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I'm Prishani, I'm from South Africa. I work in the Anti-Privatisation Forum in Johannesburg basically struggling for free basic services. I think all of us in our different struggles are fighting against a common enemy – capitalism. I think for too long now we've been too separate in our struggles. We need to start seeing our common enemy and start coming together to fight in our different spaces and the different issues that face us directly.
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.
I feel the policies of the G8 has really affected the Nigerian people because these days you know we hear of Nigerian immigrants everywhere as illegal immigrants. And it's mostly the policies of the Western countries that has actually pushed people out of Nigeria. Because the high level of unemployment, the poverty and the educational policies too. It has really affected the young people in Nigeria because their parents can not actually pay for their school fees, because part of the IMF conditionalities is that they should 'hands off' tertiary education in Nigeria. And that has really affected the Nigerian people, because they can hardly feed themselves thoughtless of sending their children to university.
We don't want multinational companies to operate in West Papua because they came, took our land and destroyed our environment, our way of life. Their interested not in human beings, they're interested in our resources. So that's why there's the impacts of killing, that's why they are moving people to other villages. This is the impact of rich people in the world. I would say – leave us alone. That's very good. We want to run everything, we want control. But people came and said, “do this, do this.
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.
As a woman I have no country. And not so many people are interested in my political or economical opinion. Never mind that. I think the G8 influence on Polish situation and Polish policy is very trouble-making. Our troops are still in Iraq, nobody knows why. Our troops did not invade Chechnya until now, but nobody knows how far the solidarity of politicians will go. We have a very bad economical situation. 25% unemployment. Single parents are deprived of any means for living. About 60% of people are living under poverty conditions. So as far as my message for the G8 is that I would like this institution to shut down, immediately, as soon as possible. Therefore all my solidarity is with the protest and I hope to see you and meet you all there.
One of the things that's gonna happen at the G8 conference is that the G8 countries are going to talk about agriculture. These countries are the ones that have been pushing on the world a vastly unequal system of agricultural trade. A system that demands that farmers in the Global South turn their fields from growing food for themselves and their communities into food for export. The argument being that this is the most efficient use of their land.