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Note: This document is from the archive of the Africa Policy E-Journal, published by the Africa Policy Information Center (APIC) from 1995 to 2001 and by Africa Action from 2001 to 2003. APIC was merged into Africa Action in 2001. Please note that many outdated links in this archived document may not work.

Nigeria: Selected Action Alerts
Date Distributed (ymd): 951118

Since the Nigerian military regime hanged Ken Saro-Wiwa and
his eight fellow activists on November 10, there has been an
unprecedented wave of protest around the world, by literally
hundreds of organizations. On Friday November 17, a rally
outside the Nigerian consulate in Johannesburg led by
Archbishop Desmond Tutu expressed the common themes of
outrage at the Nigerian government and calls for sanctions
against the Abacha regime and at Shell oil company. The same
themes were in evidence in similar rallies in Washington and
many other cities, and in action alerts from Nigerian and
international human rights and environmental groups.

For those having access to the World Wide Web, the
Association of Concerned Africa Scholars has collected a
wide variety of statements and links to other sites on their
home page (see URL address below).

Two alerts with typical statements of demands are included
below:

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Association of Concerned Africa Scholars
Action Alert

November 12, 1995

Condemn Killing Ken Saro-Wiwa and 8 other Nigerian Activists

Demand the U.S. Government Impose Oil Sanctions on Nigeria

Demand Democracy in Nigeria

In response to the executions of Ken Saro-Wiwa and 8 other
Nigerian activists on November 10, the Association of
Concerned African Scholars urges its members to DEMAND THE
CLINTON ADMINISTRATION IMPOSE FULL SANCTIONS ON THE ABACHA
GOVERNMENT, IN PARTICULAR ON U.S. IMPORTS OF OIL, AND PURSUE
THIS AT THE UNITED NATIONS.

The sanctions imposed by the Clinton administration after
the executions on November 10 included recalling the U.S.
Ambassador, protests, a ban on the sale of military goods
and visa restrictions but they did not include economic
sanctions. According to The Africa Fund, Nigeria earns $10
million a day from oil exports and the U.S. accounts for 70
percent of the country's oil sales.

Nigerian democracy activists and other groups are demanding
oil sanctions and the Clinton administration should be
pressed to act immediately. The day after the executions
thousands of Nigerians rallied to protest in Lagos, but the
military crackdown continues and there are reportedly 2000
troops in Ogon region where Saro-Wiwa came from and many
other activists from that region, as well as nationwide
remain in jail.

If you can do nothing else, write the White House. But ACAS
also urges its members to consider all of these actions:

* Write, call or fax the White House to say the November 10
actions on Nigeria are not enough, and demand the U.S. must
impose sanctions on Nigeria, and particular block all future
U.S. oil imorts until democracy is restored:

President Bill Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500
(202) 456-1414, fax: (202) 456-2883

* Contact the Shell Oil Company and demand they end their
collaboration with the Abacha regime and end all payments to
illegal regime;

* Organize your faculty and student organizations to pass a
resolution condemning the killings and calling for U.S.
sanctions until democracy is restored in Nigeria (send
copies to the White House and to your elected
representatives);

* Organize a teach-in on your campuses, or a roundtable on
the current situation in Nigeria, including readings from
Ken Saro-Wiwa's book;

* Invite a Nigerian speaker or other speaker to your campus
this Spring to discuss the situation in Nigeria and plan
future actions.

For further information on the current situation in Nigeria,
sample letters, resolutions and other actions access the
ACAS World Wide Web page at
"http://www.prairienet.org/acas/siro.html" or contact
Amnesty International (202-544-0200), The Africa Fund
(212-962-1210) or TransAfrica (202-797-2301).

********** Contacts for Nigeria Action **********

1. For more information on the current situation, speakers
and other resources:

Amnesty International (202) 544-0200, or e-mail the Africa
Director Adotei Akwei at: [email protected]

Africa Fund (212) 962-1210, e-mail: [email protected].

Africa Policy Information Center (202) 546-7961, e-mail:
[email protected].

TransAfrica (202) 797-2301

2. Send Your Protests to the President:

President Bill Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500
Tel: (202) 456-1414 * Fax: (202) 456-2883

cc: Your Senators, US Senate, Washington, DC 20510

cc: Ambassador Zubair M. Kazaure
Nigerian Embassy to the U.S.,
1333 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036

3. Send Your Protests to the Nigerian government and Shell
Oil Company:

General Sani Abacha
Chairman, Provisional Ruling Council
State House
Abuja, Federal Capital Territory
Nigeria
Fax: 011-234-9-523-2138

C.A.J. Herkstrter, Chairman
Royal Dutch Shell
Carel van Builantlandtlaan 30
2596 HR The Hague
The Netherlands
Fax: 011-44-171-934-5555
(public affairs office in London)

In Nigeria, two leading newspapers:
The Guardian, Fax: 011-234-1-522-027
Tribune, Fax: 011-234-1-266-6770

For more information about the Association of Concerned
Africa Scholars contact co-chair Bill Martin, University of
Illinois, 326 Lincoln Hall, 702 S. Wright Street, Urbana, IL
61801 (e-mail is "[email protected]" or look
at the ACAS homepage on the web
"http://www.prairienet.org/acas/").

**********************************************************

ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIANS ABROAD (ANA)
7 Lobelia Street, Macquarie Fields, NSW 2564, Australia

A year ago the Association of Nigerians Abroad (ANA)
predicted that the Nigerian military cabal will unleash the
most brutal and lawless acts of irresponsibility on Nigeria.
Since then, the evil and satanic regime has, gradually and
systematically chosen to re-enact Stalinist-style terror on
the Nigerian people. Some of the regime's actions include
state sponsored murder, torture of political detainees,
false accusation, and indiscriminate imprisonment of
Nigerian citizens. The latest act in these series of
atrocities is the deliberate judicial murder of Mr Ken
Saro-Wiwa and 8 other Ogoni political activists. At the same
time, the military regime holds more than 80 political
detainees in prisons scattered all over the country. ANA has
always believed that the present military regime in Nigeria
is the reincarnation of evil and its continued existence can
only lead to further chaos. We therefore urge the
international community to enact urgent measures to bring an
end to the tyrannical regime in Nigeria. If this is not done
as a matter of urgency, the consequences for Nigeria and the
entire world community will be enormous.

Ken Saro-Wiwa's murder was preceded by the cold-blooded
murder of veteran politician and social critic, 73-year old
Chief Alfred Rewane, gunned down in his home about six weeks
ago by elements suspected to be from the Nigerian armed
forces. Late Chief Rewane's crime may have been his
persistent paid advertisements in Nigerian newspapers in
which he expressed his opposition to continued military
rule. ANA notes that his killers are yet to be apprehended.

As the number of our fallen patriots mounts, we members of
ANA note that the military junta in Nigeria has now crossed
the Rubicon; it has abandoned the path of sanity, the rule
of law, and respect for the sanctity of human life. Instead,
it has embraced gross disregard for international norms and
protocols and a reckless, military adventurism which it
hopes to spread to other African countries. ANA notes that
Gambia, another country being ruled by military decree, was
one of two countries that abstained from a vote on the
suspension of Nigeria from the Commonwealth of Nations.
Those in the international community who believe in the
inalienable rights of man must resolve to oppose this regime
at every turn. A regime that loots the country's treasury
and kills its own innocent citizens forfeits all credibility
and does not deserve the respect and trust of her citizens
or of the civilized world. As citizens of Nigeria we have
resolved to use every legitimate means to rid our nation of
the organized banditry that today passes for a government.

There is a moral responsibility which must be borne by
certain governments and multi-national companies whose
desire for profit and the proverbial black gold has blinded
them into unholy alliances with the evil regimes. In
particular, we note the roles being played by Shell
Petroleum in Nigeria. Shell's operation in Nigria is one of
the worst nightmares visited on Nigerians and the Ogoni
people in particular. Shell has continued to support the
evil regime, and for good measure was represented by counsel
at the special Tribunal which tried and convicted Ken
Saro-Wiwa and the other Ogoni activists, and is therefore
morally implicated in their death. Still, Shell continues to
drill for oil in the region apparently oblivious to the
suffering of the Nigerian people or the environmental havoc
it has wrought on the Niger Delta. Shell must be stopped
from further destruction of the precious little land left in
the Niger Delta. Every litre of petroleum product from
Nigeria marketed by Shell is being extracted at the expense
of the blood and the lives of our patriots whose families
and land are being destroyed mainly for the benefits of a
tyrannical elite and of Shell and its shareholders.

The world community recently celebrated the rebirth of South
Africa. ANA wishes to stress this joyful event would have
been impossible without the coordinated actions of the
international community. Nigeria was an active proponent for
economic sanctions and total isolation of the racist regime.
It is disheartening that a Nigerian government is now
carrying out the same atrocities that were once committed by
the racist South African government. Sanctions proved
effective in ending apartheid in South Africa and Nigeria
was at the fore-front of the demand for the imposition of
comprehensive sanctions on South Africa. They believed in
sanctions. With all due respect to the British Prime
Minister, Mr. Major on the hardship that economic sanctions
may cause, our generation accepts and prefers the hardship
of economic sanctions to the wanton killing of our citizens
by a brutal regime. Besides, the oil-wealth has only gone to
benefit the ruling cabal not the average Nigerian. Indeed,
sanctions represent the best available tool that could lead
to a speedy emancipation of Nigerians from military
colonisation and oppression. We therefore urge the world to
be courageous in imposing total oil embargo on Nigeria. By
doing, so you will be reducing the duration of our
oppression at the hands of the military regime and helping
to get rid of an evil seed that is plaguing the rest of the
African continent. As other smaller African countries
struggle to establish democratic governments, Nigeria has
remained an impediment to further democratisation in West
Africa and indeed the entire continent.

We commend the steps already taken by various countries to
censure the Nigerian regime. In particular we welcome the
decision of the Commonwealth to suspend Nigeria until
democracy is restored to our country, and the decision of
the US administration and other governments to recall their
Ambassadors and to end military cooperation with the
despotic regime. However, much more needs to be done. The
world must speak in unmistakable terms of its opposition to
this regime if we hope to avoid a major conflagration in
Nigeria. In particular we demand the:

* imposition of a total embargo on the importation of
Nigerian crude oil by the UN Security Council and the
European Union;

* diplomatic isolation of the military regime, its principal
officers and supporters from all international organizations
including the UN, the OAU and the non-aligned countries;

*denial of visas to enter several of your countries;

* freezing of the bank/trust accounts, wherever found, of
members of the military junta, their dependent families and
their accomplices;

* denial of any leadership role/position to any officer or
surrogate of the military junta in regional, continental or
world-wide organizations.

* freezing of all accounts used for servicing the Nigerian
oil industry;

* total ban on all arms sales and military cooperation with
Nigeria;

* recall and/or expulsion of all Military Attaches in
Nigerian missions abroad and a general reduction in staff
level at Nigerian Diplomatic Missions;

* international boycott of Nigeria from all State organised
sporting initiatives, including the FIFA organised soccer
tournament.

* freezing of all new loans, extension or rescheduling of
old loans; we particularly applaud the decision of the IFC
to freeze a $180 million loan and equity package that would
have been used by the Nigerian regime, Shell, Elf, and Agip
oil companies to build a gas plant and pipelines in the
ravaged Niger Delta.

* world-wide boycott of all Shell Products. We hold Shell
equally responsible for the death of all nine activists and
for the decimation of the oil producing areas of the Niger
Delta.

Removing this tyrannical dictatorship from Nigerian affairs
is a task for all of us and we cannot afford to fail. It is
a daunting task that must become the supreme goal of every
Nigerian and friends of Nigeria. Our cause is a just one,
our goal is freedom and prosperity for our nation, for every
Nigerian and peace for the world. The eventual emancipation
of our people will signal the emancipation of the African
continent from power hungry despots bent on taking us back
into the Stone Age. We must move with the world into the
21st century. Removing the Nigerian military junta from
office is our first step along this journey to freedom,
respectability and prosperity.

May the souls of Ken Saro-Wiwa, Dr. Barinem Kiobel, Saturday
Dobee, Paul Levura, Nordu Eawo, Felix Nuate, Daniel Gbokoo,
John Kpuinen, Baribor Bera, Chief Rewane and all our fallen
patriots rest in peace and may their sacrifices fuel our
just cause.

Long Live the People of Nigeria.
November 13, 1995

Johnson I Agbinya, Ph.D, President, Australia; Usman G.
Akano, Ph.D, Vice-President, Canada; Mku T. Ityokumbul,
Ph.D, General Secretary, USA

[statement also signed by 46 other officers and members of
ANA]

*******************************************************
This material is being reposted for wider distribution
by the Africa Policy Information Center (APIC). APIC's
primary objective is to widen the policy debate in the
United States around African issues and the U.S. role
in Africa, by concentrating on providing accessible
policy-relevant information and analysis usable by a
wide range of groups and individuals.  APIC is
affiliated with the Washington Office on Africa (WOA),
a not-for-profit church, trade union and civil rights
group supported organization that works with Congress
on Africa-related legislation.

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