From State And State Power To Man And Social - National ...

juris] is a status-quo promoting norm. It is meant to promote stability in a changing world.Similarly, the principle which states that agreements are binding [pacta sunt servanda] serves thesame purpose. The idea is to maintain order and secure a measure of stability in a potentiallyrevolutionary era and environment. The last-named principle is qualified and, by thatqualification, strengthened by the related principle of rebus sic stantibus, that is that agreementsremain valid and binding unless and until the conditions under which they were made change.All three-uti possidetis juris, sancta sunt servanda, and rebus sic stantibus- are antirevolutionaryprinciples. They reflect acceptance of the orthodox paradigm of the internationalsystem as a state system, and of the state as the basic unit of analysis in international relations,because it is the key and real actor. They are based on the assumption that the “reason of state”,that is the security of the state, is the ultimate goal of international action; that the preservation ofthe institutional mechanisms of class domination constitutes the supreme value of contemporaryinternational system. These traditional principles of international relations are unquestioninglysubscribed to by the ruling classes not only in Nigeria and Cameroon, but also, by those of mostof the nations of the world today.The human right norms exposed and highlighted in the dispute over the Bakassi peninsula arethose embodied in articles 3, 5, 9, 12 and 17 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.Article 3 states that every human has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Article 9complements this. It states that no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile.And article 17.2 declares that no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property. These rightshad been violated with impunity, by soldiers of both Cameroon and Nigeria operating in theBakassi peninsula and its environs. Equally violated were the provisions of articles 5 and 12.Article 5 stipulates that no one shall be subjected to torture, or to cruel, inhuman or degradingtreatment. And article 12 states that no one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with hisproperty, home or correspondence, nor attacks on his honour and reputation. [UniversalDeclaration on Human Rights, 1948]. Even though newspapers and newsmagazines in Nigeriaand Cameroon contained accounts of frequent incidences of violation of these rights, yet theGovernments of Nigeria and Cameroon gave very little attention to the issue of gross violation ofthe worth and dignity of human persons so reported. On a very rare occasion when the matterfeatured in the discussions between President Ahidjo of Cameroon and General Yakubu Gowon,the Nigerian Head of State, not much came out of the talks. Ahijo promised to look intoNigeria’s complaints, while Gowon promised to caution the Nigerian media that carried suchembarrassing reports on human rights violations. [Ate and Akinterinwa, 1992:159]The right of self-determination is a critical democratic principle. The principle of selfdeterminationis a legal right that is now generally recognized in international law. Theconstituent elements of the right of all persons to determine, democratically, their own socioeconomicsystem as well as political system; the right of peoples, nations and nationalities(including minorities) to freely pursue, develop and preserve their culture, traditions andlanguage; and the right of the oppressed nations to self-determination, up to, and including theirright to secession, is also now guaranteed in international law. [Shivji, 1989:72, 73, 80]. Therights mentioned in this paragraph represent the internal dimension of the principle of selfdetermination.In the domestic political life of a people, there is no other value that is asimportant as liberty. Liberty is the essence of self-determination. And it is a hugely necessary17