October 1997 Vol. 9, No. 6 (A)
NIGERIA
INTRODUCTION 3
RECOMMENDATIONS 5
To the Nigerian Government 5
To the International Community 6
TRANSITION FRAMEWORK 8
Nigeria's Obligations Under International Law 9
Timetable 10
Transitional Institutions 11
Political Party Registration 12
LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS 15
Registration of Voters 15
Screening of Candidates 17
Irregularities 18
Executive Interference in Decisions by necon 19
ELECTION TRIBUNALS 21
Langtang North, Plateau State 22
Mangu, Plateau State 23
Kagarko, Kaduna State 23
Lafia, Nassarawa State 24
SILENCING INDEPENDENT VOICES 24
Treason Trials 25
Detention of Human Rights and Pro-Democracy Activists and Opposition Members 26
Constraints on Press Freedom 28
The Kaduna Labor Crisis 29
MILITARY DYNAMICS 32
THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION 33
VISION 2010 35
NIGERIA'S INTERVENTION IN SIERRA LEONE 37
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY 42
The Commonwealth 42
The United Nations 43
The European Union and its Member States 44
The United States 45
The Organisation of African Unity (oau) and its Member States 47
Other Countries 48
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 49
In November 1995, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (chogm), convened in Auckland, New Zealand, suspended Nigeria from membership in the Commonwealth pending its compliance with the principles of the 1991 Harare Declaration, which commits Commonwealth members to democratic political processes and respect for human rights and the rule of law. The suspension was in protest over the arbitrary execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (mosop) on November 10, 1995, while chogm was in session, and also over the persistent hold of Nigeria's armed forces on government and their failure to return the country to civilian rule. The heads of government stated that if no demonstrable progress was made towards respect for the Harare Declaration, including the release of political prisoners, Nigeria would be expelled from the Commonwealth.
Two years later, the Nigerian military government led by Gen. Sani Abacha has failed to make progress with regard to any of the principles set out in the Harare Declaration. Despite the promulgation of a "transition program" for the return of Nigeria to an elected civilian government, first announced by General Abacha on October 1, 1995, Nigeria's armed forces show every sign of wanting to remain in power, even if they technically leave office. General Abacha has manipulated every aspect of the current transition program to ensure the success of his supporters, fostering widespread speculation that he may ultimately be planning to succeed himself. Political prisoners remain incarcerated, including Chief Moshood K.O. Abiola, presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections. Human rights and pro-democracy activists, trade union leaders and outspoken journalists are harassed, arrested and detained, generally without charges, for prolonged periods.
Although General Abacha has repeatedly stated that an elected civilian government will take over power by October 1, 1998, the transition program is well behind schedule. Most recently, state assembly elections, originally scheduled to be completed by September 1997, were rescheduled for December 1997. Elections of state governors, which were slated for late 1997, have been postponed to coincide with presidential elections in the third quarter of 1998. These delays have been interpreted as a sign of Abacha's unwillingness to install civilian governors, who would be more likely than military governors to resist self-succession by Abacha. The government has not issued guidelines for gubernatorial, state assembly or presidential elections, and a draft constitution under which all these structures will operate has yet to be promulgated.
The political party registration process, organized by the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (necon), excluded political associations that opposed the government as well as those without sufficient financial resources to cover the exorbitant cost of onerous registration requirements. Chief Abiola, who remains in detention, is also excluded from the current process, as are all outspoken critics of the military government. A transition process that fails to include all elements of the Nigerian political spectrum is not credible.
The five registered parties are hard to tell apart, and most have close links to members of the military-political elite. Two of the parties have offered to adopt Abacha as their exclusive candidate for president. Although a few individuals from other parties have expressed presidential aspirations, official pressure has ensured a change of heart. Notably, former Minister of Petroleum Resources Don Etiebet abandoned his quest for the presidency following his arrest and detention for several days by the State Security Service.
The March 15, 1997 local government council elections, which were conducted on a party basis, were anything but free and fair. There has been no voter education program. The voter registration process was marked by administrative confusion due to shortages of materials and personnel, as well as by corruption-to the point that voter registration cards were reportedly on sale in some areas. A final voters' register was not published prior to the elections, causing chaos on election day when voters presented themselves at the wrong polling sites. necon, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and the State Security Service screened prospective candidates, supposedly based on guidelines promulgated by necon. Because these guidelines did not have the force of law, disqualificationscould not be challenged in court prior to the elections. A number of aspiring candidates were disqualified based on their alleged pro-opposition sympathies.
On the day of the elections, election monitors reported widespread bribery, with politicians seeking to compensate for their parties' lack of grassroots support by giving citizens money to vote for particular candidates. Due to a lack of screened voting compartments, required by the decree governing the election process, voters were often compelled to cast their votes while others looked on. Political party agents were frequently prevented from attending the final collation of votes at local government headquarters, creating the opportunity for massive tampering. In one of the most outrageous cases of executive intervention, Federal Capital Territory Minister Jeremiah Useni overruled necon's announcement that there would be bye-elections in three area councils of Abuja, the Nigerian capital, and declared that the choice between candidates in a contested ward of one of these councils would be resolved by tossing a coin.
Although election tribunals have been established to resolve disputes arising out of local government elections, tribunal members have proven themselves so susceptible to bribes that the federal government has supposedly decided to review decisions of tribunals throughout the country. Through this review process, it is feared the government may seek to discredit the electoral process and create an excuse for further delays.
In an apparent effort to ensure that the so-called transition program achieves its objectives, the government has gone to great lengths to suppress perceived opponents. On March 12, 1997, three days before local government elections, sixteen pro-democracy activists were charged with treason. Although the presiding chief magistrate agreed with defense counsel that she lacked jurisdiction, she nevertheless adjourned the cases "for reports" from the director of public prosecutions and remanded the accused in custody. Numerous other human rights, pro-democracy or opposition activists are in prison-some of them held without trial, others following conviction by military tribunals in trials that blatantly failed to respect minimum standards of due process. These include twenty Ogonis held in connection with the same facts as those for which Ken Saro-Wiwa and his co-accused were arbitrarily executed.
General Abacha has also sought to silence elements of the armed forces whom he perceives as a threat. His methods include detention, dismissals, and transfers on questionable grounds; forced retirements and the filing of trumped up charges. The arbitrariness of Abacha's decisions to terminate the careers of military officers, two hundred of whom were reportedly sacked between 1995 and 1996, combined with their meager salaries, poor living conditions, and lack of functioning equipment, has caused morale within the armed forces to plummet.
Nigeria's recent intervention in Sierra Leone, supposedly to restore the democratically elected government of Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, who was deposed in a May 1997 coup, appears designed instead to provide Nigeria with a bargaining tool in international fora among those more reluctant to commit forces overseas, and to occupy some members of the armed forces who might otherwise cause trouble at home. It has successfully brought endorsements from a range of international actors, as Nigeria's leadership of the peacekeeping forces in Liberia has also done, but should not be allowed to deflect attention from Nigeria's domestic human rights record.
Over the last two years, international criticism of Nigeria has become more muted. While measures imposed in 1993 and 1995 remain in place, certain countries have expressed frustration with the failure of sanctions to achieve instant results and have indicated that they should therefore be relaxed. Human rights and opposition activists in Nigeria, however, are convinced-as is Human Rights Watch- that the situation in Nigeria would be far worse if these sanctions had not been imposed. Nigeria's international isolation should be maintained pending the installation of a civilian government elected following a transition program that allows all parts of the Nigerian political spectrum to participate and that respects certain basic minimum standards, as set out below. Accordingly, Human Rights Watch recommends to chogm that Nigeria be expelled at the meeting in Edinburgh, taking place in October 1997, two years after Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth at Auckland.