Clinton met by debt campaigners on streets of Abuja

President Bill Clinton arrives in Nigeria this weekend to be met by Jubilee 2000 supporters lining the streets of the capital, calling for debt cancellation for the country. Hundreds of campaigners will surround the Conference Centre, and posters saying 'Cancel Nigeria's Debt' will be plastered throughout central Abuja.

When President Clinton last visited Africa two years ago, it was the first time in two decades that a US President had visited the continent. Then Nigeria was not on his itinerary, as it was still under Abacha's corrupt military dictatorship.

This weekend's visit to Nigeria is seen as significant in welcoming Nigeria back onto the world stage now that President Olusegun Obasanjo has restored democracy. But the decades of misrule have left Nigeria with a $30 billion debt burden - and the majority of its people in poverty. Nigeria's GDP per capita is $300. At least half of Nigeria's 121 million population does not have access to safe water. Only 38% of children are immunised against measles and per capita spending on health is a shocking $3. Cholera, meningitis and other life-threatening diseases have taken root, and a severe AIDS crisis is developing. Yet Nigeria is expected to divert over $1 billion a year from social and economic development to service international debt.

Nigeria is due to pay $1.5 billion in debt repayments in the next year, twice as much as the government budget for health, education and poverty reduction plans. Yet Nigeria is not being considered for debt cancellation under the controversial Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative, despite qualifying in 1996.

President Obasanjo has called for debt relief, pointing to the fact that his country is at a crucial time in its democratic transition and in urgent need of international support. In March, at a meeting with Jubilee 2000, he said: “The time for an international commitment of deep debt reduction and forgiveness is now. Our foreign debt stands at $31 billion, and continues to rise, not because of any significant additional borrowing, but mainly as a result of the cost of servicing what was actually borrowed in the past. In these circumstances, it is simply not possible to speak of any significant measure of development, for as long as we are obliged to allocate so much of our lean resources to debt servicing. It is morally unjustifiable for the poor people of Nigeria to suffer any longer." The President has pledged to spend money released by debt cancellation on tackling fundamental health problems such as malaria.

President Clinton too has acknowledged the moral imperative to cancel Nigeria's debt. In October 1999, Clinton said "It is neither morally right, nor economically sound, to say that young democracies like Nigeria, as they overcome the painful legacy of dictatorship or misrule, must choose between making interest payments on their debt and investing in the health and education of their children."

Nigerian Jubilee 2000 supporters are demonstrating this weekend to tell the international community that people in Nigeria are in desperate need of debt cancellation. Kwesi Owusu, Head of the Jubilee 2000 Africa Initiative, says "It is finally time in Nigeria for a clear line to be drawn between the corrupt past and a positive future. Debt cancellation for Nigeria, as for the rest of Africa, is vital to economic recovery and health."