Divided opposition still no match for meddling military As the country braces itself for the second anniversary of the annulment by the army of presidential election on June 12, the military leader, General Sani Abacha, has launched a pre-emptive strike against his opponents by detaining about 50 leading democracy campaigners who were threatening a new round of protest to demand the release of the imprisoned election winner, Moshood Abiola, and his installation as president.In Port Harcourt, Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, Ken Saro-Wiwa is on trial for his life accused of murder in his campaign to win political rights for the Ogoni people and compensation for the enviromental destruction of their land by the Shell oil company. Yet the latest round-ups are far from an admission by Gen Abacha that his rule is under threat despite a wrecked economy and deepening unpopularity. As CHRIS MCGREAL reports, his opponents are grappling for ways to oust the general

REAR-ADMIRAL Ndubuisi Kanu should be a problem for General Sani Abacha.

The retired admiral is just one former member of Nigeria's recurrent military regimes who thinks the time has come for the army to get out of government, and that Gen Abacha is the best example of why.

His is, says the admiral, the weakest and least competent regime ever to seize power. Most Nigerians agree. And yet, it is not Gen Abacha who is on the defensive.

Adm Kanu is among a clutch of former military officers who have turned against one of the most discredited administrations since Nigeria's independence 35 years ago. They have lent their weight to the campaign to revive the June 1993 elections annulled by the army and to instal the winner, Moshood Abiola, as president.

"Even before the advent of Abacha, people were tired of military rule. Even those who don't like Abacha as an individual say it goes beyond him. Military rule has created a loss of hope, a loss of purpose. People are just fed up. The economy is wrecked. There's no plan for the future. It is in the interests of the military that it should stop having its name used by a few men to rule," Adm Kanu said.

His view is widely shared by Nigerians struggling to survive while the regime continues the military tradition of plundering the country's vast wealth. But far from galvanising popular support against the regime, its opponents appear weaker by the day. And Chief Abiola, who bridged Nigeria's regional and religious gap to win the 1993 election, now divides rather than unites his compatriots.

Adm Kanu is a leader of the National Democratic Coalition (Nadeco), the umbrella group attempting to co-ordinate opposition to military rule. A year ago, on the first anniversary of the annulled election, Nadeco encouraged Chief Abiola to declare himself president. When he was arrested it led strikes that paralysed parts of the economy, including the crucial...