AFRICAphonie

Bottom-up Peace and Development Plan mapped out in Bakassi

By Nana Walter Wilson

Peace Committee members of the Bakassi peninsula have come out with neighbourhood peace and bottom-up development plans of their respective communities in Bakassi, which with the assistance of their Municipal Councils and other Development partners would be realised in the immediate, mid and long term duration.
 
Committee members mapped out this plan during a workshop held in Mundemba on 24th and 25th February 2011 organised for the Bakassi Peace committee members by AFRICAphonie with support from the British High Commission, Cameroon.

Nigerian Consul-General Dr. Kenneth Nsor: “Cameroon-Nigeria amity... is regulated by the values of a cherished sovereignty"

 By Jesse Konang (Published in Bakassi Peace Newsletter of November 2010)

The Federal Republic of Nigeria with an area of 923,768 square kilometres, 36 states, 774 local government councils, and 250 distinct languages is situated in West Africa. She is the most populous country in Africa and the World’s most populous Black nation with a population estimate of 140 million citizens (2006 census).  

In Nigeria’s relationship with her neighbours, Cameroon, which borders her to the east, occupies a special position, according to the Consular Guide of the Consulate-General of Nigeria in Buea.  This is especially so in view of the many years of verbal vituperation, military and legal manoeuvres over the ownership of the oil-rich land and sea reserves in the Bakassi area.  The October 2002 International Court of Justice Decision facilitated the withdrawal of Nigeria from Bakassi on 14th August, 2008, through the instrumentality of the Nigeria-Cameroon Mixed Commission and the Greentree Accord. 

Bakassi Citizens Trained on Peace Building

By Solomon Tembang with Africaphonie team in Bakassi

Three training workshops on enhancing peace building capacities especially among youths in the Bakassi peninsula took place in Bamusso, Kombo Itindi, and Idabato from the 28th November to 3rd December 2010.
Participants at the Bamusso Workshop

Supported by the Challenge Bid of the British High Commission, Yaounde and implemented by AFRICAphonie, the workshops were aimed at providing the citizens in Bakassi peninsula with the skills of early warning signals of conflict and establishing the intricate link between peace and development so as to eventually produce a home grown, bottom-up Peace and development Plan for their different communities.