[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 118 (Friday, August 19, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
NIGERIAN LABOR UNIONS STRIKE TO URGE THE MILITARY TO RESTORE DEMOCRACY 
                            TO THEIR COUNTRY

                                 ______


                        HON. JOHN EDWARD PORTER

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, August 19, 1994

  Mr. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, Nigeria is entering its seventh week of 
strikes as the country's labor unions demand that democratic 
institutions be established in their country. Nigeria has been 
convulsed by labor unrest since July 4, when oil workers in this 
petroleum-rich nation went on strike to protest the imprisonment of Mr. 
Moshood Abiola, the probable victor in the June 1993 presidential 
election. The goal of the union strikers is to urge the military 
leadership to step down.
  Last summer, after years of military rule in Nigeria, General Ibrahim 
Babangida, then head of the military, organized two political parties, 
wrote the party platforms, funded them, and allowed elections to take 
place. But Chief Moshood Abiola, a wealthy ethnic Toruba chief from the 
Southwest, rose as the popular candidate. As a result, Gen. Babangida 
stopped, and annulled, the elections. A few months ago, General Sani 
Abacha replaced Gen. Babangida as commander and chief of the country's 
armed forces and declared himself the president.
  Mr. Speaker, as cochairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, 
I have been inspired for years by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the nonviolent 
Burmese democracy movement leader who currently remains under house 
arrest. The current faceoff between the United States and Nigeria is 
similar to that with Burma over Aung San Suu Kyi, and even to that with 
Haiti over exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In all three cases, 
military officers have jailed or expelled leaders who clearly enjoy 
broad public support. In all three cases, efforts ranging from blocking 
visas to economic sanctions have failed to make an impact on the ruling 
military and allowing the fairly elected leader to take office.
  The U.S. Department of State reports that extrajudicial killings and 
excessive use of force by police and security services are common in 
Nigeria. Human rights groups maintain that scores of citizens die 
annually while in police custody and that prisoners are continually 
denied food and proper medical care. And last week, the police shut 
down Nigeria's most respected and independent newspaper, the Guardian. 
Action against the Guardian is apparently the reaction to an article 
suggesting that top military and civilian officials in the government 
of Gen. Sani Abacha were divided on how to respond to the current 
strikes. In recent days, there have been an increasing number of 
violent incidents believed to be related to the political crisis.
  Over the summer, the Nigerian Government has regularly jailed union 
leaders and democracy advocates. Because of these fundamental 
violations, the U.S. Congress must press for democracy, human rights, 
and rule of law in Nigeria. In fiscal year 1993, the United States 
provided Nigeria $12.6 million in assistance. This year, the State 
Department has cut off all of this aid.
  I strongly commend the administration for cutting aid, and I call on 
the United States not to renew any assistance until a democratic 
government is in place and the basic rights of the Nigerian people are 
respected. In the post-cold-war era, there is simply no reason the 
United States should provide any support for nations that continually 
subvert human freedoms and that do not hold the same basic beliefs in 
the value of the individual and society as a whole as we do.
  I am deeply concerned over the jailing of Mr. Abiola and other 
democracy advocates. I urge the Nigerian military leaders to restore a 
civilian democracy and allow Nigerians to enjoy the basic rights 
entitled to them as citizens of Nigeria.

                          ____________________