(March 11, 2005) This week, Nigeria’s parliament passed a non-binding resolution demanding the country suspend repayment of its US$35-billion foreign debt. On Tuesday, Nigeria’s House of Representatives moved to repudiate the external debt, the highest of any African nation, comparing Nigeria’s situation to that of “countries emerging from war.”

(March 10, 2005) The report of the Africa Commission is expected to call for rich countries, and particularly their financial services industry, to do more to fight corruption.

(March 9, 2005) The Africa Commission this week will finally acknowledge the West’s complicity in corruption.

(March 7, 2005) The long awaited final report of British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa calls on the developed world to help Africa curb corruption by cleaning up its own act, reports the UK’s Guardian newspaper.

(March 5, 2005) Tony Blair will next week demand a radical shake-up of the west’s approach to the world’s poorest continent when his year-long Africa Commission calls for a doubling of aid, the dismantling of trade barriers, the writing off of debts and immediate action to stamp out
corruption.

(March 5, 2005) Rather than putting the blame solely on African governments, which has been the common tendency of some western governments, the Commission for Africa report makes a significant shift in the other direction.