    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 35 (Monday, September 4, 2000)]
    [Pages 1957-1959]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks to Health Care Providers in Abuja, Nigeria

    August 27, 2000

        Thank you very much. Mr. President, John, and Tayo, thank you very
    much. I would also like to acknowledge the presence here of the Minister
    of Women's Affairs Ismail; Dr. Agary, the director of the center; Dr.
    Resemane, who came to the White House last year and spoke movingly about
    her battle for women's health. I want to thank the members of the
    American delegation, and especially the Members of Congress, for joining
    us here, and say that I am particularly honored to be welcome by John
    Ibekwe because he is the leader of the Network for People Living With
    AIDS. That is--they have brought a lot of help and hope to Nigeria.
        And let me say I want to thank Tayo again for telling us her story
    and speaking so powerfully for the young people of Nigeria. I'd like to
    hear them both on a regular basis again. I thought they were terrific,
    and I know you're proud of them.
        I would like to acknowledge the contributions in particular of one
    Member of the American Congress who is here, Congresswoman Barbara Lee,
    who along with Representative Jim Leach--[applause]--thank you, Barbara.
    Along with Representative Jim Leach of Iowa, she sponsored the historic
    bipartisan global AIDS act I signed last week. And I thank her and the
    Congress for their support of the worldwide battle against AIDS.
        This program today is a sober reminder that while it is wonderful
    that the people of Nigeria are finally free, to be free does not mean to
    be free of all burdens or all challenges. Indeed, there are challenges
    so serious that if they are left unmet, your democracy will not mean
    very much. The fight against infectious diseases is one such challenge.
        Believe it or not, for all our modern medical advances, infectious
    diseases still account for one out of every four deaths around the
    world, and half the victims--that's why it's good this baby is crying;
    it will remind us of this--half the victims of infectious diseases are
    under 5 years of age. Chiefly because of malaria, mosquitoes will be
    responsible for the death of more than one million people this year.
        And of course, there is no greater challenge than AIDS. No child
    should come into the world with such a deadly disease when it could have
    been prevented. Yet that is happening to millions of African children.
    No community should go without a teacher, yet teachers are dying and
    schools are actually closing because of AIDS. No country should struggle
    to rise out of poverty while fighting a disease that can cut life
    expectancy by as much as 30 years. Yet that already had happened--
    already--in some countries on this continent.
        It hasn't happened in Nigeria, thank goodness. But that should not
    be a cause for complacency but instead a call for action. Already there
    are almost 3 million Nigerians living with AIDS. President Obasanjo has
    spoken eloquently today and before today about the challenge and his
    determination to meet it. The only thing I can say to the rest of the
    people of Nigeria is that you must join with the President and with all
    the public health advocates and all the citizens' groups and all the
    people that are present here and the people you represent to help. AIDS
    can rob a country of its future. I know you are not going to let that
    happen to Nigeria.
        I also want to acknowledge that this is not just Nigeria's fight or
    Africa's fight. It is America's fight and the world's fight, too.
        I hope the wealthier countries will do their part, first by
    supporting our initiative to speed the development of vaccines for AIDS,
    malaria, and TB. Just a month ago, at the G-8 summit in Japan, at which
    President Obasanjo appeared, we mobilized billions of dollars to fight
    infectious diseases with the development of vaccines. In addition, we
    have to do more to support the efforts you

    [[Page 1958]]

    have going now. This year the United States will provide $10 million to
    support your efforts against AIDS, three times more than last year;
    nearly $9 million for polio eradication; $2 million to help you protect
    your children from malaria by distributing bed nets. I must say, that
    bed net that I saw outside this building when I came up, it has to be
    the biggest one in the world--[laughter]--but it certainly made the
    point. And I congratulate you on it.
        I'd also like to thank the president of the Packard Foundation,
    Richard Schlosberg, and the others who are here from the Packard
    Foundation. Where are they? Stand up here. [Applause] There you go.
    Thank you. Over the next 5 years, Packard will make $35 million in
    grants to improve the reproductive health of Nigerian women, and I thank
    them.
        We will also continue to support other education and development
    initiatives including microenterprise loans and greater access for
    technology and education that will help to develop the capacity and the
    willingness and the understanding among children and among women to do
    what is necessary to avoid the most dreaded diseases.
        We know, as your President has just said again, that it will also
    take leadership from Africa. Last April President Obasanjo convened a
    malaria summit, bringing together 44 nations to Nigeria and mobilizing
    the private sector, and next year, as he said, he will host African
    leaders for the summit on AIDS. Later this year, Nigeria will join 17
    African countries for three polio national immunization days. Millions
    of children will be immunized in the largest synchronized health event
    in the history of Africa. Thank you for that.
        I'd also like to thank Rotary International, the World Health
    Organization, UNICEF and the U.N. Foundation, and most of all, the
    volunteers for helping in this cause. And I see we have a lot of people
    from Rotary here today; thank you very much. That is the kind of
    volunteer organized help we need in the fight against AIDS.
        Someday a vaccine will come. We must help it come faster. Yes, there
    must be more done by the wealthy countries to get you medicines,
    especially those that will keep AIDS from being transferred from mothers
    when they're pregnant to their newborn babies. And we will help you do
    that.
        But let's remember something. There is one thing quite different
    from AIDS and most killer diseases. AIDS is 100 percent preventable if
    we are willing to deal with it openly and honestly. In every country, in
    any culture, it is difficult, painful, at the very least embarrassing,
    to talk about the issues involved with AIDS. But is it harder to talk
    about these things than to watch a child die of AIDS who could have
    lived if the rest of us had done our part? Is it harder to talk about
    than to comfort a child whose mother has died? We have to break the
    silence about how this disease spreads and how to prevent it, and we
    need to fight AIDS, not people with AIDS. They are our friends and
    allies.
        I admire profoundly the strength of Nigeria's religious traditions.
    But the teachings of every faith command us to fight for the lives of
    our children. I would like particularly to thank the Muslim Sisters
    Organization for recognizing that and for their many good works in this
    regard.
        Let me say that the good news is, we know this can be done. AIDS
    infection rates have dropped dramatically in our country, but they also
    have dropped dramatically in some places in Africa. If Uganda and
    Senegal can stem the rising tide of infection, so can Nigeria and every
    other African country.
        I am amazed at the courage of the people of Nigeria in struggling
    against the oppression that you endured for too long until you got your
    democracy. I urge you now to show that same kind of courage to beat the
    tyranny of this disease so you can keep your democracy alive for all the
    children of Nigeria and their future.
        You can do this. We will help you. We know we have to do more, but
    so do you. We must not let all the gains that have happened in Nigeria
    and throughout Africa be destroyed by a disease we can prevent if only
    we can get over our reluctance to deal with the uncomfortable aspects of
    it. These children's lives are at stake, and they are worth a little
    discomfort by those of us who have already lived most of our lives.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    [[Page 1959]]

     Note:  The President spoke at 4:25 p.m. at the National Center for
    Women Development. In his remarks, he referred to President Olusegun
    Obasanjo and Minister of Women Affairs and Youth Development Hajia Aisha
    Ismail of Nigeria; Timiebi Koripano-Agary, director general, and Tayo
    Akimuwagun, peer educator, National Center for Women Development; and
    Richard T. Schlosberg III, president, David and Lucile Packard
    Foundation.