Bakassi Project Committee Prepares Inspection

The members met at the Prime Minister's Office on June 21, 2013. Members of the Coordination and Follow-up Committee on the Implementation of Priority Projects to be realised in the Bakassi Zone

Members of the Coordination and Follow-up Committee on the Implementation of Priority Projects to be realised in the Bakassi Zone will soon be on the field to appraise and evaluate the execution of special priority projects designed to make life liveable to the population. This is one of the key decisions of the committee session that held at the Prime Minister's Office on Friday, June 21, 2013.

"For now, I can say that some of the projects have been done. I have to go to the field to appreciate and evaluate the level of their execution." These were the words of Ndoh Bertha Bakata, the Special Adviser to the Prime Minister and new chairperson of the Bakassi Committee. She replaced, Lekunze Jacob Ketuma, the pioneer chairperson of the Committee who died on August 14, 2012.

In her maiden address to the Committee members, Ndoh Bertha called for collaboration and commitment to meet the international community's expectations for Cameroon to make Bakassi an enviable part of the country. As to hitches on the field, she said security concerns were top most and the committee will need to double efforts in the domain.

Following the terms of the June 12, 2006 Greentree Agreement between Cameroon and Nigeria on the handing over of Bakassi to Cameroon, August 14, 2013 will be the culminating point with the complete handing over of sovereignty of the Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon. By the agreement, Nigerians living in the zone will have to decide either to take up Cameroonian nationality, remain Nigerian citizens with resident papers or leave.

The Cameroon government on its part, in the New York Greentree Agreement took the commitment to develop the area through the provision of health, education, security, economic, communication infrastructure and other essential needs. Members of the Bakassi Committee will during their inspection mission evaluate the level of execution of the priority development projects started in 2008.