Dissident calls for international sanctions against Nigerian regime

By Norm Dixon Wole Soyinka, winner of the 1986 Nobel prize for literature and a prominent democracy campaigner, has called on the international community to take decisive action against the military regime that rules Nigeria. Soyinka, who lives in exile in France, made the call ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which begins on November 10 in Auckland. He warned that the people of Nigeria may be forced to take up arms in their fight for democracy. Since Nigeria's independence in 1960, the military has been in power for more than 24 years with only a few brief respites of civilian rule. In November 1993, General Sani Abacha seized power. The results of that year's presidential elections, widely believed to have been won by Moshood Abiola, were annulled. Abiola was charged with treason when he declared himself president last year, and remains in jail. On October 1, Abacha announced a three-year timetable for a return to democracy. The plan was greeted with widespread scepticism. In an interview with South Africa's Weekly Mail and Guardian, Soyinka said the Nigerian people were prepared to fight the Abacha regime "by all means necessary, including civil disobedience, revolt against the law as it stands, demonstrations and public mobilisation. We have to create an alternative system of authority which will undermine the authority of military centralism." If this fails, he warned, then "the military may have to be fought in the only language it understands: the language of violence". Soyinka said that this step was unavoidable as governments around the world, particularly the West, had ignored the appeals of Nigerian opposition groups for action against the brutal military regime. "The representatives of foreign governments say: 'Well, let's wait and see'. But the isolation of the regime has to begin and be intensified. The Abacha regime must not be seated at the next CHOGM. The Nigerian issue should be discussed by the Security Council of the United Nations because the Nigerian junta constitutes a threat against regional security. But some governments are going to be stupid enough to fall for Abacha's tricks ... the British for instance." Soyinka expressed particular disappointment at the inaction of the ANC-led South African government. "I hate to heap the moral burden on Nelson Mandela but ... a number of European and Commonwealth nations are waiting to take their cue from him ... I cannot see Britain having the guts to go against a position which Mandela takes on this issue." Soyinka urged Mandela to visit the imprisoned Nigerian leaders. "He should visit not only Abiola, but also Obasanjo, the former head of state who visited Mandela in prison." Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president, was arrested earlier this year, accused of plotting a coup. He was a member of the Commonwealth-appointed Eminent Person Group which visited Mandela in jail in 1985. "I am very disappointed, especially [with South Africa's deputy president Thabo] Mbeki. When he went to Nigeria recently ... he did not even make an attempt to meet the opposition. He returned to South Africa suggesting that things could be worked out along Abacha's lines. "The mistake the Southern African countries are making is such a simple one that I am astonished that they can make it. They are failing to distinguish between the oppressive state and the people. "They are not criticising Nigeria publicly [because] they feel they owe Nigeria a debt for its stand against apartheid. But how can they be so naive as to not recognise that their debt of gratitude is to the people and not to a government which is oppressing those very people?", Soyinka asked.