Saturday, 25 March 1995 19:00Border
Dispute “NO WIN WITHOUT
AMBAZONIA”Summary: Ambazonia the former
British Southern Cameroons, a buffer state located between
Nigeria’s South Eastern boundary and Cameroun Republic.
The final outcome of the case presently before the
International Court of Justice (ICJ), will be dependent upon
whether or not Ambazonia is acknowledged as a sovereign
state. Ned Nwoko gives a studied opinion on this rather
complicated matter.
INTERNATIONAL LAW ACKNOWLEDGES
Ambazonia as a state with internationally
recognized boundaries (fixed by the League of Nations,
inherited by the United Nations and which remains so today).
Cameroun has been forced to drop the politics of claiming
that Ambazonia is part of a single Cameroonian nation. In
its litigation it, in effect, claims that it is suing
Nigeria in exercise of a mandate given to it by the
Ambazonian people. According to Cameroon’s statement of
claim, the Ambazonian people gave it that mandate through
the United Nations plebiscite of February
1961.That has now put the said plebiscite in
issue and raised the question; had the UN legal authority to
conduct the said plebiscite in Ambazonia after trusteeship
had technically been terminated with the promulgation of the
territory’s independent constitution in October 1960?
The answer is that according to the UN Charter Article 76 B,
the UN trusteeship over territory ends once the territory
has achieved self-government or independence.In
1958 Ambazonia achieved self-government, then in 1959 the UN
Passed a resolution severing it fromNigeria, and
in October 1960, an independent Constitution was promulgated
For the territory. Therefore, the UN had no legal authority,
And therefore the plebiscite was invalid.Another
Question asked is; what then was the object of the
Plebiscite? The answer is that from the terms in the
Manifesto “The Two Alternatives”, the plebiscite
Was to give the UN a mandate to either “append”
Amazonia again with Nigeria if the people voted for joining
Nigeria or to unite Cameroun and Ambazonia in a confederacy
Of sovereign states, if they voted for joining Cameroon.
Therefore, Cameroons claim that Ambazonian people gave the
The Cameroon Republic a mandate to annex Ambazonia has no legal basis
at all.
TERENCE.NYANGA MANIHSCNC ACTIVIST UK