As part of efforts to minimize tension after the handover of Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon, a highway linking the two countries is to be constructed to boost interactions between the inhabitants on both sides.

Permanent Secretary of Nigeria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hakeem Baba-Ahmed said here on Sunday that the highway was "part of confidence building measures toward permanent peace."

"Nigeria has since fulfilled its part of the bargain in respect of the road project which will ultimately form part of a West - Central African highway," he said.

Harping on the need to empower inhabitants of the border areas, Baba-Ahmed said frictions would be minimized if the communities were economically secured.

"The idea is to resolve conflict in the long run by encouraging trade and social interactions. Obviously, people who interact are not likely to fight each other," he added.

Baba-Ahmed said Nigeria had an excellent understanding with Cameroon authorities as both countries had striven to contain local problems created by the Oct. 10, 2002 International Court of Justice (ICJ) judgment.

"We all realize that the judgment will create such localized problems but we are both committed to handling such internal matters in the spirit of give and take," he said.

"Nigeria from the on-set approached this issue with an open mind. We have done the right thing and the rest of the world must understand with us. We have gone as far as it is possible," said the permanent secretary.

"The singular action of fully complying with the judgment has marked Nigeria out as a responsible member of the international community and as one nation ready to stand by what it agrees on," he added.

Baba-Ahmed said Nigeria had shown the world that such thorny issues with the potentials to become "very volatile" could be fully and amicably settled via negotiations and brotherly understandings.

Nigeria is scheduled to finally lower its national flag in the affected areas on Tuesday, Aug. 15.

Source: Xinhua