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FT 09 AUG 93 / Babangida turns to his security chiefs for help
By PAUL ADAMS
LAGOS
PRESIDENT Ibrahim Babangida of Nigeria will consult the senior officers in
the armed forces and police tomorrow before taking his next step over a
proposed interim government for the country.
Civilians and junior ranks in the armed forces oppose the use of the interim
government to extend military rule.
Mr Moshood Abiola, the unofficial winner of a cancelled poll held in June,
is in the US lobbying for sanctions to force the government to install him
as head of state. There seems no prospect of a post for Mr Abiola if the
interim government takes effect.
Germany, which is the largest exporter to Nigeria, last week cancelled a
visit by MPs and announced it would have to review bilateral relations with
Nigeria until the democratic process was put back on track.
Discussion by the ruling military council of the interim government
proposals ended inconclusively on Friday and will restart on Thursday after
Mr Babangida has seen security force leaders, who hold the key to Nigeria's
political future.
Pressure is coming from the lower ranks of the armed forces to withdraw from
direct military involvement in government. Many officers believe their
reputation has suffered since the government's refusal to install a
democratically elected civilian president on August 27, leaving a six-year
transition programme incomplete and the country divided by the suppression
of Mr Abiola's victory.
A meeting of middle and junior ranking officers in Lagos last week rejected
a plan by the government which seemed to make the interim government an
extension of military rule.
Even the proposal for a civilian-led interim government is being treated
with hostility in Lagos and the south-west, where the Yoruba majority feels
the north has dominated Nigeria, mostly through military regimes, for too
long.
The Campaign for Democracy, a loose association of pressure groups, is
organising a three-day stoppage aimed at 'the passive dislocation of civil
society'.
Leaflets have been distributed telling people to stay away from work but not
to resort to violent protest.
'We hope that this will build up momentum and force the government to back
down over the annulment of the June elections,' said Mr Olisa Agbakoba, one
of the campaign's organisers, yesterday. Last month a week of civilian
protest degenerated into looting and destruction, put down by the army with
about 100 civilian deaths.
Countries:-
NGZ Nigeria, Africa.
Industries:-
P9721 International Affairs.
P9199 General Government, NEC.
Types:-
NEWS General News.
The Financial Times
London Page 4