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Note: This document is from the archive of the Africa Policy E-Journal, published
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USA: Nigeria Policy, Statement
USA: Nigeria Policy, Statement
Date distributed (ymd): 000821
APIC Document
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: West Africa
Issue Areas: +political/rights+ +economy/development+
+security/peace+ +US policy focus+
Summary Contents:
This posting contains a joint statement on U.S. policy toward
Nigeria from the Africa Fund and the Africa Policy Information
Center. A related posting today contains excerpts from the new book
on Nigeria: This House Has Fallen. Another related posting tomorrow
will contain letters to President Clinton on Nigeria policy from a
range of groups.
Official information on President Clinton's trip is expected to be
available at:
http://www.usinfo.state.gov/products/washfile/af.shtml
and
http://www.state.gov/www/regions/africa/index.html
Several statements on U.S. military relations with Nigeria can be
found at:
http://www.usinfo.state.gov/regional/af/security/west.htm
+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++
A Statement of The Africa Fund and the Africa Policy Information
Center
The Africa Fund, 50 Broad St., Suite 1701, New York, NY 10004.
Phone: 212-785-1024; Fax: 212-785-1078; E-mail: africafund@igc.org;
Web: http://www.theafricafund.org
Africa Policy Information Center, 110 Maryland Ave. NE, #509,
Washington, DC 20002. Phone: 202-546-7961; Fax: 202-546-1545; Email:
apic@igc.org; Web: http://www.africapolicy.org
Washington, DC - August 21, 2000
US Policy Towards Nigeria: An Agenda for Justice
For too long Clinton Administration policy towards oil-rich Nigeria
cynically condemned military rule while pursuing a tacit
accommodation of the generals on behalf of US economic and
political interests. Now the Administration has announced that
support for Nigeria's year-old democracy is a top foreign policy
priority, and the President will deliver that message personally
during his upcoming visit. But the increasing militarization of
US-Nigerian relations, Washington's official silence on the brutal
repression of environmental protesters in the Niger Delta oil
fields, and its refusal to provide the debt relief needed to restart
the economy belies a genuine US commitment to human rights
and social justice.
If the President is serious about protecting human rights instead
of corporate wrongs in Nigeria, and advancing democracy instead of
a potential future military dictatorship for that country's 120
million people, he should do the following:
Cancel the Debt
Despite important progress by the Obasanjo government in rooting
out corruption and mismanagement, Nigeria's fragile democracy is
still burdened by over $30 billion in debt. Virtually all of the
debt was incurred by illegal military dictatorships whose leaders
siphoned billions of dollars into private US and European banks
against the will of the Nigerian people. Washington holds nearly a
billion dollars of this illegitimate debt, yet the US and other
wealthy Western creditor nations demand that Nigeria forego the
schools, hospitals, roads and factories its people so desperately
need to pay these odious debts. President Obasanjo has repeatedly
called for debt relief, but he has been rebuffed.
If President Clinton is serious about supporting democracy he
should immediately and unilaterally cancel Nigeria's US debt and
publicly pressure Europe to follow suit.
Despite evidence of stolen Nigerian funds in US banks,
investigators seeking the return of the money say US law
enforcement and Treasury officials have refused to cooperate. The
White House should provide the same level of assistance to Nigeria
that it provided the "Nazi Gold" investigation, promptly return any
stolen funds and prosecute banking officials involved in laundering
the dictators' accounts.
The US should also greatly increase its $100 million economic aid
package. Amounting to less than one dollar per person, current aid
levels are grossly inadequate to the urgent human needs of the
Nigerian people. This sum pales in comparison to the $1.3 billion
recently authorized for the corrupt and brutal Colombian oligarchy.
US military aid should be reprogrammed to finance health and
education for Nigeria's children.
Support Human Rights and Corporate Accountability in the Oil Fields
For decades multinational oil companies, including Shell,
Exxon-Mobil, Chevron and Texaco have operated behind the bayonets
of successive Nigerian military regimes, financing the
dictatorships and pocketing billions of dollars while returning
nothing to the oil-producing communities except pollution,
repression and grinding poverty. Industry service companies like
Haliburton and Wilbros have also been accused of human rights and
environmental abuses.
President Clinton must go to the Niger Delta oil fields and meet
with the authentic representatives of the oil-producing
communities, including the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni
People (MOSOP), the Ijaw National Congress and the Ijaw Youth
Council, and with community-based human rights and environmental
organizations like Environmental Rights Action and the Niger Delta
Human and Environmental Rescue Organization. He must speak out
against corporate collaboration with Nigerian security forces that
meet even peaceful protests with brutality and violence. He must
condemn the industrial double standard that has left the Niger
Delta the most polluted oil-producing region on earth and threatens
the global environment. US relations with the Obasanjo government
should promote respect for human rights, political inclusion and
economic and environmental justice in the oil fields.
Suspend US Military Ties
Just weeks after the Nigerian army systematically destroyed the
Niger Delta town of Odi, Defense Secretary William Cohen announced
the resumption of full US-Nigeria military relations. Pentagon
officials say that the initial $10 million program will emphasize
civil control of the military and human rights training, but past
US involvement with brutal militaries in Latin America and Asia
make such claims highly suspect.
Significantly, the former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha himself
received similar training in the US prior to his illegal seizure of
power in 1993 and Washington still took no effective action. The
announcement earlier this month that Washington will arm and train
five Nigerian battalions for counterinsurgency operations means
that the US will spend as much on the military as it will on
economic development. More recently the Nigerian press has reported
on US plans to provide eight fast attack patrol vessels to the
Nigerian Armed Forces for policing the Niger Delta.
The Administration's failure to link military aid to improvements
in human rights and its previous betrayal of the winner of
Nigeria's 1993 Presidential election, in favor of constructive
engagement with Abacha, suggest that the US is more concerned with
protecting its own interests by promoting "stability", possibly
under a future military dictator. The US priority should be the
promotion of human rights and democracy for Nigerians to build and
define their own stability.
Acknowledge US Peacekeeping Responsibilities in Africa
For most of the past decade the Clinton Administration has refused
to support international peacekeeping efforts in Africa, despite
its clear responsibility to do so under the United Nations charter.
Washington's abandonment of Africa allowed conflicts in central and
west Africa to become protracted regional crises and shifted much
of the burden of peacekeeping to Nigeria, which has sacrificed
hundreds of lives and billions of dollars on what are clearly
international peacekeeping obligations. Maintaining the peace is as
much an international responsibility in Africa as it is in Eastern
Europe, the Middle East or Asia, and no amount of training of
African armies for peacekeeping removes the continent from the
international security umbrella.
President Clinton must end this racial double standard in US
foreign policy towards Africa and mobilize far greater resources to
attack the underlying economic and social causes of conflict in
Africa as well as meeting its obligations to international
peacekeeping in Africa.
Announce a New US Policy on HIV/AIDS in Africa
The most important continent-wide challenge facing Africa is the
devastating AIDS pandemic. An estimated 14 million Africans have
lost their lives to AIDS, including over 2 million in 1998. AIDS
has surpassed malaria as the leading cause of death and kills many
more people than war. Because Africa is the epicenter of this 21st
century plague the wealthy western world has been slow to act,
perpetuating a global apartheid that keeps the continent
impoverished.
The recent US proposal to loan Africa $1 billion a year at
commercial rates for the purchase of anti-viral AIDS drugs is a
cruel hoax at best and a vivid example of government-subsidized
corporate greed at worst. The plan aims to protect American
pharmaceutical companies threatened by African rights under the
World Trade Organization rules to pursue parallel imports and
compulsory licensing of anti-AIDS drugs. The US government is
prepared to push Africa further into debt to prevent Africans from
getting cheaper drugs. African governments already spend more on
debt repayment to wealthy nations than on their own countries'
health and education combined.
In this election year, the candidates for President and for
Congress should consider dedicating a modest 5 percent of the
annual budget surplus -- approximately $9.5 billion this year -- to
a global health emergency fund. This would still fall short of the
effort needed, but it would be a leap above the paltry $325 million
in President Clinton's current request to Congress for HIV/AIDS
programs worldwide. And it would send a signal that U.S.
politicians may share a sense of global responsibility rather than
regarding globalization only as an opportunity for corporate
profit.
This material is produced and distributed by the Africa Policy
Information Center (APIC). APIC provides accessible information and
analysis in order to promote U.S. and international policies toward
Africa that advance economic, political and social justice and the
full spectrum of human rights
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