Africa democracy call

A meeting of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference for the Africa region has opened in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, with a call for the strengthening of multi-party democracy across the continent.

Nigerian Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, told delegates from 35 countries that African democracies were too fragile to face the challenges before them, without the contribution of strong opposition parties.

Mr Abubakar said robust opposition movements operating within the parliamentary system would promote greater ethnic and religious tolerance and help prevent dictatorships.

He said the era of constructive disagreement in politics had come to stay. Mr Abubakar praised the Commonwealth for supporting Nigeria's democracy movement during what he called the dark days of military dictatorship.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service