IN FOCUS
More blood is likely to flow in Nigeria. Come 1996, and 19 more comrades of the executed Ogoni leader Ken Saro-Wiwa will go through the same mockery of justice, and probably end up in the gallows. The tyrannic General Sani Abacha, in a rare speech, has regretted the international storm of protests, and described as "just" the judicial process which killed Ken and eight others in November last.
But in an affidavit filed through their lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi, the 19 undertrials have pleaded not to be tried by the same tribunal. They have said, "Unless you restrain the tribunal, it will arrive at no other conclusion than the conviction of all of us ... which will be followed by swift execution."
The developed countries have blackballed Nelson Mandela's proposed oil sanctions. The US, the largest importer of Nigerian crude, has demurred. With Sanctions against Iraqi, Iranian and Libyan oil already in place, stopping Nigerian oil, a light, superior variety could hit Northern commercial interests. Meanwhile, Shell, the oil giant blamed for instigating Ken's killing, is going ahead with its US $3.8 billion natural gas plant in Nigeria, And some Northern spokepersons are arguing that it is the African countries, not the North, which have to hit out against Abacha. One logic enriching this line is that a Western oil sanction will further damage Nigeria's beleaguered economy.
However, the worst hit in the whole episode have been the international human rights groups, Three of them, Greenpeace, Body Shop and Friends of the Earth, had launched a high-pitched campaign, with advertisements showing a 'recent' picture of a flaring gasline in Ogoniland. Shell took no time in proving that the picture was dated back from 1993, when it had shut down its Ogoniland operations. The ensuing war of words will have little effect on the 19 lives in question.
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