Raised Voices

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I am Tayo Adesina. I am from Nigeria. I'd like to speak on the issue of corruption. People in the West have talked about corruption in Africa, especially as it pertains to African leaders. But it is quite important to note the corruption in Africa has a direct bearing with the relationship between the Westand Africa. Western companies operating in Africa have been vectors of corruption. So have banks in the West. So there is no way you can talk about corruption in Africa without dragging the West into it. The day the West stops being corrupt that is when corruption in Africa will stop. Without the West cutting the wings of their companies. Without the West cutting the wings of their banks, the proceeds of some of our vital resources in Africa will continue to be diverted to the West. And so African peoples will continue to suffer. And so I believe that Western leaders should try as much as possible to educate their people about the evils of corruption in Africa and then it will have an effect on African leadership. Once corruption stops then people in Africa will have a new beginning. Thank you.

• Africa
• debt
• development
• trade

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My name is Abdul Raufu Mustafa. I'm from Nigeria and I live in Cowley in England. The issue that Nigeria really is bothered about in the conduct of the G8 countries is essentially debt. In the 70s Nigeria borrowed something in the region of 17 billion dollars. Not all of this money got to Nigeria because of collusion between corrupt Nigerian officials and corrupt bankers. But since then Nigeria has paid over 30 billion dollars and still owes another 34 billion dollars in back interest and penalties and the lot. And that has become a major problem for the country because a lot of resources are being diverted just to service the debt. And this is happening in the situation where 7 million Nigerian kids are not having the most basic of primary education. The health system in the country is in dire condition, the universities, the roads, virtually all public infrastructure. That is a situation which is partly contributed to by internal problems but also no doubt by the debt burden. This is an unsustainable debt. And absolutely something has to be done about it at the level of the G8 so that ordinary people in Nigeria can get a look in to the issues of life.

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Well I'm a Nigerian and I actually demand I demand that we should be left alone to develop our own democracy. Because its obvious we have not benefitted from Western type of democracy. I also demand and say no to SAP. We are tired and fed up of SAP. By SAP I mean the Structural Adjustment Programmes. Because what we have now is Structural Adjusted lives. We have all adjusted to whatever policies of the IMF, through the Structural Adjustment Programmes. People have adjusted by running away. By being immigrants. They have adjusted by being prostitutes. Children have adjusted by being street children. So really I say no to Structural Adjustment programmes because it has impacted negatively on our lives in Nigeria.

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In Africa we demand immediate unconditional cancellation of all the illegitimate odious debts which African countries are being forced to pay back to the World Bank and the IMF. The debt's been paid many times over. And there's a direct link between the issues of AIDS and the need for debt cancellation. Because in many African countries that are heavily affected by HIV/AIDS more is being spent on repayment of this odious debt than is spent on AIDS drugs that people need to live. And also prevention programmes that people need to remain uninfected, those that are uninfected.