McApata: 21st Century Informania Arena

FAMILY. In the late 1970s, shortly after the civil war and early 1980s, a permanent drought ravaged the entire African Sahel. This led to the deaths of thousands. Thousands more emigrated from one region to another freely despite existing inter state borders. It is in this context of crisis that Nigerian populations begin to occupy certain Cameroonian and Chadian islands arising as a result of the drying up of Lake Chad.  But we must realise that for those living in this area, the lines demarcating both countries by Britannia were arbitrary as far as they were concerned. The inhabitants have coexistenced for generations, and were for the most part family. If the settlers, especially Chadian populations live in peace, sharing their useful land and somehow endorsing Nigerian domination? Can we really speak of fixed boundaries in this doubly unstable region? Shortly thereafter, successive military administrators of Borno State supported this occupation by establishing its domination ov...