/ 8 March 1999

NIGERIA BACK IN COMMONWEALTH?

NIGERIA might rejoin the Commonwealth on May 29, when the military government is due to hand over to president-elect Olusegun Obasanjo, Commonwealth Secretary General Emeka Anyaoko said on Sunday. Anyaoko, himself a Nigerian, told the BBC: “The Commonwealth has become an association of democratically elected governments and until that is in place in Nigeria, I don’t think Nigeria will be readmitted,” said Anyaoko. Nigeria was suspended from the body in November 1995 when then head of state Sani Abacha — who has since died — refused to commute death sentences against minority rights activist Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others.