
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 25, 1993                   TAG: 9308250053
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LAGOS, NIGERIA                                LENGTH: Short

IN NIGERIA, MYSTERY REIGNS AFTER ODD ANNOUNCEMENT

Enigmatic as ever, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida teased a tense nation on Tuesday by promising to retire from power with a brass-band farewell and to reveal the name of the mystery man who will succeed him.

His insistence that he will unveil his civilian successor on Thursday was greeted with skepticism, because the military that has ruled for the past decade is expected to remain in control.

"I would say we're as skeptical as ever," said Sen. Wande Abimbola, the speaker of Nigeria's upper house.

Babangida spokesman Duro Onabule said the general will speak to the west-central African nation on Thursday, oversee the swearing in of an interim government and bid goodbye to power with a farewell military parade in Abuja, the capital.

The statement came one day before Nigeria's two most powerful labor organizations, the National Labor Congress and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, planned to shut down critical industries in a bid to force Babangida from office.

by CNB