In this interview, Chairman of Save Bakassi Movement, Chief Maurice Ekong, argues that the story of Bakassi people is not over as the ethnic Russian population in Crimea has exposed the  West and the UN system on  the right of indigenous  people to determine their future.  
By Hugo Odiogor, Foreign Affairs Editor.

With the hindsight of the Bakassi peninsula crisis, what is your reading of what is happening in Crimea  in relation to the attitude of the US  and its EU  allies?

WELL my views on the situation in Crimea is the traditional views of the interests at all cost. It does not welcome a situation where there is a parallel power.

During the period of struggle to retain Bakassi Peninsula, you will discover that Nigeria did not have the type of military and diplomatic might and resources that Russia is deploying to defend its interest in the crisis in Crimea.

Nigeria is also having problems with his democratic system and the west has its oil in the masrshes of Bakassi. When one looks at what is happening in Crimea, you could see parallels and interconnections.

The West is uncomfortable that Crimea going to Russia would give Moscow enormous oil resources. Crimea also possesses several natural gases both onshore and off shore. The republic also possesses two: one onshore and another one offshore, in the Black Sea. The West has been uncomfortable with Russia’s economic rise. The West is also not comfortable because of the strategic defence the Black Sea  gives Russia to the Black Sea.

Unfortunately for them, Russia has the military might, the economic as well as diplomatic strength to withstand the pressure from the West in NATO and in the UN Security Council. It wields veto power and when the push comes to the shove, it can count on the support of China, so the West can only bark.

What do you consider to be the key issues in the Crimea crisis and what are the paradigms with the Bakassi peninsula crisis?

The central issue in Crimea is that in 1954, Nikita Khrushchev emerged as the chairman of the ruling party in the Soviet Union. He  is a Ukrainian as his own village is about 3km from Crimea. It was in 1954 that Khrushchev “dashed” Crimea to Ukraine, to mark the 300 years of the relations between Russia and Ukraine.

Many people believe that it was an attempt to make Ukraine economically strong but under the Soviet Union, such considerations were not important because nobody anticipated that one day, the USSR would dissolve.
Besides, democracy was  not the vogue in USSR, so the people were not given the option to choose whether they liked the idea or not. But 54% of the population of Crimea were of ethnic Russian origin. The Ukrainians had 245 while Tartar has 12% of the population. People were not asked to decide their future on the matter.

Consequently, their history, culture and identity were not considered. But they did not protest because part of the policy was to make demographic shifts in the old Soviet Union. There are other regions that are in Ukraine and in the other republics that have strong ethnic Russian population. That is the problem that Ukraine will face in future. Don’t forget, the crisis in the Caucuses in 2008 when Georgia republic moved against the autonomy of South Ossetia.

But when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, the indigenous Russian population began to raise their voices.

It is symbolic that former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was on holiday in Crimea in August 1991 when some Generals tried to topple him. It took the resistance of Mr. Boris Yeltsin to stop them. Thereafter, the West promoted Yeltsin to succeed Gorbachev and used him to dismember USSR, so Crimea has become focal point of the centre for geo-political tussle in Europe.

Like I said, there are close similarities between Crimea and Bakassi. To preserve the unity of Nigeria, General Gowon who was a military dictator then, dashed Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon. He did not secure the consent of the Supreme Military Council (SMC) at that time.

He did not seek the consent of the people of Bakassi who were mainly of Efik and Efut nationalities. We do not have ethnic Cameroonians on the Peninsula then and now. But the people, their heritage and culture, were dashed to Cameroon. At the time the issue began to rage, Nigeria was not a democracy.

The West was not prepared to reward the military government of late Sani Abacha with access to the massive oil deposit in Bakassi peninsula.

When General Obasanjo became president of Nigeria, he could not do much to save Bakassi because of his own personal political ambition. Unlike in the case of Bakassi peninsula, the people in Crimea held a referendum and decided to opt out of Ukrainian rule.

Even if the UN decides to hold another referendum there, the 54% Russian population would overwhelm the 24% Ukrainians and 12% Tartar population there.

We must also put the events in Crimea into proper perspective. You will recall that the deposed Ukrainian president, Yanukovic was pro-Russian and did not want Ukraine to join the EU. The issue split the country down the middle and there were months of pro- and anti-government protests.

The president was forced out of office and he fled to Moscow. Because of the high level of structural organisation of state in Europe, Crimea, which as we said before, is a Peninsula with indigenous Russian population, it has its own state structure.

Since the 19th century, Russia has maintained a military presence in Crimea, with a naval base at Sevastopol.

The situation in Crimea peninsula became contentious when members of the militia became conscious of the security needs of the Peninsula. In Bakassi, we were not that organised or sophisticated.

The people of Crimea peninsula insisted that they are of ethnic Russia and invited Russia to protect them. It takes a student of International History to know why the West is linking Putin to Hitler. Of course, we know

Nazi Germany was the last foreign power to occupy Crimea during the second world war.

When you talk of the Parallel with Bakassi, what do you mean?

You will remember that a certain General Yakubu Gowon, at the head of a military junta, behaved like Khrushchev, when for the sake of unifying Nigeria, “dashed” Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon. Gowon sacrificed Bakassi and its people, its culture and heritage, for the unity of Nigeria.

When Khrushchev gave Crimea the Ukraine, he did not anticipate that one day Soviet Union was to disintegrate. Just like Khrushchev, Gowon took a unilateral decision which was not ratified by the ruling Supreme Military Council. In the case of Crimea, it was approved by the Politburo  because USSR then was one country . Khruchev was the chairman of the politburo, so anybody that opposed him would be at risk.

What are the lessons of the unfolding event in Crimea?

Some people have accused those of us in Save Bakassi Movement of a sell-out. Others said that we chickened out, but that is being very unfair to us. First we lack the strong state backing which Russia is giving to Crimea. Ukraine cannot use force on Crimea, without thinking of the reaction of Russia. When General Abacha moved troops to protect the people of Bakassi and the Peninsula, the opponents of the regime accused him of using that move to divert attention.

When Gen. Obasanjo came into office, he traded Bakassi away, just like Gowon before him. Save Bakassi Movement is not a liberation movement, it is not an armed group. We are not sophisticated for that type of struggle, but that is for now. We lacked what it takes to confront a police state like Cameroon with the active military and diplomatic support of France from what is happening today.

You can see that President Jonathan met a situation where the internal environment would not have allowed him much room to maneuver. The intelligence report at his disposal shows that it would have been so much to deal with France whose new policy in Africa is to grab as much territory and resources on the continent.
France is all over Africa. It also is influential over our Francophone neighbours who would have been used to compound the raging insurgency in the North. France understands that there is lack of internal cohesion in Nigeria and they exploited it to the advantage of Cameroon.

We believe that the story of Bakassi people is not over. When Nigeria overcomes, it will go back to this issue. The Crimea crisis will be a reference point for us because the decision to give Bakassi away was not based on a referendum. That was the least that ICJ could have done, that is what President Obasanjo owes Bakassi people. Don’t forget that the Save Bakassi Network stopped the final demarcation of the Southern axis which would have affected the Ikang area.