Thousands of Jubilee 2000 supporters carrying posters and banners saying "Welcome to Nigeria President Clinton, This is the time to cancel Nigeria's debt", lined the entrance to the National Assembly and the National Centre for Women's Development, where Clinton was going to speak. As the Clinton motorcade went by, the crowd made their presence felt, to the disapproval of US security officials who tried to no avail to silence them and to take their banners down.

Debt was also the key issue for the visit as far as the Nigerian government, the National Assembly and the media was concerned. As President Obasanjo put it during the State Dinner held for his American counterpart, "we know that we cannot achieve our desire for economic development if we continue to bleed from the gushing wounds of an ever-penetrating debt repayment lance. The debt burden will frustrate our fresh approach to political and economic strategies". At every other occasion, similar statements were made.

Clinton was obliged to respond to this high expectation. Whilst signing the Joint Declaration by him and Obasanjo, he confirmed that the US is supporting a rescheduling of Nigeria's Paris Club debt for one year. Also, whilst addressing the National Assembly, he stated that " the US is prepared to support a substantial reduction of Nigeria's debt on a multilateral basis, as long as your economic and financial reforms continue to make progress and you ensure that the benefits of debt reduction go to the people". He also pledged grants towards education and fighting AIDS, polio and malaria.

However, he made it clear that weaknesses in delivery of debt cancellation will not be easy to overcome due to lack of political will from the G7 as a whole. Speaking about his G7 colleagues, he said, "the real issue is not whether they can afford debt relief---in most of these countries, they actually have to budget the debt relief even if they're not going to get repaid----you need to understand that that's the political problem these leaders