Nigerian President Commits to Democracy

An "all-out war" on corruption is being fought in Africa, the president of the continent's most populous nation said this weekend at Harvard.

President Olusegun Obasanjo of the Federal Republic of Nigeria spoke to a packed ARCO Forum early Saturday of his country's promising future.

"Our commitment to democracy today is not an option," he said. "It is a fundamental imperative."

Africa has outgrown some of the problems it faced right at the end of colonization in the 1960s, the president said.

"Three decades on, we are now wiser about the military's ability to deliver either democratic governance or material and cultural development," he said.

The corruption of the last decades, in which some leaders became richer than their countries, is slowly giving way to free government, he said.

"The right of free expression, the right to advocate a different viewpoint, and to arrive at a consensus after free discussion, must all be considered as profound human needs," he said, before being interrupted by applause--one of more than a score of instances of spontaneous cheering.

The audience in the ARCO forum was lively and engaged during Obasanjo's speech, frequently shouting out answers to his rhetorical questions and suggesting policy areas to work on.

When one questioner began to be shouted down, Obasanjo took the opportunity to try to teach a lesson.

"You must be tolerant now. That is what democracy is all about," he said, quieting the crowd.

Obasanjo cited six major areas that need improvement: expansion of minority rights, gender equality, alleviating poverty, youth development, globalization and cultural identity.

The root of many of the country's problems can be traced back to the profiteering that was rampant for so many decades, he said.

"We have in Nigeria singled out corruption as the greatest bane of our society," he said.

He then declared that an "all-out war" was being fought on corruption.

Obasanjo told the audience that the biggest problem facing Nigeria, and many other African countries, is an overwhelming international debt burden.

"One basic problem of democracy, particularly in the developing country of Africa, is that it is a very expensive project," he said.

The money Nigeria needs to continue the push for democracy is not available because the country owes almost $30 billion in debt, he told the audience.

Nigeria's debt to the Paris Club, an international finance organization, has swelled from $5 billion to over $21 billion over the last 15 years--based on then accumulation of interest alone.

Such debt is keeping Nigeria from being able to invest in its own infrastructure, Obasanjo stated.

"No significant measure of development is at all possible for as long as we must continue to pay up on these loans," he said.

The morning's loudest and longest applause came when Jeffrey D. Sachs, the director of the Harvard Center for International Development, told Obasanjo and the audience that his center is fighting to get developing countries' debt forgiven.

"It's going to happen, and we'll celebrate it here," Sachs said.

In closing, Obasanjo challenged the audience to join him in his fight to improve the quality of life in Africa.

"Let us all work together to build a fairer, more stable world in the 21st century," he said.

It was a message that a group of Wellesley College students said they took to heart.

Adanna U. Ugwonali, a Nigerian citizen and first-year at Wellesley, said that she was moved by the president's speech.

Her friends agreed and said that they looked forward to moving back to Nigeria.

One student, the daughter of a member of Nigeria's failed military regime, said she was excited by the future prospects.

"It is important that people can do something," she said. "We shouldn't just be observers."