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Last week General Abdulsalam Abubakar ignored calls for a Government of National Unity and a Sovereign National Conference in his nationwide broadcast where he outlined the directions of his administration. Abubakar has promised to hand-over rule to civilians by May 29 next year. He has also released some political detainees and promised to sell government monopolies like the state telephone concern -- NITEL and the state power company -- NEPA. He promised to pay the nation's debt and ensure transparency in government. Shortly after the broadcast no fewer than three parties quickly emerged [two of which are The New Era Alliance and Democratic Advance Movement (DAM)]. The chance for larger formations are already apparent with the meetings now going on in different locations in the country. Reactions from the country have been mixed: the pro-democratic and human rights community have spoken pointedly against it, but within the nationality groups the views expressed have varied in content and tone. The main opposition group, National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), gave a lukewarm response to the Abubakar plan saying although it welcomed the decision of the military to allow political parties to be formed, it cannot accept the terms the military is providing for the transition. Speaking through its National Vice President, Abraham Adesanya, the group said: "NADECO could not accept to participate in a political program under the unpublished 1995 Abacha constitution which was drawn by an assembly of less than 3,000 delegates, fifty percent of whom were nominees of the military. " The conference that drafted the constitution was shunned by many Nigerians, especially the over 30 million Yoruba in the south west region about 95% of whom stayed away from the polls naming delegates. It was the debate about this election that led to the arrest and subsequent trial and death by hanging of the writer and environmentalist, Ken Saro Wiwa. It was also during the conference that Shehu Yar Adua, former military vice president of the country, was arrested and framed for plotting to overthrow the government. He died in prison last year December. The United Action for Democracy (UAD) has also spoken out against the Abdulsalam Abubakar plan meaning that stormy days are ahead. " To us" said UAD, "Gen. Abubakar has said nothing except the reaffirmation to lead the country once again into another endless transition. The consequence of all these is that we see a country inexorably bound on the path to perdition." The Joint Action Committee [for democracy] (JACON) also shares this position; it has accused Gen. Abubakar of playing to the international community in his plan. JACON says that with the repressive decrees still in place, with many detainees still in incarceration, Abubakar is playing a game of deceit. [Sources: Punch, Concord, Vanguard, P.M. News, Guardian, Tell, TheNews, The Week, Post Express, MediaNET] Two influential cultural groups among the Igbo ethnic nationalities -- Mpoko Igbo and Ohaneze -- have taken the position to support the new transition program. Former Vice President Alex Ekwueme is emerging as the zonal leadership of this group. But the Eastern Mandate Union led by Dr. Arthur Nwankwo has dismissed the program as insincere. The northern minority groups will, in all likelihood, support the transition with its spokesperson, Solomon Lar, credited as approving the program which he called 'reasonable'. The Northern Elders Forum has not responded but the conventional wisdom in Nigeria is that the program is actually its baby, offered to the country through the military, an institution controlled by the north. Umaru Dikko, a prominent member of the council was loud in dismissing the Government of National Unity / Sovereign National Conference ideas and insisting on 'elections next year' even before Abubakar's announcement. Readers of the country's politics understood Umaru Dikko intervention in two lights: first to pass a message to Abdulsalam Abubakar that hard-liners in the north had no fascination for his consultative moves which was already yielding results in the direction of a Government of National Unity [four of the six zones in the country had favored a Government of National Unity]. Secondly, he wanted to whip the faithfuls in line to understand the thinking of the northern elites. Shortly after Dikko's intervention, Ibrahim Babangida, the dictator who annulled the June 12, 1993 elections spoke in the same vein. His intervention was to assure northern elites whom he had offended that he could now be counted as a loyal follower, and that Abdulsalam Abubakar, his cousin, and for whom he has now become a goodwill ambassador of sorts, also understood the codes. To prove they are all working on the same slate, the text of Abubakar's broadcast bore a lot of language and rationalizations from Babangida's earlier interview with the London Guardian. Then to cap it all, Abubakar gave his broadcast on May 29, the 40th anniversary of the regional claim for self-rule by Northern Nigeria; a date apparently picked to offend the sensibility of other nationalities but one that reassures the north and its military brass hats. Minorities from the south are, however, opposing the Abubakar program. The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), the CHIKOKO Movement and the IZON National Council say they are disappointed in the broadcast. It is not clear yet in what way they want to express their opposition. In a strong statement issued after the broadcast, the Chikoko Movement "called on the peoples of the Niger Delta and other Nigerians not to allow themselves to be fooled again by the military by participating in General Abubakar's fraudulent transfer process" and listed six reasons for opposing the plan: "(i) The Abubakar PTP [political transition program] is a unilateral project of the military which is not different from the previous military transfer arrangements which have failed; (ii) The new PTP does not address the issue of internal colonialism which enables the ruling generals, their civilian collaborators and sections of the country to loot the oil resources of the peoples of the Niger Delta; (iii) The Abubakar PTP is based on the discredited draft constitution produced by the Abacha Constitutional Conference which gives the oil communities of the Niger Delta only 13 per cent of their God-given resources; (iv) History has shown that the military cannot give democracy to Nigeria. From General Gowon to Abacha, it has been the same story of failure, not enduring democracy as the military promised and; (v) The hand over date of May 29, 1999 is unacceptable. The fundamental problem facing Nigeria is not that of election but of political restructuring which the Abubakar PTP has no answers to." [Source: The CHIKOKO News] The pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, continues to maintain a loud silence on the Abubakar transition plan, yet its voice is crucial in interpreting the success or otherwise of this program. The mood from the ranks of its youth and elders and particularly its emigrant community in Europe, West Africa and North America however suggest that no accommodation will be sought with the program. Since the death of Mashood Abiola, the attitude of the Yoruba youths had been one of separation from the Nigeria. The youth, representing a demographic of about 65% of Yorubaland, have now issued a "declaration of national independence". Their emphasis represents a slight departure from the movement for internal autonomy and balanced federation which had been the clarion call of Afenifere and its influential North American section, Egbe Omo Yoruba, led by Howard University professor of philosophy, Segun Gbadegesin. Inside sources in Afenifere are suggesting that no public position will be announced until next weekend. [Sources: MediaNET, Egbe Omo Yoruba]
There were strong indications in and out of Nigeria last week that the various nationality groups of southern Nigeria who find no meaning and future in the Abubakar transition program may be arranging a conference to design a bill of rights that will become their campaign document and mobilization charter. MediaNET sources say more than 24 groups have expressed desire to co-sponsor the meeting to be held in Nigeria. This move suggests that the Abubakar administration is not out of trouble yet on the issue of a Sovereign National Conference, which the military and the north dread like a plague.
Opposition groups in Nigeria are alerting the international community about being used in a 'game of duplicity '. By offering economic concessions so appealing to the west in his broadcast, the groups say Abdulsalam Abubakar is only treading a path that had become a routine. Gani Fawehinmi of JACON and Femi Falana of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (NADL) recalled that Abacha removed the very foundation of a regulated economy when he scrapped the indigenization decrees which protected key sectors of the economy but in practice he did not make progress with privatization because the vested interests in the north preferred a regulated economy. Abacha, as Babangida before him, also released political prisoners and unchained newspaper houses but they turned out to be worse human rights offenders in the course of time. [Source: Post Express, P.M. News, Concord, Nigerian Tribune, This Day]
Nigeria ambassador to the UN, Ibrahim (Agboola) Gambari, said Tuesday, July 21st on the Jim Lehrer Newshour (Public Broadcasting Service TV, USA): "As far as the government [of Nigeria] is concerned, all political prisoners have been released". Statistics supplied from the human rights community contradicts this. On Tuesday alone, 11 people, several imprisoned in connection with the 1995 coup plot, were released including three journalists, Kunle Ajibade, Editor, TheNews, George Mbah, Assistant Editor, TELL, Ben Charles-Obi, Editor, Weekend Classique and Shehu Musa, Julius Badejo, State Security Officer, Matthew Popoola, Capt. Moshood Adekunle Raji (06/1/97) (detained for writing to former U S Secretary of State Warren Christopher on the issue of June 12), Ms. Asuku Halima, Femi Adeyemiwo, Moses Akele, associate of Dr Omotshola, and Moshood Yayaya. Just this day, Babafemi Ojudu, managing editor of TheNews/Tempo, was freed after his lawyer said he had signed his will in the event of his death. Imprisoned without charge since November, 1997, he had been sick for three weeks with typhoid and jaundice, and had been denied medical treatment. While the exact number of political prisoners remaining is in dispute between the government and the human rights community, this partial list is now being hawked by rights organizations as evidence that many people are still in jail or missing in the hands of the government.
[Sources: Campaign for Democracy, Nigerian Democratic Movement]
(1) The State Security (Detention of Persons) Decree No. 2, 1984; [to detain a person indefinitely without hope of court relief] (2) Decree No. 11, 1994, [amending Decree No. 2 to make it more broad] (3) The Constitution (Suspension and Modification) Decree, No. 7,1993; [legitimizing military rule and all actions, constitutional or not] (4) The Government (Supremacy and Enforcement of Powers) Decree No. 12, 1994; [similar to above] (5) The Legal Practitioners Act (Amendment) Decree No. 21, 1983 (6) The Offensive Publications (Proscription) Decree No. 35 of 1993; [media sanctions decree] (7) Decree No. 14 of 1994 suspending rights of habeas corpus. [denial of all rights decree] (8) The Treasonable Offenses Decree No. 7 of 1993, [omnibus decree reserved for the most outspoken critics] [Sources: Campaign for Democracy, Committee for Defence of Human Rights]
In the group pardoned "with immediate effect" by Gen. Abubakar on Monday 20 July 1998 were three journalists, Kunle Ajibade, Editor, TheNews, George Mbah, Assistant Editor, TELL, and Ben Charles-Obi Editor, Weekend Classique. In separate interviews with the Independent Journalism Centre (IJC) of Lagos, Kunle Ajibade and Ben Charles-Obi relived their ordeals, revealing for the first time, details concerning their trials. They were both tried and convicted for being "an accessory after the fact of treason". In the words of Mr. Ben Charles-Obi:
Ben Charles-Obi continues:
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