ICJ verdict. But whether Cameroon can back out of the fight against Boko Haram is easier said than done, giving that Cameroon is the second front in the war and Boko Haram has made direct threats to Cameroon and continues to launch sporadic attacks inside Cameroonian territory, capturing hostages, stealing food and killing civilians.
