Between politics and survival: government responses and the precarious future of Bakassi displaced persons in Nigeria

Abstract

The forced displacement of Bakassi communities after the International Court of Justice ruling and the Green Tree Agreement has created one of Nigeria’s most protracted humanitarian crises. Although successive governments have pledged to address the plight of Bakassi Displaced Persons (BDPs), responses have been shaped more by short-term relief efforts and political expediency than by durable solutions. Despite the visibility of these crises, there has been limited scholarly engagement with the structural and political conditions that continue to undermine resettlement, reintegration, and the sense of belonging. This paper foregrounds the intersections of displacement, electoral politics, and Niger Delta contestations to advance a framework for understanding the uncertain futures of BDPs. We examine how state authorities have simultaneously invoked the suffering of Bakassi communities as instruments of campaign rhetoric and symbols of national neglect, while neglecting substantive commitments to their welfare. We also consider how ongoing disputes over the delisting of Bakassi as a Local Government Area reinforce displacement and deepen experiences of exclusion. We argue that the plight of Bakassi DPs reveals not only the fragility of Nigeria’s humanitarian governance but also the entanglement of survival with political manipulation, illuminating broader questions of citizenship, rights, and state accountability.