wfn.org | NIGERIAN CHURCHES ASK INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FOR DEMOCRACY

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact: Carol J. Fouke, NCC, 212-870-2252
Internet: carol_fouke.parti@ecunet.org

43NCC4/29/96                FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

 NEW YORK ---- Nigeria's churches want
international support for their country's transition
from military rule to democracy, but they oppose the
general economic sanctions being called for by some
international human rights groups, Nigerian church
leaders said here.

 "Once you put sanctions, who are the people who
will suffer?" asked His Eminence Sunday Mbang,
Prelate of the Methodist Church, Nigeria.  "Not the
rulers, but the common people."

 Instead, he and his three colleagues said, the
international community can help by encouraging
Nigeria's military regime to hold free and fair
elections as soon as possible.  Any economic
pressure should target the leaders of the regime,
they said, for example by freezing the international
bank accounts of any government officials found to
have acquired their wealth illegally.

 The four Nigerian church leaders visited the
United States and Canada in late April as
representatives of the Christian Association of
Nigeria (CAN), a 20-year-old coalition whose
membership embraces all of Nigeria's churches.  CAN
is concerned both with Nigerians' spiritual well-
being and with its social problems, including human
rights, housing and education, said the Rev. Dr.
Matthew Kukah, Secretary General of the Roman
Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria.

 The other Nigerian church leaders in the group
were Mrs. Laurentice Mallam, National Secretary,
Catholic Women's Organization, and Mr. Charles O.
Williams, General Secretary of the Council of
Churches in Nigeria and of CAN.

 Unlike South Africa, where international
economic sanctions helped pressure the apartheid
regime to unban people's movements and schedule
democratic elections, "Nigeria has a tradition of
democratic institutions," said Willis Logan, Africa
Office Director for the National Council of
Churches, which hosted the Nigerian church leaders'
visit to the United States.  "We just need the
military government out of the way to let the
democratic process work."

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