Effect of International Court of Justice's Judgment on Bakassi Peninsula on Nigeria-Cameroon Relations, 2010-2020

Abstract

The origins of border conflict disputes have often times been difficult to trace. For some, it can be said that some of these conflicts points to colonial ties with the state which erupted due to political or economic motives as a result of natural resources found in some borders. The scope and focus of this study is on the judgment on Nigeria-Cameroon conflict on Bakassi peninsula and Nigeria-Cameroon relations (2010-2020). The statement of problem aims to indicate the struggle over bakassi peninsula territory and the effectiveness of the ICJ’s ruling on the border dispute between Nigeria and Cameroon. Our objective was to examine how the ICJ’s decision on the bakassi peninsula led to the abuse of bakassi inhabitant’s human rights, to interrogate how the Green Tree Agreement resolved the difficulty in implementing the ICJ judgment on the Nigeria-Cameroon border issue and to determine how external power influenced ICJ ruling adjudication and implementation. This study adopted the Game theory as the theory employed. The secondary data collection template was used. The materials were analysed using qualitative descriptive method. Our findings discovered Africa is always faced with the problem of boundary disputes. It is against the backdrop that we recommend the need for Africa to have principles of negotiation, conciliation and judicial settlement to help address this problem of border disputes in Africa.