28 June 2011
From Ernest Chinwo in Calabar Former Deputy Senate Leader and senator representing Cross River Central Senatorial District, Chief Victor Ndoma-Egba has said the 7th Senate would revisit the ceding of Bakassi peninsula to the Republic of Cameroon.
Addressing newsmen in Calabar, Ndoma-Egba confirmed that the Senate has not ratified the Green Tree Agreement through which the Federal Government ceded the Peninsula to Cameroon. Ndoma-Egba noted that the Federal Government under former President Olusegun Obasanjo did not consult the Senate before signing the Green Tree Agreement and said it was part of the inconsistencies in the Nigerian Constitution. He exonerated the Senate from any blame arising from the ceding of the Peninsula.
According to Ndoma-Egba, “It is part of the constitutional inconsistencies we are talking about. You see under the constitutional provision, the executive arm is expected to have completed a treaty before sending it to the National Assembly for mere domestication, but as far as the public is concerned it is the NASS. Meanwhile the constitution says a different thing.
“The executive goes into treaties without consulting the Senate. It is unlike the United States situation, where as you are negotiating a treaty, the United States Senate is also involved. In our own case, we are expected constitutionally to be a repository and to just carry out a perfunctory act – ok this is a treaty, ratify it. That is what it means. I know that for the Bakassi one, it was resisted by the Senate and to the best of my recollection, I am not sure the Senate ratified that treaty. It is still with the Senate but it has not been ratified. It is an issue that I want to assure you that as representatives of Cross River, we are going to raise it in this Seventh Senate. It has to be revisited”.
He chided the international community for goading Nigeria into signing the Green Tree Agreement only to ignore the implications of redrawing the international boundaries between Nigeria and Cameroon. His words: “I have been very consistent in my position about the indifference of the international community to the Bakassi issue.
If you remember, the Bakassi issue was driven by the United Nations (UN), urged on by Britain, United States and France. Now when they urged us to that Green Tree Agreement, one would have expected that the same enthusiasm that they showed in urging us to that point should have been showed regarding the consequences of the Green Tree Agreement.
“Each time you have redrawn international borders, you have had refugee problems and humanitarian problems. It is something to be expected. So the moment they did that, they ought to have anticipated the consequent humanitarian problem. It is not as if they did not know what was going to happen, but what have they done? Since we signed the Green Tree Agreement and Bakassi was ceded, I have not seen any international body coming to Cross River to ask any questions about what problems these refugees are having”.
On the reluctance of some State Governors to pay the new minimum wage, Ndoma-Egba said States were bound by law to pay the new wage, saying the State Governors were part of the process that led to the Act. “My opinion is that the state governments should do everything to pay the agreed minimum wage and I think even the law we passed was as a result of commitments made by the federal government at fora where they (State Governments) are also members. I think the Economic Council also met and the governors are members of the Economic Council. So they should do everything in their power to abide by the law”, he said.
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Continued here:
Senate Will Revisit Bakassi Issue, Says Ndoma-Egba