PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) - Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, on a four-day visit to this two-island nation, yesterday joined the annual celebration of the abolition of slavery in the capital.

Thousands of people, dressed in traditional African garb, danced and sang in the streets to the beat of goatskin drums to celebrate the end of a painful chapter in history.

"We must thank God for the indomitable African spirit that has survived, the African spirit of never surrendering," Obsanjo told crowds gathered in Emancipation Square.

An emotional Obasanjo, who has used his visit to Trinidad and Tobago to promote trade and his country's effort to win a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, said the anniversary of emancipation is an occasion for joy and sadness.

"I could not help my feelings, not of bitterness, but surely sadness at what the slave traders and those who inflicted the most inhumane indignity did to our forefathers and mothers," he said.

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