Paul Ohia
17 November 2008
Lagos — Barely a week after the release of seven French hostages by hitherto unknown Bakassi Freedom Fighters, the country's Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Jean Michel Dumond, has described the decision by Nigeria to cede the Bakassi peninsular to Cameroun as " very wise" decision in view of the continual confrontation between Ethiopia and Eritrea over similar issues.
The envoy, who paid a courtesy visit to THISDAY publisher, Nduka Obaigbena, at his residence in Ikoyi , Lagos over the weekend, reiterated the neutral position of France in the whole issue pointing out that the decision of the court was based on a border agreement between Germany and Britain in 1893.
However, he said his country was working towards the resettlement of displaced people from the old Bakassi zone which has been ceded to places allotted them by the Nigerian government.
On aiding Nigeria's poor power generation, the envoy said his country had held discussions with authorities and " we have raised a consortium of French firms in conjunction with Électricité de France (EDF), the main electricity generation and distribution company in France."
In the area of nuclear power generation, the ambassador said safety conditions have to be met thereby making it a long term programme.
"What you need is a positive environment. With energy crises around the world, the need for nuclear energy is coming back. We can't take the risk of nuclear accident and the project requires water to cool the reactor" he said.
Dumond said the nature of strategic arms treaty with some francophone countries has changed as France has decided to focus on African peace and security capacity as against intervention. He said the French president, Nicholas Sarkozy, made this clear in his recent speech in South Africa.
"After the announcement, the francophone countries said France is abandoning us, we sent a reply that our intention is to reduce our forces in La Reunion, Gabon, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal and other countries and to redefine our relationship to be that of an adult level interaction, " he said.
According to him, the relationship between France and Anglophone countries is improving rapidly especially Nigeria and Tanzania.
Comparing political situation in his country with the recent election of an African American, Barack Obama as President of the United States, the envoy pointed out that the President of France, Sarkozy, is an immigrant from Hungary.
Answering questions on the consular services of his embassy in Lagos, the envoy said the resort to online appointment booking for visa seekers is to avoid infringement by those who sell places adding that the consul officers try to be very friendly, firm and polite.
"In urgent cases, we give quick appointments but we try to avoid those who seek visa for the sake of drug trafficking and other crimes and the Nigerian government is very cooperative" he said.
"It is a clear change in France. The minister of justice is also of ethnic background and Secretary of State is from Senegal. It will also be of interest for you that the President of the French Senate is a black man. We consider every French citizens as equal," he emphasised.
He lamented the fact that one third of Nigerian professionals are leaving the country for greener pastures in Europe and elsewhere but cautioned against the ugly trend of people exposing themselves to danger by trying to cross the Sahara Desert or the Canary Islands.
Dumond said "We re ready to discuss immigration issues within the context of the European states and we're building our relationship through partnership to separate legal migration and illegal migration."
He said that despite the fact that French presidency of the European Union (EU) has adopted the EU plan on immigration what his embassy does in Nigeria is to give long term visas to people it can trust including business concerns, artists, students and researchers.
" If you travel and come back, we give you longer term visa but if you abscond, we blacklist you" he said.
On Nigerian air, land and sea transportation sector, the ambassador said his country has a new flight from Paris to Port Harcourt since May with three to four flight schedules a day and for the Abuja metroline project, he said discussions are underway with a French company.
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problem is the french and their french cameroun comrades as well as nigeria doesnt own bakassi, it belongd to british southern cameroons. obassanjo shouldnt have handed a foreign land to a foreign thief. but to the rightful owners.
Its a little too late for that. This peace initiative by OBJ to avoid war by any means necessary should have show-cased for the rest of the world to emulate, particularly in Africa, Congo, for example - in fact, it deserves Nobel Price for Peace.