Mr. Speaker, the governments of the world, including Canada, have made strong representations to the Government of Nigeria to stop its alleged human rights abuses. The desire for peaceful, democratic change has been widely promoted.
We have been making statements and innuendoes that something should be done. To this point these statements have had little or no effect on the Nigerian government.
The minister is well aware that the imposition of sanctions and the boycotting of Nigerian oil would have little hope of success. If they did work, it would take a great deal of time.
We encourage the Minister of Foreign Affairs to not only push for more rapid and concrete action against Nigeria but to consider demanding the outright removal of Nigeria from the Commonwealth until it improves its human rights record.