By Toye Olori
Lagos, Jun 25 1998 (IPS)

All political groupings in Nigeria are united in their opposition to continued military rule but they remain divided over which path to follow to return the country to democratic rule.

The new army leader, Gen Abdulsalmi Abubakar has been consulting with all sides since the death of the former military ruler, Gen. Sani Abacha – whose three-year transition programme was dismissed by civilian politicians as a way for the junta to remain in power.

Abubakar has sent top military officers and government officials to the six geo-political regions of Nigeria for talks with all shades of pro-democracy groups. It is reported officials have also met the winner of the 1993 Presidential elections, Moshood Abiola, who is still in detention. Abiola is believed to have stated he would not renounce the mandate given to him by more than 14 million Nigeria.

Other politicians differ on how best to resolve the issue and some, who would benefit from the continuation of Abacha’s programme, have become jittery over the outcome of the consultations with the new regime.

Some groups are calling for the total cancellation of the programme and the handover to civilian rule extended to October 1999 while others want the original date of October 1 this year to be upheld, but with some amendments. Still a third group wants the terminal date shifted to January 1, 1999 to give the military government more time to make the necessary changes in the programme.

Four political parties, which attracted few votes in the elections under the programme, have called for an annulment of federal and state legislative elections and the extension of the programme by one year to allow for new legislative elections. But the United Nigerian Congress Party (UNCP) which won landslide victories at the polls, wants the results upheld and for the military to hand over on October 1, 1998 as planned by Abacha’s original programme.

This is “feasible and realisable” according to UNCP Chairman Isa Mohammed. He describes the call for cancellation of the legislative polls as “the bad loser syndrome” but is agreeable to an amendment to the time-table that would allow governorship and presidential elections to be held on August 29. Under the Abacha transition timetable, the polls were scheduled for August 1.

Pro-democracy activists, however, want the transition programme to be discontinued altogether and are calling for a Government of National Unity to be headed by Abiola. They argue that the Abacha programme lost all credibility after all five government- registered political parties adopted the late Head of State as sole presidential candidate.

“The army has to go now. Someone has won an election and Abubakar should hand over power,” says Beko Ransome-Kuti, Chairman of the Campaign for Democracy (CD) who was released from a 15-year jail term last week.

CD’s position is supported by G-34, a group comprised of prominent figures from both north and south Nigeria. They hold that the October 1, 1998 terminal date for the military to return the country to civilian rule is not negotiable.

“Gen. Abubakar has said he will pursue the transition programme as planned, and we shall not accept any shift of the termination date,” said one member of the group who declined to be identified. The G-34 resolved at a meeting in Lagos last week that the Federal Government should put a government of national unity in place by Oct 1 – to be headed by Abiola, he added

A government of national unity would mean the dissolution of all parties and the swearing-in of Abiola who would then appoint prominent citizens as the heads of local councils, and to be state governors and members of the national cabinet.

So, as could be expected, National and State Assembly members, who have yet to begin work since the election, have come out in support of calls for the continuation and completion of the Abacha transition. Legislators-elect from the northern state of Kano have described as “unjust and unfair” the request by leaders of the four political parties for the cancellation of all elections held under the Abacha transition programme.

At the end of their meeting in Kano one week ago, the legislators-elect described those calling for the cancellation as “self-seeking politicians and sycophants who always spoke to the government in their individual capacity.”

Their counterparts in Jigawa State also in the north, Akwa-Ibom in the southeast and Ondo in the southwest also have pleaded with the Abubakar government not to dissolve the five political parties or cancel elections.

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