(July 3, 2005) Nigeria’s tortuous road to debt relief: the Tony Blair factor.

(July 1, 2005) Nigeria’s government is euphoric after securing debt relief from its biggest creditors, but the pressure is on to produce benefits for a skeptical population used to seeing the nation’s wealth squandered and stolen.

(July 1, 2005) Nigeria is widely seen as having the greatest natural resources on the African continent and the most potential for development. After two generations of misrule, it is desperate for a new start.

(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.

(June 27, 2005) The fiscal recklessness of government officials accounts for a substantial proportion of Nigeria’s foreign debt.

(June 27, 2005) President Olusegun Obasanjo says Africa requires a new crop of leaders, a new way of doing things and the support of development partners for accelerated socio-economic and political development.

(June 27, 2005) Hope rises for Nigeria; G8 may forgive its 35 billion dollar debts.

(June 25, 2005) It would be helpful if Nigeria’s current efforts to stamp out corruption were rewarded with limited debt cancellation and increased aid by creditor nations, to demonstrate to Africa south of the Sahara that good governance pays.

(June 25, 2005) New statistics reveal Nigeria’s past leaders bled the country of more than £220 billion during the first four decades of independence; the current administration is taking action but has a long way to go before citizens can start to prosper.

(June 25, 2005) Nigeria’s past rulers stole or misused £220 billion new figures reveal – tallying almost exactly the total of western aid given to Africa in almost four decades; an amount six times the American help given to post-war Europe under the Marshall Plan.

(June 13, 2005) New World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz told Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo he hoped Africa’s biggest debtor would see progress in its quest for debt relief at a meeting of the Paris Club on Monday.

(June 13, 2005) At no other time in history has Nigeria’s debt crisis resonated so much in national and international discourse. Viewing the issue from a legal perspective, Remi Ogunmefun advocates a legal showdown with Nigeria’s western creditors.