The Sun News On-line "The Secretary General of Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba group, Senator Femi Okunrounmu, has faulted the 'hasty' hand-over of the erstwhile disputed Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon by the Olusegun Obasanjo regime, describing it as not in the interest of Nigerians.
Revisiting the issue, which has assumed national limelight again, against the background of the Senate’s recent repudiation of the gesture, Okunrounmu said the Obasanjo administration acted cowardly and unpatriotically by trying to avoid war, which may be the inevitable end of the nation’s face-off with its neighbour.
His words: 'If a country tries to trespass on the territory of Nigeria, thereby violating our territorial integrity, that’s why we have an army. We try to resolve it peacefully, amicably without going to war. If that fails, that’s the job of the army…. It is very naïve for people to think that we should never fight…. And that everything must be settled peacefully even when it is being settled against our own national interest…The army is not just there to wear uniform and harass civilians. They are supposed to fight when the situation demands. We should not adopt the attitude of peace at all costs. The attitude of peace at all costs is defeatist, cowardly and unpatriotic.'"
Revisiting the issue, which has assumed national limelight again, against the background of the Senate’s recent repudiation of the gesture, Okunrounmu said the Obasanjo administration acted cowardly and unpatriotically by trying to avoid war, which may be the inevitable end of the nation’s face-off with its neighbour.
His words: 'If a country tries to trespass on the territory of Nigeria, thereby violating our territorial integrity, that’s why we have an army. We try to resolve it peacefully, amicably without going to war. If that fails, that’s the job of the army…. It is very naïve for people to think that we should never fight…. And that everything must be settled peacefully even when it is being settled against our own national interest…The army is not just there to wear uniform and harass civilians. They are supposed to fight when the situation demands. We should not adopt the attitude of peace at all costs. The attitude of peace at all costs is defeatist, cowardly and unpatriotic.'"