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IRIN-WA Update 476 of events in West Africa (Tuesday 1 June)
NIGERIA: Obasanjo suspends contracts
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo suspended on Monday all recent commercial contracts, licences, awards, approvals and appointments made since January by the outgoing military administration, news reports said.
In a statement announcing the suspension, Obasanjo's special assistant on media publicity, Doyin Okupe, said it did not affect judicial appointments, `The Guardian' of Lagos reported on Tuesday.
Obasanjo said he would set up a panel to review all contracts and awards. The most controversial include the award of off-shore oil concessions to 11 local firms, a number of ambassadorial appointments, a project to build the new Central Bank of Nigeria headquarters in Abuja and the construction of a new defence headquarters, the newspaper reported.
Embassies and civil service get shake up
In another measure to inject efficiency in Nigerian embassies and the civil service, Obasanjo ordered diplomatic missions to ensure that all visa applications are processed within 72 hours of their submission, news reports said.
State-owned Radio Nigeria reported that Obasanjo was concerned visa delays were making the nation lose business investments. Because of the importance his government attached to foreign investment and economic development, Obsanjo said, deserving applicants must be granted visas promptly, while difficult applications are to be forwarded immediately to the office of the president.
Civil servants warned
Obaasanjo's warning to civil servants on Monday was equally clear: opening a seminar for permanent secretaries in Abuja, he told the public servants that those among them who were engaged in private business should "change or get out", `The Guardian' reported. "We want a civil service that can compare with others anywhere in the world," he said.
The seminar, coordinated by the former UN Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Adebayo Adedeji, was designed to restore discipline, efficiency and pride to the badly tarnished service, Radio Nigeria reported.
NLC call off strike but teachers persist
Following Obasanjo's promise at his inauguration to review salaries and conditions of service, public servants have suspended a pay strike they began in April, the BBC reported on Tuesday.
Adams Oshiomole, president of the umbrella Nigeria Labour Congress, said the suspension was to allow the new administration time to rebuild the country's battered economy.
Public employees in more than two-thirds of the country's 36 states went on an indefinite pay strike in April to demand implementation of a new minimum wage of 3,000 naira (US $32) approved by the head of state Abdulsalami Abubakar.. They had already suspended their action in some states in the run-up to civilian rule.
However, teachers have vowed to continue their five-week-old pay strike that has closed thousands of primary and secondary schools, AFP quoted Gabriel Falade, general secretary of the Nigerian Union of Teachers, as saying.
EU lifts sanctions
Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) announced on Tuesday that it would scrap sanctions imposed in 1995 when late military ruler General Sani Abacha executed nine minority rights activists accused of murder. The execution led to Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth, to which it was readmitted in late May.
On the other hand, Canada planned to wait for the government's programme to unfold before resuming aid, 'The Guardian' quoted Acting High Commissioner Wendy Gilmour as saying.
"In spite of what happened in the past, we are very hopeful of the present situation in Nigeria but it must adopt a track record of resilience," she said.
However, she said Canada viewed the appointment of the new Central Bank governor, Joseph Sanusi, as an indication of the government's determination to pursue prudent management of the economy, which could attract foreign business.
"There are a lot of Canadian investors quite interested in Nigeria especially those in the area of technology," she said, "but desperately in search of reputable and reliable Nigerian partners."
SIERRA LEONE: Ceasefire threatened by rebel blockade
Sierra Leone's ceasefire is threatened by a rebel roadblock at a key junction near Robat village on the main road to Masiaka, some 50 km east of Freetown, ECOMOG spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Olukulade told IRIN on Tuesday.
Olukulade said a group of about 12 rebels had set up the roadblock since the start of the ceasefire and had, therefore, "committed a violation, details of which had been reported to UN military observers".
Although the rebels allowed people to pass, it was unacceptable, Olukulade said, for ECOMOG troops to have to go through a rebel checkpoint to get food and provisions to units on the other side. ECOMOG was concerned, Olukulade added, because rebels were using the checkpoint to spy on its positions.
[See separate item headlined "Ceasefire threatened by rebel blockade]
LIBERIA: ECOMOG denies deploying more border troops
Accusations and denials continued between Sierra Leone and Liberia over allegations of further military deployment along the border between the two countries.
President Charles Taylor cancelled his visit to Nigeria on Saturday to attend the inauguration of the new civilian president after reports of troop movement on the Sierra Leone border, the independent 'Star' radio reported on Monday.
ECOMOG spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Olukulade denied the claim to IRIN on Tuesday, saying "it was not true, there has been no new deployment of troops along the border."
The Liberian government denied last week allegations by ECOMOG that it planned to attack Sierra Leone, dismissing them as "imaginary stories".
GUINEA: HRW calls for protection for Sierra Leonean refugees
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to take immediate
steps to protect Sierra Leonean refugees in Guinea
by moving them inland.
The refugees live in camps close to the Sierra Leone
border. In the past three months, Sierra Leonean rebels
have often attacked the camps, killing, mutilating
and abducting dozens of people, Guineans and refugees,
HRW said in a statement on 31 May.
In one attack on 22 May, 11 civilians were killed, HRW said.
"The brutality and the frequency of these attacks is simply atrocious," said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of HRW's Africa Division. "Refugee camps are supposed to be a safe haven, but these camps in Guinea are a magnet for attack."
"It is a long-standing, fundamental principle that refugee camps should not be located close to international borders with a war raging just on the other side," said Rachael Reilly, Refugee Policy director at HRW, adding that the refugees "must be moved immediately".
A UNHCR source told IRIN that UNHCR had thus far relocated around 10,000 of the Sierra Leoneans.
Around 50,000 people need to be moved to the two new sites some 70- 100 kms from the border where the refugees are being housed. The relocation, begun on 12 April, was suspended from 21 to 25 May while work was being done on the second site, the source said.
However, there are only four weeks left until the rains
make roads in the area impassable, according to the
UNHCR source. "It's a race against the clock for
our field staff," he said.
TOGO: Government urged to free human rights detainees
The Federation internationale des Ligues de Droits de l'Homme (FIDH) and the Organisation mondiale contre la Torture (OMCT) have appealed to the Togolese government to release four human rights campaigners.
The appeal was made by The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint FIDH/OMCT programme.
The four detainees are Nestor Tengue, Francois Gayibor and Brice Santanna of the Association togolaise pour la Defense et la Promotion des Droits de l'Homme (ATDPDH) and Antoine Koffi Nadjombe of the Amnesty International's Togo chapter.
They are accused of providing Amnesty with information on human rights violations in Togo which the government has denied.
[See separate item headlined "Government urged to free human rights detainees"]
COTE D'IVOIRE: Refugees to receive ID cards
Refugees in Cote d'Ivoire are to receive identification cards under a programme launched on 25 May in Abidjan. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office for Cote d'Ivoire, the cards will be valid for a year and will be renewable.
Blaise Cherif, UNHCR's resident representative in Abidjan, told IRIN shortly before he travelled to camps in western Cote d'Ivoire to explain the measure to refugees there that Cote d'Ivoire had around 196,000 refugees, according to official figures.
Over 95 percent are Liberians.
GHANA: Preparing for the anti-drug fight
Ghanaian officials on Monday began a five-day workshop to draw up a national action plan on drug control, Ghanaian radio reported on Monday.
Addressing the workshop, sponsored by the African Anti-Drug Programme and the European Union, Interior Minister Nii Okaidja Adamafio reaffirmed his government's determination to sustain the war against drug dealers.
Despite its anti-drug efforts, Ghana is still being used as a transit point for trafficking cocaine and heroin, he told the workshop.
Abidjan, 1 June 1999, 18:35 GMT
[ENDS]
[IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 217366 Fax: +225 216335 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]
Item: irin-english-934
[This item is delivered in the "irin-english" service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. For further information or free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org or fax: +254 2 622129 or Web: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer.]
Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 1999
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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