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condition for development.The external dimension of the principle of self-determination embraces the following primarycomponents: the right of colonial peoples to independence and establishment of their ownsovereign states; and the right of freedom of all peoples from alien domination, subjugation andexploitation. The principle also has certain derivative components, namely, the principles of statesovereignty, state responsibility, territorial integrity, and non-intervention in the internal affairsof another state.With regard to the dispute over the Bakassi peninsula, the primary internal dimension of theprinciple of self-determination was in conflict with the derivative or secondary internaldimension. As indicated earlier, in 1958 and 1961, there had been a UN-sponsored plebiscite innorthern and southern Cameroon, of which the Bakassi peninsula was then a part. It was anattempt to resolve the conflict by democratic means. But the dispute could not be resolved to thesatisfaction of the inhabitants of Chamber in northern Cameroon and the inhabitants of theBakassi peninsula in southern Cameroon. However, it is noteworthy that an attempt was made bythe United Nations to deal with the matter from the perspective of democracy and human rights,and not simply that of reason of state. In the post-independence era, the peoples of Cameroonand Nigeria have been consistently denied their crucial social, economic and political rights.Millions of Nigerians and Cameroonians are denied the right to determine their own socioeconomicsystems; the right to choose their own political systems. Even within the imposedpolitical systems, the citizens of these two countries are also denied a related fundamental humanright, which the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights describes as “the right to take partin the governance of one’s country directly”, and the “right of equal access to public service inhis country”. These include the right of the people to freely elect those who can govern themwell, and throw out those who, in the past, had governed them badly. The peoples of the twocountries have often been disenfranchised through the despotic manipulation of the electoralprocess and the non-provision of electoral materials at designated polling stations. From thisstand point, it should be stressed that Nigerians who were disenfranchised in the fraudulentelections of 2007, in Nigeria, occupy almost the same political position as some of theinhabitants of the Bakassi peninsula that, in 2002, suddenly lost their rights of citizenship,following the verdict by the International Court of Justice.The general points which emerged from a study of the boundary and territorial dispute betweenNigeria and Cameroon may be summarized as follows. First, it became clear that there is a linkbetween authoritarian, repressive regimes and a high proclivity to resolve international conflictsby the use of violent means. Regimes that use violence to repress political opponents and theirsupporters tend to reproduce themselves externally through violent diplomacy. It was under thehighly repressive regimes of Babangida and Abacha in Nigeria, and Paul Biya in Cameroon thatthe conflict between the two countries degenerated, resulting in frequent violent confrontations.Democracy, or at any rate, relatively non-authoritarian civilian rule, is therefore a better domesticfoundation for international peace than military rule.Second, economic interests, especially stakes in some valuable natural resources, rather thanconcern for human lives and consideration for human welfare, underlie most international18
conflicts. Even when other motives or interests are presented as issues in dispute, often, but notalways, the hidden and real motivating factors are economic, in particular, contention over thecontrol of some valuable natural resources. In the case under reference, it was the discovery ofcrude oil in the disputed territory in 1967 that heightened the interests of the governments ofNigeria and Cameroon in the disputed territories, especially, the Bakassi peninsula. Thelivelihood opportunities of the people in the area, their fishing rights and their general welfarewere obviously of little or no interest to successive governments in Nigeria and Cameroon. Eventhe question of whether the people in the area wished to be Nigerians or Cameroonians did notbother the governments of the two countries much. This explains why the Nigerian Governmentreadily accepted the results of the plebiscite in southern Cameroon in 1961, but, initially, rejectedthe verdict of the ICJ in 2002, even when Nigeria secured from that ruling a substantial portionof territory, and gained some people in the process. In the mind of the rulers in Nigeria, the lossof the Bakassi peninsula overshadowed all the gains in territory and people because it is an oilbearingor resource-rich territory.Third, pressure from the real victims of international conflicts, that is, those whose livelihoodchances are immediately and directly threatened by the conflicts is often not critical in bringingabout a resolution to the conflicts. Rather it is the influence and interests of those who are likelyto benefit materially, in the long run, from a prolongation of the conflict that weigh more withnational decision-makers. Examples of the latter social group in the dispute between Nigeria andCameroon were the oil-prospecting companies, operating on both sides of the divide, as well aspotential suppliers of arms and ammunition, local and international. It is, therefore, obvious thatconflicts that involve high stakes, represented by the presence of valuable natural resource, tendto endure. It is, therefore, important to scrutinize closely the real interests of actors that urge theparties in dispute not to accept some particular terms of settlement arrived at by judicial or nonjudicialprocesses, and to press on, through the use of force, to obtain more advantageousoutcome.Fourth, enduring conflict resolution must be based on clear, generally accepted principles, whichserve, promote and improve human welfare, not those which merely satisfy the interests ofabstract entities, such as states. In this respect, the superiority of human right norms over theprinciples associated with raison d’etat needs to be stressed. By the same token, democraticconsultation with direct, actual or potential victims of violent conflicts, that is the majority of thecitizens of a state, or the current inhabitants of a disputed territory, is more efficacious inpeaceful resolution of such conflicts, than reliance on the views of the indirect beneficiaries ofthe continuation of the conflicts or the conflict situations.Economic Diplomacy and National Interest (1991)In a work published 1991, but whose production spanned several years, I pursued further my reconceptualizationof international relations, and refocusing of the study of foreign policy in astudy entitled: “Nigeria: Economic Diplomacy and National Interest-An Analysis of the Politicsof Nigeria’s External Economic Relations”. The article was published in a special edition of theNigerian Journal of International Affairs by the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs,and reprinted in 2005 as part of a book, also published by the NIIA. [Nigerian Journal ofInternational Affairs, Vol. 17, No.2, 1991; 34-98].19
Page 5 and 6: Machiavelli wrote The Prince for a
Page 7 and 8: Second, the traditional approach to
Page 9 and 10: of the policies of different depart
Page 11 and 12: observed that there is no dichotomy
Page 13 and 14: several paradigms, of which behavio
Page 15: I began with a dialectical analysis
Page 20 and 21: In those sixty-five pages, I explai
Page 22 and 23: foreign oil companies could not cor
Page 24 and 25: feasibility as well as research and
Page 26 and 27: manufacture of printed cotton.One o
Page 28 and 29: inflate the cost of the industries
Page 30 and 31: were:(a) official corruption- for i
Page 32 and 33: and later, the various parts of the
Page 34 and 35: This last point may be illustrated
Page 36 and 37: Our work on “Economic Diplomacy a
Page 38 and 39: and technologies. As a market, the
Page 40 and 41: it addressed the problem of the rel
Page 42 and 43: should be the main target of the re
Page 44: H. Assisi Asobie, Domestic Politica

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