| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
Tel: +225 21-73-54 Fax: +225 21-63-35 e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci
IRIN-WA Update 225 of Events in West Africa, (Tuesday) 9 June 1998
NIGERIA: New leader sworn in
Nigeria's defence chief, Major-General Abdulsalam Abubakar, was sworn into office as head of state on Tuesday less than a day after the unexpected death of General Sani Abacha, media reports said.
The former head of state reportedly died from a heart attack in the early hours of Monday, leaving a potential power vacuum, the BBC reported. Abacha left no constitutional replacement after his deputy, Lieutenant-General Oladipo Diya, was sentenced to death in April for allegedly masterminding a failed coup.
The Provisional Ruling Council picked Abubakar at a late-night session after Abacha's burial. Abubakar was quoted by the BBC as describing his appointment as a personal challenge. "All hands must be on deck to to move this nation forward," he told the ruling council in his acceptance speech.
According to media reports, Abubakar is a career soldier, little known outside military circles. However, it was Abubakar who announced two previous coup attempts and Abacha's death. According to the BBC, some analysts believe the new head of state will be more in favour of handing over power to a civilian administration. He was reportedly unenthusiastic about Sani Abacha's candidature for the forthcoming presidential election.
In his only statement so far, Abubakar said: "I will address the nation in due course."
Immediate reactions to Abacha's death
The chairman of the opposition National Democratic Coalition of Nigeria (NADECO) said that whoever succeeded Abacha should respect the scheduled transition to civilian rule, the BBC reported.
Other Nigerian opposition figures also echoed NADECO's remarks. Ken Wiwa, son of executed human rights activist Ken Saro Wiwa, said he hoped democracy would have a chance to establish itself. Abacha was "merely a symptom of the malaise in our country," he said. The playwright Wole Soyinka, who won the 1986 Nobel Prize for literature, said Abacha's death was an opportunity for Nigeria to change. It was also up to the international community to say "we're sick and tired" of the degeneration of a potentially great society, he declared.
However, the BBC quoted some opposition leaders as saying power should immediately go Chief Moshood Abiola, the gaoled presumed winner of the 1993 elections, annulled by the military.
International community calls for transition
Meanwhile, world leaders hoped Abacha's death would allow the restoration of democratic rule. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan offered his condolences to the Abacha family, and said he looked forward to a peaceful and democratic future for Nigeria. White House spokesman, Michael McCurry, also called for an "accountable civilian government" after Abacha, while British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, speaking on behalf of the European Union, said he hoped there would be an opening for a "stable transition to an early return to democracy", AFP reported.
Human rights agencies, frequently critical of Abacha's government, also took the opportunity to press for democracy in Nigeria. A spokesman for Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said she hoped for democracy in Nigeria, AFP reported. The New York-based group, Human Rights Watch Africa, also called for a return to democratic rule. "We hope that General Abacha's death can be an opportunity for a return to rule by the people," the organisation said.
Nevertheless, hundreds of people also turned out in the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown, to mourn Abacha's death. According to media reports, Abacha was regarded as a hero after the Nigerian-led West African intervention force, ECOMOG, helped restore elected civilian president Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in February.
GUINEA BISSAU: Government troops attack rebel barracks
Fighting continued for the third day in Guinea Bissau on Tuesday as the army attempted to crush a revolt by soldiers in the capital, Bissau, media reports said. Troops loyal to President Joao Bernardo Vieira attacked two rebel-held barracks in the Bra area of the city near the airport, the BBC reported. However, other news reports said rebel soldiers successfully defended their positions.
The fighting, which has left about 30 people dead, began on Sunday, following the appointment of a new army chief of staff, General Humberto Gomes. His predecessor, Absumane Mane, was suspended earlier this year after several military officers were arrested for allegedly smuggling weapons to separatist rebels in Senegal's southern province of Casamance.
Mane increased pressure on the government by proclaiming himself head of a 60-day provisional military government on Tuesday, news agencies said. He said rebel forces would pave the way for "free and transparent elections" in July. The government, meanwhile, denied it was aware of any rebel communique, Portuguese radio reported. Guinea Bissau's spokesman and minister of transport and communication, Joao Cardoso, also rejected any mediation with the rebels, saying talks could only take place when the other side had a "legitimate mandate".
According to AFP, amid confusion as to which side had the upper hand, Bissau's streets remained deserted, making it hard for people to buy food and other essentials.
GUINEA: Opposition leader gets two-month gaol sentence
A court in the Guinean capital, Conakry, sentenced the leader of the opposition l'Union pour la Nouvelle Republique (UNR), Mamadou Ba, on Monday to two months imprisonment for "inciting racial hatred and violence", AFP reported.
Ba was among some 60 people arrested in March following clashes between security forces and residents in Kaporo, a suburb in the north of Conakry, in which nine people were killed and some 40 injured. Two other UNR deputies, Mamadou Barry and Thierno Ousmane Diallo, were sentenced to five months' gaol and fines of one million Guinea Francs (US$ 1,000) each.
The court also handed down two-year prison terms and fines of US$ 200 to the Imam of Kaporo Mosque and two muezzins, while 24 others received one-year sentences. The court acquitted 31 youths, the news agency added. According to AFP, defence lawyers said they would appeal against the sentences. The residents of Kaporo clashed with police when they refused to be relocated in a government slum clearance initiative.
Special Report
This update is accompanied by an IRIN special report on developments in Nigeria. Subscribers who may not have received this report can request it by e-mail to irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci with "nigeria background" in the subject line.
Abidjan, 9 June 1998, 20:30 gmt
[ends]
[The material contained in this communication comes to you via IRIN West Africa, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. UN IRIN-WA Tel: +225 21 73 66 Fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci for more information or subscription. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this report, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. IRIN reports are archived on the Web at: http://www.reliefweb.int/emergenc or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail to archive@dha.unon.org . Mailing list: irin-wa-updates]
Date: Wed, 10 Jun 1998 08:44:18 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 225, 98.6.9 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980610084150.6453A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
| Previous Menu | Home Page | What's New | Search | Country Specific |