There has been no decision taken yet about the participation of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in next month’s Commonwealth summit to be staged in Abuja, Nigerian presidential spokesperson Remi Oyo said on Saturday.
”There is nothing definitive yet about his invitation or participation. Consultations are still going on with leaders of Commonwealth countries on this issue,” she said in a telephone interview from Abuja.
This year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is scheduled to take place in the Nigerian capital Abuja from December 5 to 8, but Zimbabwe has been suspended from the Commonwealth’s councils for the past 20 months because of a controversial presidential election.
Obasanjo, speaking after the two presidents met on Monday in Harare, did not rule out the possibility of an invitation to Mugabe despite fierce opposition from mainly white Commonwealth countries, and said he is consulting as widely as possible on the question.
”I am consulting,” he said when asked whether Zimbabwe would attend the meeting.
”I have undertaken to consult as widely as possible. One has to learn from first hand what exactly the situation is here in Zimbabwe,” said Obasanjo, adding that he is consulting ”with Commonwealth leaders as to what should be the line of action before CHOGM, during CHOGM or after CHOGM”.
Nigeria is yet to invite Mugabe to the summit, a top official of the Nigerian Foreign Ministry who did not wish to be named said on Saturday.
”It is a sensitive issue, considering the fact that Nigeria, the host, was also suspended from the Commonwealth in 1995 following the execution of writer and minority rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.”
Saro-Wiwa, president of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, was executed along with eight of his companions after a military-led special tribunal convicted them of the murder of four Ogoni personalities.
Saro-Wiwa always insisted he was innocent.
Meanwhile, Obasanjo on Saturday in Abuja inspected venues and facilities to be used for the Commonwealth summit and the visit of the head of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II, officials said.
Among those he visited were the international conference centre, the building where the queen will be accommodated, a public ”millennium” park, media centre, banquet and reatreat hall, as well as Nasarrawa, a Nigerian state near Abuja that the queen will visit, they said. — Sapa-AFP