(June 29, 2005) Hopes of a breakthrough debt relief package for Nigeria at a creditors’ meeting today were fading last night as smaller European countries refused to back a deal that had been agreed by the Group of Eight industrial nations.

(June 29, 2005) President Olusegun Obasanjo said yesterday at the Hague, the Netherlands, that Nigeria preferred dialogue to repudiation in the ongoing effort at finding a solution to its debt crisis.

(June 29, 2005) The recent debt forgiveness for some poor and highly indebted nations in Africa and other nations around the world is indeed a commendable gesture made by those nations whom these huge monies is owed. Although, the idea for the forgiveness and the actual act of the forgiveness have received mixed criticism, suffice to say, the act is a tremendous leap toward assisting these poor nations in their fight against poverty.

(June 28, 2005) A United States senator has pledged to become a forceful advocate for Nigeria’s debt relief, but says the West African nation must first turn over the former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor, an indicted war criminal, for prosecution.