Activists across the country are stepping up their fight against the Nigerian government of General Soni Abacha. Following a call by the 1,000 member US Conference of Mayors earlier in the summer for a swift restoration of human rights and democracy in the west African country, municipalities and cities nationwide have adopted resolutions against the Nigerian regime and calling for a boycott of oil-rich Nigeria.

This week in Washington, DC, Nigerian democracy activists lobbied Congressmembers, and today in New York, the City Council is holding hearings on a bid to rename the street where the Nigerian consulate is located after Kudirat Abiola. She was gunned down in the streets of Lagos two years ago as she stepped up her campaign to call for the release of her husband Mashood Abiola. He has been imprisoned by General Abacha since winning the president election in 1993.

Guests:

• Hafsat Abiola, the daughter of Kudirat Abiola and jailed opposition leader Mashood Abiola. She is the director of the Kudirat Institute for Nigerian Democracy, a Washington DC-based group that’s fighting for democracy in Nigeria.
• Wole Soyinka, Nigeria’s Nobel laureate who joins us from Washington, DC where he will be delivering the keynote address at the Chico Mendes awards presented by the Sierra Club.