POLITICS-NIGERIA: U.S. Delegation’s Visit Cancelled

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Jun 3 1998 (IPS) - The United States has cancelled plans to send a high-level delegation to Nigeria, the first to meet Nigerian Head of State Gen. Sani Abacha since he seized power in 1993, according to U.S. officials.

The delegation, which would have included senior officials from State Department, the National Security Council, and the Pentagon, was to have flown to Lagos Thursday. But the Nigerian Foreign Ministry said it would not receive the visitors unless Washington lifted travel restrictions against senior members of Abacha’s government.

“Therefore, in view of these preconditions, we cannot proceed with the visit at this time,” said a State Department official.

The cancellation was a major blow to U.S. hopes of persuading Abacha to abandon plans to succeed himself in elections scheduled for August. Those elections have been denounced by top officials here as “fatally flawed.”

The delegation was to have been led by a former U.S. Ambassador to Lagos, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Pickering. In addition to Pickering, who is seen as a proponent of “constructive engagement” with Abacha’s regime, the group would include Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Affairs Susan Rice; the Africa director of the National Security Council, Joe Wilson; and the Pentagon’s Deputy Commander in Chief in the European Command, Gen. James Jamerson.

One independent analyst here speculated that the Nigerians may have objected to the presence of Rice in the delegation. She is widely considered to be the leading hard-liner against Abacha in the administration.

Other anti-Abacha activists said that Abacha’s refusal to meet the delegation demonstrated that constructive engagement with Nigeria was useless. “This is yet another nail in the coffin of any hopes the U.S. has for gaining reform through appeasement,” said Adotei Akwei, Africa analyst for Amnesty International USA.

“The question now is whether Pickering and the State Department will accept the fact that there’s nothing to negotiate about with this regime.”

The Clinton administration has been suspended between a policy of re-engagement and tougher sanctions against Nigeria since June 1993, when the military abruptly cancelled elections apparently won by Moshood Abiola, who would have been the first elected civilian president of Nigeria in a decade.

In late 1993, Abacha seized power from Ernest Shonekan, the hand-picked successor of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, and moved to suppress opposition both in civilian society and within the ranks of the military itself. In Nov, 1995, the junta executed playwright Ken Saro-wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists.

Washington imposed modest diplomatic and military sanctions, including a ban on visas of top Abacha officials, after the elections were cancelled and launched a policy review toward Africa’s most populous nation after the executions. Almost three years later, that review has still not concluded.

Indeed, the State Department has been split between Rice, who reportedly favours stronger sanctions, and Pickering, who believes in a friendlier attitude toward the military leadership in order to prod it toward reform. Meanwhile, grassroots pressure to take stronger measures against Abacha has risen steadily.

Last month, a broad coalition of African American leaders, backed by some 60 churches and human rights and environmental groups, urged Clinton to impose oil sanctions against Nigeria. At the same time, members of the Congressional Black Caucus introduced new legislation which would make it impossible for the administration to ease existing sanctions without Congress’ approval.