By Toye Olori
LAGOS, May 27 2003 (IPS)

Soldiers have been deployed to strategic locations and entry points to Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, ahead of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s inauguration on Thursday, a government official told IPS on Tuesday.

"The soldiers are checking every vehicle," said the official, who refused to be named.

The police has also dispatched bomb disposal unit to the Eagle Square in Abuja, venue of Thursday’s inauguration of President Obasanjo for a second term.

More than 47 heads of state, mostly from Africa, are expected to attend the inauguration ceremony in Abuja, according to government sources.

The tight security appears to be in reaction to a planned mass action by a coalition of political parties which failed in the April presidential elections. The coalition, which is calling for an outright cancellation of the poll results, claims the elections were rigged in 21 of Nigeria’s 36 states.

A number of influential Nigerians, known as ‘The Patriot’, are also calling for the setting up of an Interim National Government (ING) instead of the inauguration of President Obasanjo on Thursday.

The Coalition of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), which is demanding the cancellation of the poll results, said it applied to the Inspector General of Police Tafa Balogun last week for permit to hold a series of rallies starting Monday in Kano, in the north, Jos, in the Middle Belt, and Aba, in the southeast.

The final rally, according to the organisers, will be held in Abuja on Wednesday, a day before Obasanjo’s inauguration.

Police spokesperson, Chris Alakpe, however, said the force had not received any application from the coalition.

And Jos did not witness any rally on Monday.

”No mass rallies were held in Jos. The police only issued a press statement, saying it will not hesitate to deal decisively with anyone or group of persons who take the laws into their hands to embark on mass rallies. The police say the public order prohibiting rallies without due permission is still in force,” Lawal Ado, a journalist in Jos, told IPS late Monday.

Balarabe Musa, who chairs the 15-member Coalition of Nigerian Political Parties, was quoted on Sunday as saying: ”We are going ahead with our rallies. We are not out to cause public disorder or scuttle the nation’s democracy. Nigerians should appreciate that we are only out to protect democracy by making our feelings known and by sensitising Nigerians to have faith only in a transparent electoral process”.

But the Northern Democratic League (NDL), a coalition of northern youths, Sunday urged foreign diplomats accredited to Nigeria to ignore an 80-page petition sent by the Coalition of Nigerian Political Parties to their embassies in Abuja.

At a news conference held in Abuja, the coordinator of the group, Sheu Sani said he would mobilise the northern youths against the mass action. Buhari, a former military ruler, is a northerner from Katsina State.

Sani urged the embassies to prevail on the 15 parties to go to the elections tribunals instead of embarking on mass action to redress their grievances. ”We are using this opportunity to call on foreign embassies and the international community to disregard the demand for the cancellation of the April elections,” he said.

The idea of the Interim National Government (ING) is not new to Nigeria. Set up by former military leader, General Ibrahim Babangida, in 1993, the chaos following the formation of that administration led to the overthrow of that government by General Sani Abacha the same year.

”Accepting the ING idea is to take the nation about a decade backwards. ING can only be foisted on a nation during interregnum and the situation we have in the country now does not call for that yet. The idea by The Patriot is extremely unpatriotic and it will plunge us back into the Babangida and Abacha disaster era,” said presidential candidates, Sarah Jubril and Ike Nwanchukwu, who distanced themselves from the 15 parties.

The Patriot, led by Rotimi Williams, has called for the setting up of an interim national government to run Africa’s most populous nation for one year, pending a general election.

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