27 March 1998
The Washington Post
Robert E. Pierre

Md. Bill Targeting Nigeria Stirs Ire
State Dept. Opposes Sanctions Proposal

Rushern L. Baker III, a first-term Maryland delegate from Prince George's County, had no idea of the ruckus he would cause by seeking economic sanctions against Nigeria for what he saw as well-documented evidence of environmental and human rights abuses .

But Baker's bill to prohibit state contracts with Nigeria and companies that do business there has prompted objections from high-ranking State Department officials, the Nigerian Embassy and members of Maryland's Legislative Black Caucus, who he says urg ed him not to air black folks' "dirty laundry" in public.

Baker's actions have thrust the Maryland General Assembly into the midst of a growing trend in American politics: local officials and state legislators deciding to boycott foreign countries that they believe run afoul of basic human rights. If Baker's b ill is approved, Maryland would be the first state to enact sanctions against Nigeria.

In the 1980s, states and municipalities bucked official U.S. policy and imposed economic sanctions against South Africa, a move that some foreign policy analysts say helped speed the downfall of apartheid. Partly as a result of those efforts, many more communities are considering sanctions against countries they consider poor international neighbors, including Burma, Nigeria, Switzerland and Indonesia.

"There is more awareness in the activist community that this can be a very effective means of promoting a human rights agenda," said Peter Spiro, a law professor at Hofstra University in New York state, who has studied the issue extensively.

This activism has alarmed State Department officials, who contend that the actions by local leaders harm U.S. foreign policy objectives. Already, department officials are fending off complaints from the European Union and Japan over a 1996 Massachusetts law that makes it more difficult for companies doing business in Burma to get state contracts.

Other states, including California, Florida, New Jersey and Vermont, are considering similar sanctions against Burma, where a military regime has been accused of suppressing human rights. A number of states and municipalities also have begun considering economic sanctions against Switzerland's banks and other institutions to force an accounting of the assets of Holocaust victims.

To address the issue, State Department officials recently launched an internal review to determine the cost and effectiveness of existing sanctions and to develop standards for using them in the future. They are lobbying state and city officials nationw ide to leave foreign policy decisions to them.

In the case that has Baker concerned, the State Department has restricted visas of top Nigerian officials and banned the national airline from operating in the United States, among other punitive steps. But officials have told Baker and other Maryland o fficials that state sanctions would leave the United States sending mixed messages to foreign countries.

"We would like to work with you to send a clear message to oppressive regimes," David Marchick, a deputy assistant secretary of state, testified Wednesday before the Maryland House Commerce and Government Affairs Committee. "But ad hoc and scattered act ions at various levels of government, however well-intentioned, can do more harm than good in achieving the desired objective."

Baker said he was initially skeptical about such a bill when he was approached several months ago by the Maryland chapter of the Sierra Club, which has raised concern that unchecked oil production in Nigeria is threatening land and public health.

But Baker said he did his own research into allegations of Nigerian human rights abuses and became convinced that sanctions were needed. "There is a tragedy going on in Nigeria," said Baker (D), a lawyer. "We need to say we can't condone these types of actions."

At Wednesday's hearing, committee members heard firsthand of problems in Nigeria. Some of the more compelling testimony came from Hafsat Abiola, the daughter of Nigerian Chief Moshood Abiola, who was jailed after preliminary results of an open president ial election in 1993 showed that he was the winner. Hafsat Abiola, who lives in the District, said she last saw her father in January 1995, crippled from being tortured in jail. A year later, Abiola said, her mother was shot to death at age 44, leaving sev "We are desperate people," Abiola said. "We are appealing to you to please help."

Business groups nationwide have tried to counter such sympathetic witnesses with the argument that sanctions by individual states and jurisdictions are ineffective. They say such sanctions damage the country's relationships with allies and make U.S. com panies less competitive. Nigeria is a big exporter of oil to the United States, moreover, and some officials say the United States should not threaten that supply because it has already cut off imports from Libya, Iran and Iraq.

Joseph A. Schwartz, an attorney for the Maryland, D.C., Delaware Softdrink Association, said one of his clients, Coca-Cola Co., owns a bottling company in Nigeria and would be forced to choose between doing business in Maryland or Nigeria if the sanctio ns were approved. Also affected would be the Port of Baltimore, through which $7.6 million worth of imports and exports to and from Nigeria passed in 1996.

Lawmakers said the measure's future is unclear, but Del. Clay C. Opara (D-Baltimore), a native of Nigeria, had this message for the State Deparment official who attended this week's hearing: "You may need to go back to your superiors and tell them there is a lack of leadership at the federal level on this issue. Maryland is trying to fill the vacuum."

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