POLITICS-NIGERIA: Abacha Dissolves Cabinet, Announces Amnesty

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Remi Oyo and Toye Olori

LAGOS, Nov 17 1997 (IPS) - Nigerian military ruler General Sani Abacha Monday gave his administration a huge pat on the back, dissolved the Federal Executive Council, and announced that he may soon grant an amnesty to political prisoners.

When he came to power on November 17, 1993, odds were that Abacha would not last 12 months. But he has confounded political analysts by staying in power for 48 months, and on Monday, the Nigerian leader proved that he is full of surprises.

In a nationwide radio broadcast, General Abacha said he had dissolved his 38-member cabinet to allow them to fully participate in the transition programme.

“Today as we embark on the final lap of the tenure of this administration, we will be engaged in the most crucial stage of the implementation of the transition programme,” Abacha said in the broadcast in which he reiterated that the country would return to democracy by October 1998.

“Due note has been taken of the desire of some members of the cabinet to fully participate in the transition programme,” he said.

“All those who may feel a calling to the political service of our nation should find a place within the existing political dispensations,” he added. This statement has been interpreted by some analysts interpret as a carte blanche for his former council members to enter politics.

But the military ruler stopped short of declaring his own intentions to run for the presidency.

The promulgation of the draft constitution, developed during the earlier days of his administration, will be one of the first assignments of the elected members of the National Assembly next year, Abacha told the nation.

Abacha also stunned listeners when he announced that he will soon release a number of political prisoners. The government will grant amnesty to “detained persons whose release would constitute no further impediment to the peace and security of our country”, he said. The Nigerian leader however, did not reveal any names or give an exact date for the amnesty.

But according to informed government sources, at the weekend, the government held discussions with the detained opposition leader Chief Moshood Abiola, who was widely believed to have won the annulled 1993 presidential elections. No details of the discussions were revealed.

Abiola has been in detention since 1994, and Abacha’s government has resisted national and international pressure for his release. Other prominent Nigerians in jail include retired Generals Olusegun Obasanjo, a former head of state, and Musa Yar’ Adua, Obasanjo’s former deputy who midwifed the successful return to democracy in 1979.

Numerous pro-democracy and human rights activists, labour leaders, journalists and politicians also are in detention, but it is still not clear whether Abacha plans to release them all.

This would be one act by the Nigerian leader that might restore international confidence in the regime which has become a pariah within organisations like the Commonwealth.

Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth in November 1996 after writer and environmental activist Ken Saro Wiwa and nine other activists from the oil-rich area of Ogoni were hung in what was described by some western leaders as a “judicial execution”.

Western powers withdrew their ambassadors from Nigeria and put an embargo on military sales. But they refrained from effective economic sanctions. At their most recent meeting in London, Commonwealth leaders refused to take any tougher action against the Abacha regime.