(May 25, 2005) The “biggest single problem” Nigeria faces today is the “corruption of the past” which is “hanging over” its future economic growth in the form of a large external debt, an international corruption and transparency expert has told the United States Congress.

(May 22, 2005) In the same situation, western leaders would “quickly declare the debt null and void” and “drag our leaders and business people” involved in “debt fraud to every court in the world … for dare conniving with their illegitimate leaders.”

(May 6, 2005) For many Nigerians, President Olusegun Obasanjo’s war on corruption has been a long time coming, given his promise six years ago to stamp out vice when he took office in 1999. Nothing much, they have noted, has happened, until now.

(May 2, 2005) This time around in Nigeria’s war on corruption, it is important to hold the government’s feet to the fire every step of the way and every hour of the day.

(May 2, 2005) “In Nigeria’s terrible state of discounted morality, extirpating the virus of corruption will take more than stepping on people’s toes . . . The proper place to start is by going to the basics.”

(May 1, 2005) President begins to crack down on a culture of corruption; series of senior officials forced out.

(April 29, 2005) “The tragedy of Nigeria is our collective amnesia, which has bred a horde of cynics who are fixated on the anti-Obasanjo prism. Many Nigerians have chosen to forget where we were when Obasanjo assumed power.”

(April 26, 2005) Nigerian lawmakers have put pressure on rich Western creditor nations to cancel some of the country’s $35 billion debt and revived a threat to halt payments unilaterally.

(April 26, 2005) Time is running out for talks, warns delegation.

(April 22, 2005) Nigeria’s efforts to retrieve looted funds must be backed by concrete evidence that they were indeed looted, British High Commissioner in the country, Richard Gozney has said.

(April 18, 2005) Britain is haunted by memories of the exodus of Ugandan Asians in the Amin era. Some 30,000 Kenyan Asians have British passports and London wants them to stay put.

(April 11, 2005) As the stories of corruption unfold, Nigerians, for the moment, seem cautiously optimistic that the president has finally decided to do what he was expected to have done as soon as he took over the reigns of power.

(March 17, 2005) Lagos: When President Olusegun Obasanjo last week received the House of Representatives leadership 24 hours after passing a resolution asking him to stop forthwith further debt service payments, the action was so uncharacteristic that I suspected there might be more to it.

(March 16, 2005) All Nigerians must get behind the president’s campaign for debt cancellation.

(March 10, 2005) Barely 24 hours after the House of Representatives moved to repudiate the nation’s estimated $38 billion foreign debts, the Senate yesterday voted N169.9 billion for debt servicing.