Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan with newly sworn-in President Muhammadu Buhari during his inauguration ceremony on May 29, 2015. Public Domain photo from the US State Department. Cameroon and Nigeria share a long, tangled and sometimes tumultuous history going back to the era of British colonial rule when the British Cameroons was governed as part of the Nigerian Federation. During a 1961 plebiscite organized by the United Nations, British Southern Cameroons voted to gain independence by uniting with the French Cameroun while British Northern Cameroons voted to integrate the Nigerian federation. Today, Southern Cameroons has become the northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon, while Northern Cameroons has been absorbed into parts of the Borno, Adamawa and Tabara states of Nigeria. Cameroon and Nigeria also share a long 2,000-kilometer border with the same ethnic groups straddling both sides. Both countries have been involved in longstanding border disputes, the most significant being the dispute over the oil-rich Bakassi peninsular, which was finally resolved when the International Court of Justice ruled in Cameroon’s favor in 2002. Today, Nigeria is Cameroon’s leading trading partner, overtaking France, a former colonial power. Furthermore, at least two million Nigerians live in Cameroon (some put that figure as high as six million) while about one million Cameroonians live in Nigeria. Government-daily Cameroon Tribune describes both countries as “collés, dos à dos comme des frères siamois”, that is, “joined at the hip like conjoined twins.” Given Cameroon’s proximity to and tangled history with Nigeria, it is no surprise that major socio-political events in Nigeria usually have an impact in Cameroon. For example, the conflict in Nigeria’s Delta region regularly spills into Cameroon with kidnappings and attacks on Cameroonian military outposts and border villages. The Boko Haram insurgency is the most patent example of Cameroon literally catching a cold when Nigeria sneezes. What initially began as a local rebellion against the Nigerian government morphed into a full-fledged regional insurgency. As a result, Cameroon has had to deploy about 6,500 troops to northern Cameroon to stave off the jihadist group’s repeated attacks Cameroonian territory, the most violent being the February 2015 attack on Fotokol, which resulted in the massacre of about 100 civilians. Relations between Cameroon and Nigeria were strained in the months leading up to the presidential election due to Cameroonian frustration with what was perceived as the Nigerian government’s passive and lackluster response to the Islamist insurgency; passivity which was the catalyst for increased Boko Haram attacks on Cameroon, resulting in large scale population displacement, economic disruption, severe food shortages, widespread insecurity and an unprecedented refugee crisis in Northern Cameroon. As Cameroon’s army spokesperson Colonel Didier Badjeck complained earlier this year: We're getting fed up with the situation. Nigeria has to take its responsibilities. We cannot continue to support the weight of a war which we don't even know the whys and wherefores. The widespread anger at President Goodluck Jonathan was clearly captured in this January 11 tweet by an irate Cameroonian: L'armée camerounaise se retrouve à se battre toute seule contre Boko Haram aux frontières Nigéria/Cameroun. On remercie Badluck Jonathan. — Biggs (@Docta_RO) January 11, 2015 The Cameroonian army is fighting all alone against Boko Haram on the Nigeria/Cameroon border. Thanks Badluck Jonathan. It was therefore with unprecedented interest that Cameroonians followed the Nigerian presidential elections. Expectedly, the majority supported the opposition candidate, retired General Muhammadu Buhari, because of his uncompromising rhetoric against Boko Haram, his unequivocal promise to obliterate the group if he became president, and his willingness, unlike President Jonathan, to recognize and welcome the role that neighboring countries were playing in degrading the Boko Haram war machine. As he stated in a pre-election jibe at the Jonathan administration: It’s a big disgrace for Nigeria. It is now Cameroon and Chad fighting the insurgency more than Nigeria. We will build the capacity and Nigeria should be able to secure its territorial integrity To claim that Cameroonians were simply “pleased” with the outcome of Nigeria's presidential polls is an understatement. Eye witnesses described: Des scènes de liesse populaire… dans certaines villes du nord du Cameroun, à l'instar de Kousseri ou Mokolo après l'annonce de la victoire de Muhammadu Buhari.