A rchive Date
[ 07-03-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Nigeria ]
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[http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=CANADA&STORYID=APIS7KD1LJO0
Nigerian Represents Africa at Summit
By D'ARCY DORAN
Associated Press Writer
JUNE 26, 15:49 ET
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - With Nigeria mired in poverty, violence and AIDS, its president seems a fitting choice to lead Africa's appeal for an unprecedented package of trade and aid at the summit of the world's richest nations.
Yet accusations that Olusegun Obasanjo, a military ruler-turned-elected leader, has turned a blind eye to corruption and army killings at home prompt some to question whether he and other African leaders can deliver on pledges to spend wisely and police one another for human rights abuses.
``A lot of people have been disappointed by his leadership,'' said Peter Louis, an expert on Africa at the American University in Washington. ``He has not acted on serious problems such as controlling the security situation and protecting human rights.''
At the G-8 summit in the Canadian resort of Kananaskis, Alberta, the Nigerian leader is acting as chairman of the implementation committee for the New Partnership for African Development - meaning it's his job to put the continent's promised reforms into action. The partnership is the brainchild of Obasanjo, 65, and the leaders of Senegal, South Africa and Algeria.
Described as a Marshall Plan to rebuild Africa in the way the United States helped Europe recover after World War II, the New Partnership is short on specifics. One point is clear: Both African and Western leaders prefer trade perks and technical assistance rather than traditional donor relief.
The partnership hinges on a desire by Western powers that Africa's leaders make each other answerable for human rights abuses, corruption and mismanagement plaguing African administrations. African leaders want a peer review approach, avoiding what they perceive as meddling outsiders. Africa will not beg for money with ``cap in hand,'' Obasanjo has stressed.
Observers are divided over the ``peer review.''
South African President Thabo Mbeki and Obasanjo, they point out, issued lukewarm endorsements of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe after Mugabe's election in March was marred by allegations of vote-rigging and state-orchestrated violence.
President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal was the sole African leader to openly criticize Mugabe's election.
Others point to Nigeria's slow pace of efforts to tackle AIDS, which infects more than 3 million Nigerians and many more Africans, as a sign of ineffectual government and worse to come. Also, the Nigerian army turned its guns on hundreds of civilians in apparent retribution for the deaths of security agents killed in ethnic clashes last November. Obasanjo was unapologetic, saying the army was acting to restore its authority.
``There have been massive human rights violations since Obasanjo came to power,'' said Gani Fawehinmi, a Lagos lawyer and human rights activist. ``Who wants to invest in a country where bloodletting has become the order of the day?''
Obasanjo's administration is accused of failing to abide by its own government budget as well as International Monetary Fund spending targets. Lavish state projects, including a $500 million stadium, have been criticized as wasteful. Obasanjo calls the criticism ``sheer mischief.''
Despite perceived shortcomings, some say the involvement of Obasanjo and other African leaders who have embraced democracy and market reforms - including Mbeki and Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika - is essential in tackling Africa's problems.
``This is an opportunity to lock the West and Africa into deals where they can ... force each other to be accountable. We need goal posts, and we need to be able to measure those goal posts,'' said Chris Landsberg, co-director of a South African think tank based in Johannesburg.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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