Efik Monarch, Angry over Bakassi Cession, Seeks Independence from Nigeria

The Efik nation, a traditional monarchy in the southeastern corner of Nigeria which dates to pre-colonial times, has said that it intends to secede from Nigeria, mostly because of anger over last year’s cession of the Bakassi Peninsula to neighboring Cameroon, where Efiks also live.

High Chief Eyo Bassey Eyo-Cobham, chairman of the Eburutu Royal Fraternity Forum, made the announcement at a press conference in Calabar, Nigeria, on June 23rd.  He also cited “undue government interference in Efik kingship,” in the words of one press report, and suspicions that the central government in Abuja is planning on handing even more Efik land to Cameroon.  The current obong (prince or traditional ruler, sometimes translated king) of the Efik city-state at Akwa Akpa (“Old Calabar,” in Nigeria) is Basso Ekpo Bassey II (a.k.a. Ekpo Abasi Otu), who took the throne in 2008.  The larger Calabar (a.k.a. Kalabari) Kingdom, which includes Efiks but is dominated by the Ijaw ethnic group, is headed by Theophilus J. T. Princewill, who became King Amachree XI in 2002 (though Amachree’s rule has been in recent years troubled by competing claims).

Basso Ekpo Bassey II’s coronation in 2008

Nigeria’s Cross River State administered the disputed Bakassi Peninsula until the Nigerian and Cameroonian governments agreed in 2002 to abide by an eventual ruling on the overlap by the United Nations’ International Court of Justice (I.C.J.).  The I.C.J. decided in favor of Cameroon, and in 2006 Nigeria formally ceded the area, to the anger of Efiks who proceeded to declare a Democratic Republic of Bakassi.  In this, they had allies in both the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCAPO), a group fighting for the independence of the formerly British-administered parts of Cameroon—plus Bakassi—and an Ogoni autonomist group in Nigeria called the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).  That declaration never got any traction, since the Cameroonian government cracks down much harder on separatist talk than Nigeria’s does.  In 2012, the Bakassi dispute was rekindled as the ten-year deadline for Nigeria to appeal the I.C.J. decision was allowed to lapse, prompting Efik activists to accuse Nigeria of abandoning their kinsmen in Bakassi to the Francophone-dominated Cameroonian regime.  In that same year (as reported at the time in this blog), the Efik obong openly advocated accepting an invitation to join Southern Cameroons separatists to push for an independent Ambazonia straddling the border.

This map shows the Efik ethnolinguistic group (included here with Ibibio)
in relation to the Igbo (here “Ibo”) and Ijaw peoples.

Regarding the Bakassi cession, High Chief Eyo-Cobham told reporters at the recent press conference, “With such developments and other oppressive acts and tendencies of the Nigerian State, we the Efik Eburutu people say, ‘Enough is Enough,’ and have decided to take our destinies in our hands peacefully by pulling out of Nigeria. Our peaceful aims and objectives of self-determination for full autonomy are in tandem with Articles 1, 3-21 of the United Nations Charter of which the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a signatory.”

Amachree XI, king of Calabar: is he as separatist as the Efik obong?

In an official statement, the monarchy said that the Nigeria has, in one way or another, “turned us [the Efik] into punching bags socially, economically, and politically.”

The Bakassi Peninsula, in the words of the statement, “was an integral part of Efik Eburutu Kingdom as shown in all available records” and “was secretly and heartlessly expunged from Nigerian map in October 1960, filed in United Nations and African Union (A.U.) secretariats and ceded in 1975 to Cameroun without the consent and knowledge of its owners—the kings and chiefs of Efiks of Calabar and Bakassi.  This action has demonstrated that our people are not wanted in Nigeria, and as a people, we do not want to belong to Cameroun.  The effect of this ceding has brought untold pain and sufferings to Efik Eburutu people.  With this, the spirit of our ancestors who were, as it were, buried in the now ceded territory are roaming, refusing to be appeased.”

Efik protesters angry about the Bakassi cession

It is not clear if King Amachree XI has taken a position on this latest statement—i.e., whether this latest move is an Efik initiative only or if it has the support of the larger Calabar Kingdom of which, in a sense, it is traditionally a part.  But it comes at a time of increasing fragility for Nigerian unity.  The Igbo-dominated Biafra separatist movement, which includes Cross River State and other traditional Calabar territories in its claim, has remained active in recent years, the Adamawa monarchy in east-central Nigeria—which also straddles today’s border with Cameroon, but farther north—agitated for separatism earlier this year (as reported at the time in this blog), and the radical Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram has been waging a brutal insurgency for years, killing thousands, in Nigeria’s north and has in recent weeks managed to control a large part of Borno State.

A proposed flag for “Bakassi Free State”

[For those who are wondering, yes, this blog is tied in with my forthcoming book, a sort of encyclopedic atlas to be published by Auslander and Fox under the title Let’s Split! A Complete Guide to Separatist Movements, Independence Struggles, Breakaway Republics, Rebel Provinces, Pseudostates, Puppet States, Tribal Fiefdoms, Micronations, and Do-It-Yourself Countries, from Chiapas to Chechnya and Tibet to Texas.  The book, which contains dozens of maps and over 500 flags, is now in the layout phase and should be on shelves, and available on Amazon, by early fall 2014.  I will be keeping readers posted of further publication news.  Meanwhile, please “like” the book (even though you haven’t read it yet) on Facebook.]

Related posts from this blog:

• “Nigeria’s Adamawa Kingdom Invokes Sovereignty, Hints at Unification with Kindred in Cameroon” (March 2014)
• “Biafra Bikers Rejoice: Igbo May Not Have Their Own Nation, but They Have License Plates” (Feb. 2014)
• “Nigeria’s Boko Haram Warlord Abubakar Shekau Reported Dead from Gun Battle” (Aug. 2013)
• “Bakassian Border Survey Team Scatters; More Boko Haram Carnage: Nigeria Update” (Nov. 2012)
• “Nigerian Troops Massacre Civilians, Boko Haram Church Suicide Bombing, Kalabari-Bayelsa Border Row, Biafra Abductions: Nigeria Separatism Update” (Nov. 2012)
• “Hundreds Arrested as Biafra Zionists Declare Independence, Former Dictator Nixes Boko Haram Negotiations, More Northern Carnage” (Nov. 2012)
• “Senator Ensnared in Boko Haram Scandal; Open Civil War in Potiskum; More Bakassi Fallout: Nigeria Separatism Update” (Oct. 2012)
• “Jonathan Lets Bakassi Appeal Window Close; Efik King Joins Cause with Ambazonian Separatists” (Oct. 2012)
• “Abuja Rallies, Cameroon Crackdown in Run-Up to Anniversary of Bakassi Cession; Ogoni Trials in Washington, Johannesburg; Achebe on Biafra: Nigeria Separatism Update” (Oct. 2012)
• “Southern Nigeria Splitting Apart Too as the Muslim North Burns” (Aug. 2012)
• “Ambazonian Separatists Focus on Bakassi Peninsula in New Push to Split Cameroon” (Aug. 2012)
• “10 Separatist Movements to Watch in 2012” (Dec. 2011)
• “Remembering Odumegwu Ojukwu: On Biafra and on an African Continent Riven by European Borders” (Nov. 2011)

Cameroon Takes Over Bakassi, Dashing Ambazonian and Efik Nationalist Hopes

Up went the Cameroonian flag over the Bakassi Peninsula on Wednesday, to the dismay of separatists and irredentists.

After decades of controversy and conflict, the Republic of Cameroon on August 21st formally took control of the disputed Bakassi Peninsula on its border with the Federal Republic of Nigeria.  This closes the door on the hopes of Nigerian nationalist irredentists, separatists in the peninsula and in the wider “Southern Cameroons” region, and members of the Efik ethnic group whose communities are riven by the international border.

Nigeria had been administering the peninsula since independence when, in 2002, the United Nations’ International Court of Justice (I.C.J.) ruled that the territory would belong to Cameroon.  Both sides had agreed to abide by the I.C.J. decision, whatever it might be, and in 2006 Nigeria ceded the peninsula, angering nationalists.  The issue lay dormant until last year, when a 10-year period during which Nigeria could contest the decision came was nearing its close (developments which were covered extensively in this blog).  Nationalist critics of Nigeria’s president, Goodluck Jonathan, cried “capitulation,” members of the Efik ethnic group, which straddles the border, demanded that displaced Efiks in Nigeria be allowed to resettle in the peninsula, and Efik nationalists on both sides of the border called for an independent state which would revive the Efiks’ precolonial Calabar Kingdom.

The Calabar Kingdom is still a functioning ceremonial monarchy,
though the Nigerian–Cameroonian border bisects its traditional lands

On the Cameroonian side, this southwestern region of the country had for decades been home to a separatist movement in formerly British-ruled areas.  The original German colony of Kamerun had been divided between the United Kingdom and France after Germany lost the First World War.  At the time of decolonization, the southern part of the British chunk (“Southern Cameroons”) voted to join the newly independent French portion as the Republic of Cameroon, while the predominantly-Muslim chunk of the British sliver voted to join Nigeria.  But Southern Cameroonians, culturally distinct and used to using English rather than French as their lingua franca, chafed under a new 1972 constitution under which the Cameroonian dictatorship erased all regional autonomy.  Separatists declared an independent Republic of Ambazonia in the former Southern Cameroons in 1999 and in 2006 declared a Republic of Ambazania (note slight difference in spelling) which was to include the Bakassi Peninsula as well.  This declaration had the support of displaced Efik and other Bakassians on the Nigerian side, but it had little effect on the ground.  (To complicate matters, the areas on the Nigerian side of the border are part of a possibly future independent state envisioned by Igbo separatists—whose disastrously brief-lived Republic of Biafra in the 1960s included a restive Efik minority.)

But a 2012 declaration of independence by the Republic of Bakassi, though it involved only a radio-station tower on a tiny island off the peninsula’s coast, invited brutal reprisals by the Cameroonian military—not only against the Bakassian separatists but against Ambazonian/Ambazanian separatists more generally.

Separatists in Cameroon wave the flag of Ambazonia

But, declarations of independence aside, this is a time of reckoning for the estimated 90% of the peninsula’s 40,000-some residents who hold only Nigerian passports.  Instead of offering dual citizenship, as Bakassians demand, they are being told they must apply for foreign-resident permits, as though they were immigrants.  This is hardly a sporting attitude on the part of the Cameroonian victors in the dispute, and it is likely to inflame tensions.  While the rest of Nigeria is riven by separatism as well, many fear that the transition to Cameroonian rule might be the beginning, rather than the end, of the dispute over the Bakassi Peninsula.

[You can read more about Bakassi, Ambazonia, and many other separatist and new-nation movements, both famous and obscure, in my new book, a sort of encyclopedic atlas just published by Litwin Books under the title Let’s Split! A Complete Guide to Separatist Movements and Aspirant Nations, from Abkhazia to Zanzibar.  The book, which contains 46 maps and 554 flags (or, more accurately, 554 flag images), is available for order now on Amazon.  Meanwhile, please “like” the book (even if you haven’t read it yet) on Facebook and see this interview for more information on the book.]

Bakassian Border Survey Team Scatters; More Boko Haram Carnage: Nigeria Update, 18-24 November 2012

Lawmaker, Pastor, Police Inspector Gunned Down in Wave of Boko Haram Hits.  Police in Nigeria reported on November 18th the assassination of Ibrahim Abba Garko, a legislator in the Kano State assembly, who was gunned down in a motorcycle drive-by shooting in the city of Kano.  He died on the spot, and two companions were wounded.  He was a member of the country’s ruling party, the People’s Democratic Party (P.D.P.).  The following day, a 70-year-old Christian pastor was shot and killed in front of his family by suspected Boko Haram members in Maiduguri, capital of Borno State in the northeast.  The minister, the Rev. Ilaisha (other reports say Elisha) Kabura, was on his way to conduct a service for a Church of Christ in Nations congregation.  He had received Boko Haram death threats before.  The same day, a police inspector, Babangida Danbabo, was shot and killed on his way home from prayers at a mosque in Bauchi, in Bauchi State.

Rioting between Christians, Muslims in Nigerian Middle Belt Kills 4.  Four people were killed in street warfare between Christians and Muslims in east-central Nigeria on November 18th after a Muslim in the town of Ibi, in Taraba State, refused to submit to a checkpoint set up by a Christian vigilante group.  The checkpoint was one of many set up in the town as a way of keeping Muslims from approaching churches, in the wake of a barrage of church bombings by the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram in recent months.  Both churches and mosques were burned down in the rioting that ensued, and the military was sent into the town to keep order.  Taraba State is in the east of the region known as the Middle Belt, where Muslims and Christians live side by side.  Also, in the central Middle Belt state of Nasarawa, seven people, including a seven-year-old boy were killed on November 21st in rioting between the Koro and Eggon ethnic groups in the town of Agyaragu.  At least 10 people were injured and 15 houses burned down.

Rioting in Ibi

Military Operation in Northeast Nigeria Kills Boko Haram Commander, Others.  A joint military and police operation in Nigeria, including the anti-terrorist Joint Task Force (J.T.F.), state security forces, and even the air force, launched a major offensive on November 21st against the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State in northeastern Nigeria, resulting in the death of a Boko Haram commander, Ibn Saleh Ibrahim.  Several other Boko Haram fighters were also killed, according to the military.  The following day in Maiduguri, Boko Haram members killed three children—ages 5, 7, and 12—in their mother’s presence, amid a total of five similar murders that day.  The children’s father was Aduju Zubairu, a member of Nigeria’s federal State Security Service (S.S.S.).

Reportedly Escaped Boko Haram Prisoner Turns Out to Be in Hospital.  In Nigeria, media reported this week that the country’s inspector general of police, Mohammed Abubakar, had informed President Goodluck Jonathan that the media reports of the escape from police custody of the Boko Haram commander Sani Mohammed (a.k.a. Mohammed Sani) on November 8th (as reported earlier in this blog) were a false story and that in fact the suspect was sick and in a hospital.  He had been arrested in January 2012 along with another suspect, Bakir Sokoto.

Bakassians Disrupt Nigerian-Cameroonian Border Survey Team, Protesting Cession.  Demonstrators from the Bakassi Peninsula disrupted the activities of a surveying team marking the newly negotiated boundary between Nigeria and Cameroon on November 21st and 22nd, over what they call a betrayal by the Nigerian government, which last month intentionally let pass a last opportunity to contest an International Court of Justice (I.C.J.) ruling ceding Bakassi to Cameroon.  The Joint Technical Team was made up of United Nations, Nigerian, and Cameroonian officials.  The demonstrators carried placards and prevented the team from reaching the site.  After the disruptions, the U.N. temporarily suspended the surveying project.  See a recent article in this blog detailing the Bakassi dispute.

[For those who are wondering, yes, this blog is tied in with my forthcoming book, a sort of encyclopedic atlas to be published by Auslander and Fox under the title Let’s Split! A Complete Guide to Separatist Movements, Independence Struggles, Breakaway Republics, Rebel Provinces, Pseudostates, Puppet States, Tribal Fiefdoms, Micronations, and Do-It-Yourself Countries, from Chiapas to Chechnya and Tibet to Texas.  The book, which contains dozens of maps and over 500 flags, is now in the layout phase and should be on shelves, and available on Amazon, by early fall 2014.  I will be keeping readers posted of further publication news.  Meanwhile, please “like” the book (even though you haven’t read it yet) on Facebook.]