The statement in the Vanguard captioned “Nigeria pledges support to Cameroon over secession threat” dated 6 February 2018 if true, is the first statement made on behalf of President Mohammadu Buhari and the Federal Government of Nigeria admitting responsibility for the abduction and rendition to French Cameroun of the President and members of the Interim Government of the Federal Repuiblic of Ambazonia since the 5th of January 2018. This statement has profound consequences for Nigeria, President Buhari and elements of his government complicit in these crimes.

In its historical perspective, more than fifty years, ago, Buhari was a participant in the genocide that claimed more than three million Biafran lives. His endorsement of the genocide and the ideological motivation for the genocide against Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia by French Cameroun through his National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguna may therefore not be surprising.

Since President Buhari came to power, he has selectively activated his genocidal instincts to fulfill his political, ethnic and pecuniary interests.  While in the opposition to the government of President Good Luck Jonathan, he opposed the prosecution of the war against Boko Haram claiming then that it targeted the Northern Youth based on their ethnic and religious identity. With support from the circumstantially politically unreliable Yoruba politicians to the West, gullible corrupt political merchants in the South/South and in the Middle Belt he rode on his political Islamic support base of which Boko Haram is its militant vanguards to power.

Once in power he adopted an ambivalent policy towards the war against Boko Haram with whom he has maintained a clandestine fig leave of support while prosecuting the war against them. On occasion, he negotiated and released some members of Boko Haram and subtly deployed others in the guise of Fulani Herdsmen to kill and maim in the Middle belt, the East, South/South, Middle East and the West with impunity.  He has opposed dialogue with the Biafrans who unlike Boko Haram with whom he has been dialoguing, have not declared war against the Federation.  He has subverted the amnesty deal that Good Luck Jonathan negotiated with the Niger Delta militants and turned a blind eye to the systematic massacres of armless civilians in Bakassi and other frontier communities by Cameroun Gendarmes. In context therefore, the statement endorsing the genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against Southern Cameroons by French Cameroons, does not come as a surprise.

The statement for the first time provides attempts to justify the unprecedented criminal act of abduction which is better associated with Boko Haram as intended to assist the government of French Cameroun to safeguard its territorial integrity.  The purpose for violating international law through an blatant act of international criminality to assist a genocidal reason committing international crimes which even France its colonial master has condemned places Nigeria as a conspirator in the crimes.  Prior to the admission, the Federal Government kept sealed lips and refused to acknowledge the abductions or admit orchestrating the crime.  With the admission of the crime and the endorsement and support of the genocide and international crimes against the Southern Cameroons/ Ambazonia, the Federal Government of Nigeria is the first government in the entire universe to admit its participation in the international violations and crimes against Ambazonia. Buhari has not demonstrated a Nigeria national interest need to justify commission of the crimes Nigeria has admitted to committing or to justify its support and complicity in the crimes perpetrated against Southern Cameroons. The Buhari administration has joined the crime cartel abducting and slaughtering hundreds of thousands of Southern Cameroons civilians for purely pecuniary interests. This is tantamount to sourcing for money through criminal means to finance his reelection efforts and that of his Vice President. The Boko Haram approach to accessing international crimes cartels like the government of French Cameroun to source and launder money to safeguard its threatened hold on power espouses the hypocrisy of his commitment to fight corruption in Nigeria.

With this admission, President Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osibanjo and the National Security Adviser Babagama Monguna hence bear individual criminal responsibility for the crimes of abduction, money laundering and complicity in the international crimes perpetrated against the Southern Cameroons. By relying on Babagama Monguna, the foot soldier that he and his Vice President relied on to conduct the entire operation including the negotiation and concealment of the colossal amounts paid for the criminal operation, Mr Buhari intended to keep the operation and its proceeds within his inner circle.

The alleged statement of Babagama Monguna places President Buhari and some of his close associates at the centre of the planning and execution of the crime. The fact that Buhari delegated Babagana Monguno, the alleged mastermind of the operation to deliver this statement on his behalf and not a cabinet member or a plenipotentiary member of the diplomatic corps is significant in some ways. It raises critical questions about the state of cohesion within the government of Nigeria on the matter and the possible frictions between the co-conspiring members of the crime cartel involved in the criminal enterprise in both government of Nigeria and French Cameroun.

It appears embarrassing and even surprising for the President of Nigeria to be represented in a supposed bilateral security meeting supposedly held in Nigeria by a national security adviser and not a cabinet level representative. It is doubtful that statements made by the national adviser can have the force of a binding international commitment on behalf of the people of Nigeria.  In his capacity as a corrupt mastermind of the abduction, the national security adviser might have deliver a message on his on his own behalf and that of the President as the General Overseer of the criminal operation.  There would be no constitutional basis in a genuine democracy for such a delegation of authority to a security operative to make commitments of an international nature with profound international, legal and diplomatic consequences. Diplomatic practice requires that such commitments can only be made by mandate holders recognized as such in international law.

That this individual represented the Federation or was mandated to deliver these statements to supposed delegates and representatives of French Cameroun in a supposed security meeting held in Nigeria carries with it serious diplomatic ramifications. This appeared to have been an open manifestation of a chaotic management of a criminal deal which exploded in the market place of international and national scrutiny.  This appears to have foreshadowed the nervousness, confusion and disagreement within a government    totally embarrassed by the international outcry over the criminal violations of international law by Nigeria and the exposure of the underlying corruption surrounding the violations.

There are reasons why persons involved in this crime, no matter their status will be held responsible for their role in these international crimes. The international focus on Nigeria and French Cameroun by several international judicial accountability mechanisms will force the crime cartels present in the governments of both countries to account for their crimes. The moment is soon coming when they will know the clear limits to impunity, reckless corruption and abuse of political power.                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Cameroon Concord News has critically examined the impugned statement.  Apart from being a statement endorsing the genocide against Federation of Ambazonia and admitting that Nigerian security operatives on his orders committed the crime of  abduction,  it’s contains no comprehensive information  relating to the exact whereabouts of His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the Interim Government of Ambazonia.  Cameroon Concord News News critically observes that the unspecified cooperation basis for which Nigeria committed this crime appears to be but a mere euphemism for the unprecedented corruption that informed the criminal conduct of President Buhari, his Vice President, his National Security Adviser and his close associates. The deployment of his security adviser and not the Vice President, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Attorney-General of the Federal or a Cabinet level Minister, to make statements of a legal and diplomatic nature on behalf of the President to representatives of an alien sovereign evokes the possibility of serious disagreement within the Buhari government about the legality and secretive nature of the abductions and high level corruption involved in the operation.  The violations of national and international law with profound consequences may also have alarmed many members of government who might not have been aware of the criminal corrupt deal but are required by the beneficiaries to deal with the consequences.

Babagana Munguno’s statement is an admission on behalf of President Buhari that Nigeria abducted Southern Cameroons leaders who were legally in Nigeria under the protection of International law. Statements by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the United States State Department alleging and condemning the violations of international law by Nigeria signifies that the consequences for this violation will follow. The statement admitting the abductions and the endorsement of international violations committed against the Southern Cameroons, the support to French Cameroun to realize it’s stated goals genocidal goals of preserving the unity of its territory through criminal means; genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes bring Nigeria and French Cameroun within the radar of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which fortunately has been conducting a preliminary examination in Nigeria since the 18 November 2010. The Babagana Monguno admission brings into focus following crimes falling within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court where Nigeria is a state party:  Genocide (article 6), Crime Against Humanity Article 7 (e) Imprisonment or other deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law. 7(i) Enforced disappearance of persons, Article 7(k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering or serious injury to body or to mental and physical health. Article 8 (vii) Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement.

Although French Cameroun signed but did not ratify the Rome Statute, the officially announced participation of Nigeria in these crimes must be considered within the context of the ongoing preliminary examination in Nigeria targeting the Nigerian Military and Security Agencies which the security operatives who participated in these international violations form part.  Through its admitted criminal conduct, Nigeria may have provided the required jurisdictional basis for the ICC to examine the crimes committed by French Cameroon against Southern Cameroon/Ambazonia in which Nigeria is an admitted and willing participant.  In this regard therefore, members of the Nigeria government who participated in perpetration of these crimes and the violation of international law cannot and will not hide behind the shield of national security or sovereignty to conceal their participation is crimes that have shock the conscience of humanity.

If the criminals who have violated international law and perpetrated these crimes are not held to account for their crimes, then the protection afforded humanity by international law will be held in contempt and the abduction and trade in human beings to satisfy the corrupt pecuniary interests of corrupt power merchants will encourage impunity.  Nigeria must not be allowed to become a laboratory for whitewashing Boko Haram criminal tactics and deploying them to security operations in total disregard the international rule of law.

For these reasons, Cameroon Concord News Group strongly holds that the responsibility to produce and free the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and members of his government lies with Nigeria. Whether they are in French Cameroun or still held in Nigeria as it may well be the case, they are held at the pleasure of the Federal Government of Nigeria.  Nigeria must be held accountable for whatever happens to them.  Cameroon Concord News Group strongly urges the ICC which has been conducting a preliminary examination in Nigeria since 2010 to exercise its jurisdiction on the crimes of the abduction of the Southern Cameroons leaders who were legally in Nigeria under the protection of International law. The crime in which they were abducted and disappeared falls within the jurisdiction of the ICC. Cameroon Concord News Group strongly urges international human rights organizations, Ambazonians the world over and Nigerian of good will to submit petitions to the ICC to extend its ongoing preliminary examination in Nigeria to cover this crime of abduction and complicity in the international crimes coming within the statute of the ICC committed against Southern Cameroons/ Ambazonia.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman and Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group