3 Nigerian Territories That Were Transferred to Cameroon Through Court Rulings, Others
- Several territories once governed or claimed by Nigeria were transferred to neighbouring Cameroon through colonial partitioning, UN votes, and court rulings
- The Bakassi Peninsula, home to many Nigerian fishing communities, became the subject of a landmark ICJ case that ended with Nigeria handing over the land in 2008
- Southern Cameroons, administered alongside Nigeria under British rule, voted in a 1961 UN plebiscite to join the Republic of Cameroun instead
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A number of territories that were historically governed or claimed by Nigeria are today part of Cameroon.
This followed a series of colonial agreements, United Nations-supervised votes, and international court decisions that reshaped the borders of both countries across the 20th and 21st centuries.
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The Bakassi Peninsula
Perhaps the most widely discussed of these territories is the Bakassi Peninsula, a coastal zone long inhabited by Nigerian communities, particularly Efik and Ibibio fishermen and traders. Nigeria and Cameroon disputed sovereignty over the land for years before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in 2002 that Bakassi belonged to Cameroon.
The handover was formalised through the Greentree Agreement, signed in 2006 by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Cameroonian President Paul Biya. Nigeria completed its withdrawal of administrative personnel and military forces from the peninsula on August 14, 2008, marking the end of Nigerian authority over the territory.
Southern Cameroons and the 1961 UN Plebiscite
Southern Cameroons followed a different path. After World War I, the collapse of German Kamerun led the League of Nations to place the territory under British mandate. Britain chose to administer it alongside Nigeria, an arrangement that continued for several decades.
In February 1961, the United Nations organised a plebiscite in which voters in Southern Cameroons chose to join the newly independent Republic of Cameroun rather than remain within the Nigerian political structure. The union took effect on October 1, 1961. The territory now makes up the North-West and South-West Regions of Cameroon and is referred to by Anglophone separatists as Ambazonia.
Northern Cameroons border adjustments
The situation along the northern border is more complex. When Northern Cameroons voted in the same 1961 plebiscite, the majority chose integration with Nigeria, and the territory was absorbed into what was then the Northern Region, covering areas that now fall within Borno, Adamawa, and Taraba states.
However, certain boundary realignments during the colonial era meant that portions of pre-colonial empires, including sections of the historic Borno and Adamawa emirates, ended up within German and later French-administered Cameroon.
These adjustments left parts of what had been a shared political and cultural sphere divided across an international frontier.
Proposed new states in Nigeria that scaled second reading
Legit.ng earlier reported that several bills proposing the creation of new states in Nigeria have successfully passed the second reading at the House of Representatives. These developments have signalled growing momentum for constitutional amendments aimed at restructuring the geopolitical landscape.
Source: Legit.ng
