Word: nigerias
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Nigeria went all out to prepare for Clinton's visit, sprucing up four major airports in case the president wanted to visit cities outside of the capital. But, amid concerns over security and fears at offending unvisited cities, the White House opted to visit only Abuja. Clinton and his daughter stepped off Air Force One early Saturday and were welcomed by a maelstrom of three tribal groups of whooping, whirling dancers - including a pair of midgets - in native garb, accompanied by pounding drums and the driving lilt of wooden flutes...
Thousands of Nigerians clumped along Airport Road and cheered at their fleeting glance of Clinton. The National Assembly and President Olusegun Obasanjo both gave him rousing ovations. But each leader wants something from the other: Clinton wants Nigeria, an OPEC member and the sixth-largest supplier of oil to the United States, to encourage its fellow cartel members to pump more oil to reduce its price below inflation-inducing $30-a-barrel levels. In exchange, Obasanjo wants Clinton to fight to reduced the crushing $30 billion the nation owes the industrial powers, debt amassed by military autocrats...
...neither man has the power to give such promises: Nigeria is pumping all the oil it can, so it has no power to trim prices beyond exhorting its OPEC colleagues to join in. And since the United States only holds about 4 percent of Nigeria's debt, its ability to reduce the other 96 percent, beyond Clinton's rhetoric, is marginal. While the Nigerian government may know that, the people don't: A recent poll in a Lagos daily paper said 79.6 percent of those responding believe Clinton's visit would result in "huge benefits" - primarily debt relief - to Nigeria...
Clinton pledged to urge his allies to reduce Nigeria's debt - so long as it remains on the path to democracy - but his pleas may fall on deaf ears. After all, the White House told hundreds of visiting U.S. business executives and journalists to bring cash - preferably in the form of $100 bills - to avoid having to use their credit cards in scam-rich Nigeria. Foreigners' credit-card receipts often are seen as "legal tender" by unscrupulous Nigerians, who will use numbers plucked from receipts to buy goods for themselves...
...presidential weekend is sort of a pat on the head for Nigeria, which Clinton spurned on his six-nation tour of Africa in March 1998. He simply flew over Nigeria to protest the brutal and corrupt military dictatorship run by Gen. Sani Abacha. Abacha died mysteriously in 1998, and last year Nigerians elected Obasanjo as their president. But Obasanjo, while hailed as the man who has brought a fragile democracy to Nigeria by Clinton and other western leaders, isn't viewed so favorably by his constituents, who continue to live a life of grinding poverty...