By Toye Olori
LAGOS, Oct 22 1997 (IPS)

Nigeria’s pro-democracy groups have called on the Commonwealth to impose tougher and more comprehensive sanctions against the military regime of General Sani Abacha.

. The West African nation is slated to be a topic of discussion at the 31st Commonwealth Heads of State and Government Meeting which starts on Friday. This is the first Commonwealth summit to be held in Britain in 20 years. Commonwealth leaders are expected to renew Nigeria’s suspension from the 54-nation group. The country was suspended following the execution of nine Ogoni human rights activists, including the author Ken Saro Wiwa, in November 1995. Nigerian activists Ledun Mitee, President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), the Nobel Laureate writer Wole Soyinka, and Hafsat Abiola, daughter of the detained leader Moshood Abiola, are reportedly in Edinburgh to canvass for Nigeria’s expulsion from the Commonwealth. Meanwhile, here at home, the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) is pushing for tougher sanctions against the military regime. “We urge tougher and more embracing sanctions against the regime to compel a change of attitude,” NADECO said in a statement released to journalists this week. The coalition described General Abacha’s regime as “stubborn, defiant of international opinion and unprepared for any compromising gestures”. NADECO also urged the summit to put pressure on Abacha to enter into dialogue with Abiola — who is widely believed to have won the 1993 presidential elections — and pro-democracy groups, with a view to setting up a broad-based transition government of National Unity to be headed by Abiola. “That government will then be expected to organise a sovereign national conference to work out a charter of union for all the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria and henceforth proceed to organise a genuinely democratic election,” the coalition said. NADECO dismissed the current democratisation process being pursued by the government as a “farce”. Since its suspension from the Commonwealth, NADECO said, Nigeria has “moved further and further from democratisation”. On Nigeria’s human rights record, the coalition said: “Since the last Auckland summit (Commonwealth meeting in New Zealand), Nigeria’s record of human rights has become worse and the nation has only been making a mockery of democracy by its transition programme. “We appeal to you (Commonwealth leaders) to ignore Chief Emeka Anyaoku’s statement (that the country’s human rights record of the country has improved), because it does not represent the true position,” NADECO added. Chief Anyaoku, a Nigerian, also has said that he does not believe that “expulsion is necessary to demonstrate a strong line” against Nigeria. But NADECO believes that the government will only respond to tough action. “Rather than comply with the feasible time-frame of two years, the junta has imposed a three-year programme which it keeps manipulating mid-course to suit the realisation of the secret agenda of its formulators. “Furthermore, while we concede that the precise form of democracy varies from country to country, …there are certain minimum attributes which form a common denominator for all truly democratic systems,” NADECO continued. According to the pro-democracy group, the transition programme has been designed to exclude all, but the most fanatical supporters of the government. The five political parties participating in the transition to democracy are sponsored by the military government, NADECO said, adding that all credible politicians have been sidelined. “The military government controls all the five parties and has set limits on the political ambitions of their leaders. Thus, none of them is permitted to aspire to the presidency, until Abacha gives up his own ambition. All the five political parties are expected to unanimously endorse Abacha for president, by concensus,” it said.

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