Nigeria's demented minds

Dissident Wole Soyinka pulls no punches when it comes to his country's dictatorship

by GWEN SCHULMAN

"Scumbags are holding down millions of brilliant people and Nigerians are now telling them 'You can go to hell.'"

Nigerian political dissident and Nobel Prize-winning writer Wole Soyinka did not mince words at a Montreal press conference last week. Two days earlier, he and 11 other Nigerians had been charged with treason by the military dictatorship of Sani Abacha, a frightening instance of déjà vu only one year after Abacha hanged another acclaimed writer and political activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa.

The Abacha government's accusations of treason coincided with its charge that Canada--a strong critic of the dictatorship--was "fomenting terrorism," prompting Canada to suspend diplomatic relations with Nigeria late last week. Safety concerns prompted External Affairs Canada to announce the move only after diplomatic staff and their families were safely flying over the Atlantic.

Soyinka was "bewildered and gratified" by the charge against Canada. "It shows that you're really dealing with a very demented mind or group of minds," he said, urging Canada to unilaterally impose full sanctions. "Somebody has to take the lead. Canada has an obligation to herself to go further than she has so far."

A Nigerian representative of the Quebec-based Concerned Groups for Democratic Change in Nigeria (CGDCN), who prefers to remain anonymous, agrees. "It's a good sign when a regime like Abacha's suspends diplomatic relations with you--it means you're doing something right. Now it's time for Canada to push ahead with sanctions."

The CGDCN is also urging a closer scrutiny of how Canada's development money is spent in Nigeria. "Some of that money has been used to bring apologists for the regime to Canada," said the source. Recently, activists in Canada were outraged when Nigerian trade unionists, invited by Canada's visitors' program, toured the country selling Abacha's program.

Apparently they were also keeping tabs on Nigerian expatriates in Canada. When Collins Babalola, Quebec's Executive Director of the Canadian Organization for Human Rights and Democracy in Nigeria, challenged the trade unionists' soft stance on Abacha, he received a phone call from an army officer and friend in Nigeria. "He told me he'd heard that I had been very critical of the Nigerian labour representatives. My friend warned me to be careful, that my family, in exile in Africa, could be in danger. These visitors must have reported back to Nigeria on our activities."

Nigeria has been in a deep crisis since 1993, when presidential elections were annulled and the presumed winner was jailed. Execution, torture and detention have characterized the political landscape ever since. The repression is fiercest in the southeastern oil-producing region, where the dictatorship is committed to keeping its oil lifeline intact in the face of growing popular dissent. Soyinka charged oil multinationals with profiting from the repression and denounced Shell Oil for its "collaboration with acts of impunity."

Soyinka argues that the first step to ending the crisis is the recognition of the 1993 election results: "Those elections were the freest, fairest and most peaceful in the history of Nigeria." For Soyinka, the softening of the international community's stance against Abacha is tantamount to having "salt rubbed in the wound."