[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 35 (Monday, September 4, 2000)]
[Pages 1942-1946]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following Discussions With President Olusegun Obasanjo of 
Nigeria and an Exchange With Reporters in Abuja, Nigeria

August 26, 2000

    President Obasanjo. Mr. President, distinguished ladies and 
gentlemen, members of the press, let me say how pleased I am for this 
opportunity to welcome President Bill Clinton to Nigeria. I am confident 
that by now President Clinton must have felt from the personal meeting 
to the enthusiastic crowds that greeted him the extent of our delight to 
have him among us.
    President Clinton and I have had very friendly and fruitful 
discussions covering all the items and subjects that make up the content 
of our joint declaration which we have just signed and exchanged, and 
even more. I just want to emphasize that for all the shared strategic 
interests between Nigeria and the United States of America, President 
Clinton and myself share a common view that is based on human welfare, 
human development, and human well-being in both our countries, our 
continents, and throughout the world.
    Of course, whatever strategic interests, economic, political, or of 
a social nature, the essence is based on the fundamentals of humanity. 
Also deriving from this is the issue of Nigeria's role of peacemaking 
and peacekeeping in our sub-region, our region of Africa, and under the 
auspices of the U.N., the whole world. Needless to say that this goes 
for the United States, by virtue of her status as the number one world 
power today.
    President Clinton has only just begun his visit, designed so far 
that it will be a memorable one, and we wish you a very pleasant day in 
Nigeria. We welcome you once again.
    President Clinton. President Obasanjo, members of the Nigerian 
Government, members of the press, I think I can say on behalf of the 
Members of the United States Congress who are here and the members of 
the American delegation, we are delighted to be in Nigeria.
    Two years ago I came to Africa to begin building a new partnership 
between this continent and the United States, one in which Americans 
look upon Africa not simply as a continent with problems but also as a 
continent which presents the world's next great opportunity to advance 
the cause of peace, justice, and prosperity.
    When I came here 2 years ago, one of the biggest obstacles to a new 
relationship with the entire continent was the fact that the democratic 
hopes of Nigeria's people were being smothered by military misrule and 
corruption, with your finest leaders being killed, banished, or in the 
case of President Obasanjo, forced to languish in prison.
    My greatest hope then was that some day I could come to Africa 
again, to visit a Nigeria worthy of its people's dreams. Thanks to 
President Obasanjo and the people of Nigeria, I have the high honor 
today to visit the new Nigeria and to pledge America's support for the 
most important democratic transition in Africa since the fall of 
apartheid.
    All of us in the American delegation know that after so many years 
of despair and plunder, your journey has not been easy. But we are also 
committed to working with the people of Nigeria to help build stronger 
institutions, improve education, fight disease, crime, and corruption, 
ease the burden of debt, and promote trade and investment in a way that 
brings more of the benefits of

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prosperity to people who have embraced democracy.
    We are rebuilding ties severed during the years of dictatorship. I 
am very happy that last week the first direct flight since 1993 left 
Muritala Mohammed Airport for the United States. Today we have signed 
our first open skies agreement.
    With patience and perseverance, Nigeria can answer the challenge 
your President issued in his inauguration 2 years ago--a speech I got up 
very early in the morning in the United States to watch. I remember that 
he said, ``Let us rise as one to face the tasks ahead and turn this 
daunting scene into a new dawn.''
    With one-fifth of Africa's people, and vast human and natural 
resources, a revitalized Nigeria can be the economic and political 
anchor of West Africa and the leader of the continent. We need your 
continued leadership in the struggle for peace. I am pleased we have 
begun this week to help to train and equip the first of five Nigerian 
battalions preparing for service in Sierra Leone. We also need your 
continued leadership in the struggle against poverty and infectious 
disease, especially AIDS. I thank President Obasanjo for his offer to 
host an AIDS summit in Nigeria next year.
    Finally, we need Nigeria to keep leading by example as a successful 
democracy and a nation that has managed, despite many years of 
repression and strife, to prove that for democracies, our diversity can 
be our greatest strength.
    These are just some of the issues we discussed today. Later, I will 
have the honor of speaking to the Nigerian Parliament, and I will speak 
in greater detail about the challenges ahead and the promise of our 
growing partnership. But let me just say, I begin this visit with 
enormous admiration for the progress you have made and the highest hope 
for the progress you will make in the future and the depth that our 
partnership will assume.
    Thank you again, Mr. President, for making us all feel so welcome.
    President Obasanjo. We will now take questions from the members of 
the media. I think we should go to our guests first.

Middle East Peace Process

    Q. Mr. President, you're going to meet with President Mubarak of 
Egypt. Can you give us an idea of what you're going to discuss with him 
and whether this portends another Mideast peace summit?
    And President Obasanjo, I'd also like to have your perspective on 
these efforts to reach peace in the Middle East.
    President Clinton. Well, let me say, first of all, I think it's 
inconceivable that we could have a peace between the Israelis and the 
Palestinians without the support of President Mubarak.
    As you know, when I leave here, I'm going to Tanzania to support 
President Mandela and the peace process that he has been working on in 
Burundi, and then we have to make a refueling stop on our way home. I 
had hoped to see President Mubarak at the United Nations summit, which 
will be at the end of the first week of September, but he can't come to 
that. And so we were having one of our regular telephone conversations 
the other day and decided that since he would not be in New York, that I 
ought to refuel in Cairo and we ought to reconnoiter on the peace 
process.
    I don't think you should read too much into it, other than that we 
are working with a sense of urgency, given the timetable the parties 
have set for themselves. And we don't underestimate the continuing 
difficulties, but I'm pleased they're still working, and working under 
enormous pressures.
    President Obasanjo. I must take this opportunity to commend the 
efforts of President Clinton in the Middle East. I believe that the fact 
that the door is not completely closed and the fact that areas where, in 
fact, a few years back one would infer that there would be no 
advancement at all, whether Jerusalem could be negotiated on, is now an 
issue that can be put on the table to be negotiated--I believe that 
should give all of us some hope.
    And as President Clinton just said, all the people that should be 
involved must be engaged, to be involved. And we should never be tired 
until we achieve success. And I believe success will be achieved. I have 
no doubt.

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Third World Debt Relief

    Q. President Clinton's attitude to Africa and the poorer nations of 
the world is very well-known. He is sympathetic to those nations. But 
America does not make up the West, only America does not. Now, at a--
[inaudible]--in Ghana in April, a position was adopted on the issue of 
the strangulating debt burden in the poorer countries of the world. Now, 
President Obasanjo, as the chairman of the--[inaudible]--was given the 
mandate to present that position to the G-8 at the July Okinawa summit. 
Both President Obasanjo--[inaudible]--on that issue came out at that 
meeting expressing disappointment at the lack of concrete commitment on 
the issues by the richest nations of the world.
    Is there any indication that the contact today with a key member of 
the G-8 would open up new vistas on the issues of debt cancellation for 
the poor countries of the world? And America is perhaps the strongest 
supporter of democracy around the world, and we know that democracy 
turns on the face of the huge debt burden. What is the way out?
    President Clinton. Well, let me say, first of all, what I believe 
the G-8 was saying. You may know that I, because of other commitments 
and because of the Middle East peace process, unfortunately, had to miss 
the first day of the G-8 summit and, therefore, I missed the President's 
presentation.
    At Cologne, Germany, we got the G-8 to make a commitment to a debt 
relief program for the poorest countries in the world, and we had some 
problems implementing it, but the basic idea, I think, was sound, which 
was that we should give debt forgiveness in return for a commitment to 
spend the freed-up resources on human development and to have a 
responsible economic reform program. That was basically the agreement.
    I strongly support that, and I would favor expanding the number of 
eligible nations once we've actually taken them in some proper order. 
Our Congress has before it now legislation that would pay America's 
share of the debt relief for the countries that have qualified under the 
program that the G-8 adopted.
    My own view is that the G-8 would be willing to go beyond those 24 
countries as long as it was clear that there was a commitment to 
economic reform and a commitment to democracy and a commitment to use 
all the savings for human development purposes, not for military 
purposes or other purposes that were inconsistent with the long-term 
interest of the countries.
    But I think that the real issue is not whether they can afford the 
debt relief--in most of these countries, they actually have to budget 
the debt relief even if they're not going to get repaid. And to be fair, 
the United States does not have the same dollar stake in most of these 
nations in the multilateral forum as some other countries do. So it is a 
little more difficult for them than it is for us.
    And I think that you are seeing the beginning of a process that I 
believe will continue, since I believe that we'll have more countries 
doing what Nigeria is doing: embracing democracy, having a program with 
the IMF, a commitment to economic reform that will commend itself to the 
creditor countries of the world for debt relief. And I think that 
you'll--it will happen.
    But, you're right, we have been in the forefront of pushing this. 
But to be fair to the other countries the relative size of the American 
economy make our--makes it easier for us to do than for some of these 
other countries. And the real problem is not the money itself, because 
many of them don't expect to be repaid. The real problem is that they 
all have budget rules like we do that require them to budget that in 
their annual budgets--the forgiveness of debt--just as they budget for 
education or health care or defense or anything else, even thought it's, 
arguably, an unnecessary thing since they don't expect to get the money 
back from the poorest countries.
    But you need to understand that's the political problem that a lot 
of these leaders have. And since the European countries and Japan have a 
bigger percentage of their income tied up in debt than we do, it's a 
little more difficult for them to do. I think we have moved them in the 
right direction, and I think Nigeria, in particular, and other countries 
following behind will find a much more

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ready response. I think that what happened in Cologne, the call of His 
Holiness the Pope and others for debt relief in the millennial year, 
will lead to a process that I expect to play out over the next few years 
that I believe will result in significantly greater debt relief than we 
have seen, as long as it's coupled to maintenance of democracy, economic 
reform, and honest economies and using the savings from debt relief for 
the real human benefits and needs of the people in the affected 
countries.

Nigerian Debt Relief/Oil Prices

    Q. Mr. President, would you urge President Obasanjo to reduce--to 
work within OPEC to reduce oil prices? And did you offer him any 
commitment on rescheduling or writing-off of debt for Nigeria?
     And President Obasanjo, I was wondering if you can give your own 
views on--[inaudible]--situation.
    President Clinton. Let me answer the debt question first, since it 
sort of follows upon the previous question. I reaffirmed the commitment 
that I had previously made to the President that, first of all, the 
United States would do all we said to get the entire Paris Club to do 
what the G-8 has now agreed to do and have a generous debt rescheduling, 
which will alleviate a lot of the cash flow requirements, at least, for 
Nigeria in the short run; and that now that there was an IMF program in 
place, once there was enough experience with this IMF program that we 
could argue to the other creditor nations that have a larger--as I said 
to the previous questioner, the gentleman before, that these other 
nations that have a bigger share of the debt than we do--that Nigeria 
has shown a commitment to economic reform, as well as a commitment to 
democracy, that I would support debt relief for them, that I thought 
they ought to have some debt relief in return for showing that they've 
got a commitment to a long-term political and economic reform. That's 
the position I've had for some time now.
    On the oil prices, we talked about that, and Nigeria, of course, 
does not have the capacity to change the prices, because they're pretty 
well producing at full capacity already. So I asked the President to do 
whatever he could to encourage others to increase production enough to 
have the impact that OPEC voted to have at the last meeting.
    At the last meeting, they voted for production levels that they felt 
would bring the price back closer to its historic average, somewhere in 
the mid-20's. And that has not worked out for a number of reasons, and 
so I asked him to do what he could in that regard.
    President Obasanjo. I have always maintained that an excessive high 
price of oil is neither good for the oil producers nor for the oil 
consumers, particularly developing oil consumers. Neither is excessive 
low price of oil, neither is it good for the oil producers nor the oil 
consumers because you need certain amount of stability. I believe that 
that stability would be there when OPEC brought in the mechanism to 
trigger off oil if the oil price is above certain price level, to 
automatically go in and produce more, and if it's below certain levels 
to automatically go in and withdraw from the production.
    Well, as President Clinton said, what has taken place so far has not 
worked. The OPEC will have a summit meeting in Venezuela next month, and 
the price of oil will be one of the major issues to be discussed. And I 
will, by the grace of God, be at that meeting. And we will work to bring 
an element of stability into the price of oil. It is in the interest of 
all concerned that that should happen.

U.S. Issuance of Visas to Nigerians/United Nations Security Council

    Q. My question is to President Clinton, and it concerns the U.S. 
visa policy of Nigeria. The policy so far has--[inaudible]--going to do 
to affect some concrete change in this direction. And the second 
question is will the United States support a Security Council seat for 
permanent participation in the United Nations?
    President Clinton. Well, let me answer the first question first. I'm 
very concerned about some of the problems we've had in getting visas to 
Nigerians who have legitimate interests in coming the United States and 
should have a perfect right to do so.
    If I might say something in defense of the people who have to issue 
the visas. Because of the worldwide concern--that has nothing to do with 
Nigeria--about terrorism and

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other problems, they have been given instructions to bend over backwards 
to make sure that all the documents that anybody from any country 
applying for a visa are in perfect order. Because of a lot of 
developments here over the last several years, that's not always 
possible. So what we've got to do is go back and take a hard look at 
this situation as it affects Nigeria, because we acknowledge that there 
are many Nigerians who have tried to come to the United States, who 
should have been able to come and, therefore, should have been able to 
get visas, who haven't been. And we have to try to find a way to solve 
that consistent with our law.
    And I wish I had an answer for you today, but frankly, I was not 
aware of the dimensions of the problem until I was preparing to come 
here and preparing for my visit. And so I don't have a solution today. 
But I can--I make you a commitment that we will work on it, and we will 
try to work this out, because I'm quite concerned about it. When I saw 
the numbers and I saw the small percentage of those who had applied who 
had been approved, and it was obvious that many, many more had 
legitimate interests, perfectly legitimate interests in coming to the 
United States, I realized we had to do something. And we're going to 
work with your government and try to work it out.
    President Obasanjo. Thank you very much. President Clinton--
[inaudible].
    President Clinton. Oh, I'm sorry. Jet lag. [Laughter] The position 
of the United States is that the size of the Security Council should be 
expanded, that there should be a permanent African seat, and that the 
holder of that seat should be determined by the African nations, not by 
the United States and not by the permanent members of the Security 
Council. I don't think that's our business. I feel the same way about 
Latin America. I think there should be a permanent Latin American seat 
on the Security Council.
    The analog to Nigeria and Latin America, of course, is Brazil. 
Brazil is the most populous nation in Latin America, just as Nigeria is 
the most populous nation in Africa, and we have very good relations with 
Brazil. But I think the Latin Americans should decide for themselves if 
they get the seat, and I think they should, who should hold it, and 
whether someone should hold it permanently or not.
    But I strongly believe that Africa should have a permanent 
representative with a permanent representative's vote on the United 
Nations Security Council. If it makes sense for it to be Nigeria, then 
that's fine with me. But I think the African people should decide that--
the leaders of Africa.
    President Obasanjo. Thank you very much.
    President Clinton. Thank you.

 Note:  The President spoke at approximately 2 p.m. at the Presidential 
Villa. In his remarks, he referred to President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt; 
former President Nelson Mandela of South Africa; and Pope John Paul II.