by Taye Babaleye, Nigeria, April 1998
THEME = HUMAN RIGHTS
The crack-down by the Nigerian military junta
on pro-democracy activists, human rights campaigners, journalists
and environmentalists who criticize the regime, continues
The government has added to the list of detainees, an environmentalist and university teacher, Professor Akinjide Oshuntokun. Until his arrest and detention last November, Professor Oshuntokun was head of the Department of History at the University of Lagos. He also served until very recently, as Nigeria's ambassador to Germany.
Professor Oshuntokun was arrested at Lagos airport while he was trying to board a plane to Germany where he was billed to deliver a public lecture on "Nigeria's environmental crisis". The lecture was sponsored by the German non-governmental organization, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
The professor-cum-diplomat who did not know he was under surveillance, was accosted at the airport by officials from the State Security Service (SSS) and told to report for a "chat" at their Lagos headquarters. Since then, Oshuntokun has been locked up by government security officials "acting on orders from above". He has no access to his wife and children, and so far, no charge has been preferred against him.
Meanwhile, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation has been given until June 1998, to wind up its activities and leave Nigeria. Sources close to the NGO's office at the University of Lagos campus said it was given notice "to quit" because "it was sponsoring pro-democracy and human rights activists against the government of Nigeria".
Observers believed that in accepting to serve as Ambassador to Germany under the present regime, Oshuntokun was running a risk, especially as he was known to have offended the Abacha regime. Before his arrest, he had confided to friends that some top officials of General Sani Abacha's regime were not happy about his close association with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (he had been a trustee with the NGO for some time). "His environmental campaign against the military government which failed to give adequate attention to problems of environmental degradation, did not go down well with government officials," declared one of his colleagues in the university.
Oshuntokun's trouble started in November 1995, when Ken Saro- Wiwa, the Nigerian leading environmentalist and writer, was hanged by the military junta. As Nigeria's Ambassador to Germany at that time, Professor Oshuntokun condemned Ken's hanging, describing the killing as "a terrible mistake, ill-timed and uncalled for". The unassuming Ambassador-Professor also gave red-carpet treatment to Nigeria's Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, who visited Germany after Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged in Nigeria. Thereafter, Oshuntokun was unceremoniously recalled home and kept under close scrutiny by the authorities.
His academic activities at the university were a source of concern to the military junta. In one of the public lectures he delivered on: "The Role of the Nigerian Military since Independence, Oshuntokun declared, inter alia, "the military is responsible for the political and economic woes plaguing the Nigerian state. The impression we get is that rather than being a classical dictatorship of the Pinochet model, what we have is dynamic chaos, and the government is glaringly ineffective. We are at a cross- roads, and the coming year may determine the future of our potentially great country, whose greatness is still to be actualized," he affirmed. This was obviously too much for the military junta to swallow.
On another occasion, Oshuntokun frowned at the unorthodox manner the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was being run by the Minister, Chief Tom Ikimi. Referring to Nigeria's present strained relations with the Commonwealth, he said: "The duty of a minister is to make friends for a country, not enemies. Too many people make foreign policy pronouncements. We don't really know who is in charge. We haven't been lucky enough to have a good foreign minister".
In order to effect his unconditional release from detention, the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO), one of Nigeria's human rights organizations, included Oshuntokun's name on the list of sixty prisoners of conscience presented to Pope John Paul II during his 3 day pastoral visit to Nigeria in March. "We have served the military government notice. We shall not accept that the same treatment is meted out to Oshuntokun as happened to Ken Saro- Wiwa. "Enough is enough", said Abdul Oroh, the CLO's Executive Director who also said that an international campaign for Oshuntokun's release will soon be launched.
END
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