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THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE
Global Village
A recent Harvard School of
Public Health study in South Africa said 330,000 deaths were caused by former Presi- dent Thabo Mbeki’s 1999 deci- sion to declare available drugs toxic and dangerous.
A prominent South African
AIDS activist said he should be called to account for his decision to block HIV medica- tion.
Zackie Achmat said Mbeki
had ignored the scientific evi- dence.
Mbeki’s spokesman re-
ferred media enquiries to the government, but no spokes- man was available to com- ment.
Achmat, who leads the
Treatment Action Campaign, which successfully lobbied for the eventual reversal of gov- ernment policy, claimed Mbeki had “blood on his hands,” ac- cording to a BBC report.
He called for him to be sum-
moned to a judicial inquiry or the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
‘Major obstacle’
The study, published on 20
October, said that as a result of Mbeki’s policies, nearly 35,000 babies were also born HIV-positive between 2000 and 2005.
The former president had
failed to roll out the drugs which could have prevented mother-to-child transmission, said the researchers.
The study, led by Dr. Pride
Chigwedere, accused the South African government of “acting as a major obstacle in the provision of medication to patients with AIDS.”
The authors said that
under the leadership of Mbeki, the government had restricted use of donated anti-retrovi- ral drugs and blocked funds for more than a year from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tu- berculosis and Malaria.
To estimate the benefits
they say were lost to South Af- ricans because of the failure to provide appropriate drugs be- tween 2000 and 2005, the re- searchers looked at a number of factors.
These included:
• the number of patients who died without receiving treat- ment
• the relative cost of the drugs and the resources available
• comparative treatment pro- grammes in Namibia and Bo- tswana.
Since the former president
was replaced in September 2008, a new health minister, Barbara Hogan, has been ap- pointed and she has been praised by AIDS campaigners for tackling the HIV issue with determination.
After botched terrorist attack, U.S. moves to strengthen ties
with Nigeria
The failed attempt on De-
cember 25, 2009 by the young Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdul- mutallab, to detonate hidden explosives on a flight to De- troit created an additional layer of complexity for U.S. relations with Africa’s most populous nation and leading oil producer.
Managing those ties day to
day is the job of Robin Renee Sanders, the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria.
Sanders is a career foreign
service officer who was ap- pointed to the post by Presi- dent George W. Bush in late 2007 and previously served as ambassador to the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville).
The Abdulmutallab incident
led the U.S. government to add Nigeria to the ‘country of inter- est’ list, which resulted in in- creased scrutiny of Nigerians flying to the United States and angered many Nigerians who felt their country was being unfairly punished.
This week, the U.S. admin-
istration took what Secretary of State Hilary Clinton called a “concrete step forward that will strengthen and deepen
the partnership between our two nations” with the launch in Washington, DC of the U.S.- Nigeria Binational Commis- sion.
The high-level forum in-
cludes working groups on good governance, transpar- ency and integrity; energy and investment; food security and agriculture; and Niger delta and regional security coopera- tion.
Next week, Nigeria’s acting
president, Goodluck Jona- than, is scheduled to visit Washington to take part in the Nuclear Security Summit at the White House, where he is also expected to have talks with President Barack Obama.
Prior to departing for
Washington to take part in the launch, Sanders, in her first interview since the De- cember incident, spoke with AllAfrica’s Reed Kramer about the current state of relations between the two nations. Ex- cerpts follow:
Acting president Jonathan
has asked President Obama for a reconsideration of the classification of Nigeria as a “country of interest” with regard to terrorism.
Excerpts from an interview
with Kramer follow.
Has Nigeria taken steps
that would assist in that regard?
“The country-of-interest
process is an ongoing inter- agency review here and in Washington. One of the things that Nigeria has done is sign an air marshal agreement with the United States. We see that as a step in the right direc- tion,” said Kramer.
“Also, Nigeria does not
have counter-terrorism legis- lation. It has been in dialogue with them on that. They are in the process of installing body scanners around the various airports in Nigeria,” he contin- ued.
“It has worked with them
on body scanners, and even before the incident of Dec. 25 when five scanners were in- stalled at their international airports in partnership with them.
“They’re installing addi-
tional scanners and training their personnel to use them.”
How does you assess the
security situation in Nigeria now?
“The Nigerian govern-
ment is realizing they are not immune to the global terrorist threat, and it is working hard with us in sharing information and having dialogue on these global threats. We have a good cooperative relationship,” said Kramer.
How will the Binational
Commission contribute to im- proved relations between the United States and Nigeria?
Kramer replied, “The sec-
retary of state when she was here in August highlighted a new strategic framework. With the commission, we are moving that forward in a more formal manner where we have a working dialogue on issues ranging from democracy and good government to anti-cor- ruption and credible elec- tions.”
What is your view of how
the Nigerian government is functioning?
“There’s a general sense
that Nigeria remains fragile,” said Kramer. “It is an uncer-
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HOW TO
Thabo Mbeki
tain environment right now, but there have been some indi- cations over the last couple of weeks that give us hope that things might be moving in the right direction.
“We want Nigeria to have
credible elections, put a frame- work in place to fight corrup- tion, put a framework in place to strengthen its democracy. These are paramount issues moving forward. We hear that from Nigerians all across the country.
“They want to believe in
elections; they want to have a transparent government; they want to have institutions that can propel the country’s economy and political system forward.
“With a new cabinet in
place, we are hoping that these issues can be addressed in a coherent and cohesive fashion with ministers that are capa- ble, diligent and forthright in their efforts to be representa- tive of the Nigerian people.”
Has there been any prog-
ress in preparing for elec- tions?
“We noted that the unedit-
ed election reform committee report recently went forward to the national assembly. The committee report has been edited and presented in many forms, edited. We were de- lighted to hear that the acting president finally sent that report to the national assem- bly unedited,” he said.
“Action on election reform
is now in the hands of the national legislature. The U.S. and the United Kingdom joint- ly funded an independent elec- toral assessment early this year at the request of the Nige-
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rian government, and that’s all part of this process of looking at election reforms and com- mitting to credible elections.
“In my conversation with
the acting president, he’s very clear that one of the things he wants to do is to make sure that the voices of the Nigerian people are heard and credible elections are held here in Ni- geria,” he continued.
“Moving the unedited report
Former South African president blamed for thousands of deaths
to the national assembly is certainly a step in the right direction. Of course, there are other needed steps.
“We would like to see an In-
dependent National Electoral Commission that is really in- dependent and really transpar- ent, which is key to its ability to hold elections that people can believe in. This was not the case in 2007.”
What has been the reac-
tion to recent outbreaks of vi- olence in the north and what additional action should the Nigerian government take to avoid future problems?
Kramer responded, “We’ve
just had [a visit] by the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom, a U.S. gov- ernment entity whose biparti- san members are appointed by congress and the president.
“They were engaged with a
cross-section of interlocutors. I attended those meetings, and it was interesting to see the seriousness with which ele- ments of the government are responding.
“Arrests have been made,
which is a departure from the past in terms of how quickly they’ve done that.
“Interfaith leaders here are
engaged in addressing the crosscutting issues that seem to encourage the cycle of vio- lence in the Jos area every couple of months. There’s a myriad of challenges which the interfaith leaders are trying to address – economic and land issues, religious, sectarian and ethnic issues.
“I know it often gets boiled
down to one or two issues, but there is a broad spectrum of problems that can spark vio- lence. We all want to see the fundamental issues that keep causing these cycles of vio- lence addressed.
“The international com-
munity, including the United States, has offered humanitar- ian assistance. If we receive
an official response from the Nigerian government, we are prepared to do that, particu- larly with regard to shelter and the needs that have come out of the violence there.
“We are working with
number of partners in the Jos area to address some of those issues. We are in dialogue con- stantly with faith leaders to be supportive of their actions to address the issues.”
What is your assessment
of the Nigerian economy at this time and how that is im- pacting the country?
“Nigeria needs to address
corruption issues in a more comprehensive fashion,” said Kramer.
“We do see the ongoing
banking reforms as a step in the right direction. We recog- nize that several of the banks’ leadership took advantage of the shareholders, and we hope that those individuals are brought to justice.
“That should help to under-
score that corruption will not be the order of the day.”
He continued, “Looking at
the indicators for economic growth, Nigeria is not doing too badly, given the global economic situation. Part of that has to do with the bank- ing sector reforms.
“There has been some
growth outside the oil sector that has helped Nigeria as well, including a slight increase in exports to the United States of products under the African Growth and Opportunities Act.
“So we see that the macro-
economic policy framework is in place and is making a differ- ence even in this very difficult global financial environment. I’m not saying that it’s per- fect.
“I am saying that there are
some reforms that are ongoing that we think are the right re- forms to do, particularly in the banking sector.”
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