Nigerian Politcal Prisoners

In Waiting for Angel, Lomba is held in a prison for a "crime" he did not commit, the "crime" of organizing a demonstration, when he says he was only a reporter covering the demonstration. I wanted to understand a little bit more about Nigerian political prisoners, so I turned to Google, which is always ready to answer my questions.

First of all, Wikipedia says Nigeria is a federal presidential representative democratic republic - ok, if you have that many words in the name of your government, I'm pretty sure something is bound to go wrong if you can't even decide how to narrow it down to a word or two.

A series of articles from the LA Times followed the promised release of political prisoners from Nigerian jails and detention centers in 1998 and 1999. Nigeria lost its place in the British Commonwealth after the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, whom we just read about.

Chinedu Karl E. Uchegbu, of the Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in the Niger River delta town of Port Harcourt, noted that Nigeria’s government, by releasing all the remaining political prisoners, would simply be fulfilling its obligations. “These are people who were actually not meant to be in jail anyway,” Uchegbu said.

One of the prisoners to be released was the man who had fought against Nigeria's tyranny and apparantly won the 1993 presidential elections, Moshood Abiola. In order to be released, he agreed to relinquish his claim to the presidency and join Nigeria’s latest military efforts in working toward a peaceful transition to democracy. However, Abiola died of a heart attack in the summer of 1998 before he was released, and many worried his absence from the Nigerian government would raise tensions and human rights would be violated again without the prominent activist.

Riots did break out when news of Abiola's death was released, and stalled negotations and business surrounding the formation of the democratic government. The government did release more politcal prisoners, but it was seen as merely a gesture to anti-government militants who continued to riot over Abiola's death, which they viewed as suspicious, and the lack of progress made in the transition of the government.

I think all of this is relevant, as tomorrow is election day. Events like these in Nigeria and in other parts of the world make me feel very grateful for having a stable political system, and knowing that I can go vote (even if I do have to stand in a line all afternoon) and not worry about myself or whoever I vote for being jailed because of it.