Vol 38 No 10 |
- AFRICA
- BRITAIN
Cook has called for tougher economic sanctions against General Sani Abacha's regime in Nigeria following the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa in November 1995 as has Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Tony Lloyd (47) who described the treason charges against Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka and 11 others in March as 'a mark of this regime's arrogance and stupidity' adding that 'Britain and the international community must put pressure on Abacha to release all political prisoners immediately...
And attempts to extradite exiled oppositionists listed on the charge sheet such as Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka Gen...
The most coherent radical civilian group the National Liberation Council of Nigeria (Nalicon) led by exiled Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has consistently denied responsibility for the bombings although it has promised to lead a liberation struggle against Abacha...
A campaign against plans to bring the BBC's much praised World Service under the centralised control of its domestic programme managers has won support from hundreds of British political and cultural figures as well as the Dalai Lama Archbishop Desmond Tutu former Commonwealth Secretary General Sir Sridath Ramphal former Ambassador to the United Nations David Hannay violinist Y ehudi Menhuin and Nigerian writers Chinua Achebe Ben Okri and Wole Soyinka...
Sani Abacha was irritated that Soglo gave a passport to the fugitive Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka in 1994 and is said to have viewed an ex-military man such as Kérékou with a more sympathetic eye...
If the bombings in Kaduna and Kano at least are the work of a security faction in the government (the official claim that one of the bombers had bought a Wole Soyinka book points to a set-up) then any moves towards dialogue will be set back...